The Los Angeles Lakers fell to a one-sided 109-127 loss to the Phoenix Suns at home tonight. The Suns’ starters thoroughly outplayed the Lakers, giving Phoenix a 105-78 advantage at the end of the third quarter.
Fans were shocked to see the Lakers fall to such a one-sided loss after winning their last two and beating the Suns in their last three matchups this season.
Final from Downtown pic.twitter.com/iLiASCmw39
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) January 12, 2024
Fans were shocked to see how this Lakers team gave up easily during the game and called them an embarrassment.
This Laker team has 0 fight. This is an embarrassment to the fans in attendance. No second effort on broken plays, no rebounding, repeatedly let poor defenders guard elite players on an island, and their 2 best players are invisible tonight
2nd half 👻AD is a consistent THEME
— Dime Dropper (@DimeDropperPod) January 12, 2024
More fans called the performance embarassing.
This is up there as one of the most embarrassing Lakers games I've ever watch
— Nicole Ganglani (@nicoleganglani) January 12, 2024
Fans were shocked to see how badly the Lakers were playing.
Nah the lakers getting cooked lmaoooo
— Dom2K 🎅🎇 (@Dom_2k) January 12, 2024
Bradley Beal’s 20-point explosion in the third quarter proved to fans that the former All-Star is returning to full form.
Bradley Beal getting his mojo back against the lakers 😭😭😭
— PeeWeeDaPlug (@PeeWeeDaPlug) January 12, 2024
Darvin Ham was getting a lot of hate from fans for another disappointing coaching performance.
Darvin Ham on the sidelines while the Lakers are down 20 pic.twitter.com/YrXbGaFjQl
— Ryinz (@Ryinzs) January 12, 2024
Lakers fans were really upset that their team had fallen under .500 once again.
The Lakers Are under 500. Again 💔
Goodnight. pic.twitter.com/EPcN4zkHEF
— 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗙𝗨𝗟 𝗟𝗔 𝗙𝗔𝗡 🕷️ (@Larespectful_23) January 12, 2024
LeBron James was a non-factor on the scoring front, only racking up 10 points but dropping nine assists. Anthony Davis struggled as well, scoring 13 points. That tied him with Austin Reaves as the highest-scoring starter, who also scored just 13 points.
The Suns’ offense was cooking the Lakers. Kevin Durant took a backseat and scored 18 points while watching both Devin Booker (31 points) and Bradley Beal (37 points) drop a combined 68 points. Just that firepower compared to the complete lack of scoring on the Lakers was enough to tilt this game in Phoenix’s favor, who lost the last three regular-season contests against the Lakers this season.
A Trade For The Lakers Seems Inevitable
The problems that the current Lakers roster has can genuinely be fixed with a trade. We saw it last season in a more evident way, as trading Russell Westbrook away saw the Lakers transform from a bottom-10 team in the NBA to one of the best in the Western Conference. There isn’t a move that can move the needle to that extent, but there are just certain areas the Lakers need to reinforce.
Scoring is a major problem for the Lakers, as it was evident tonight as well. The highest scorer for the Lakers was D’Angelo Russell with 19 off the bench, playing minutes in garbage time. Scoring is what wins games in the NBA, with an above-average defense needed to win a title. The Lakers have the pieces to be an above-average defense if their lack of offense doesn’t demoralize their team during games.
The Lakers have pieces they can move but it’ll be interesting to see if they can get a high-quality difference-making player or if they want depth. They’ve been linked to role-players like Dorian Finney-Smith and Royce O’Neale, but most of their chatter is around stars like Zach LaVine and Dejounte Murray.
If LaVine or Murray can come to LA for a reasonable price, the Lakers would look stronger. But at this point, it doesn’t look like that could be enough to make them the contenders people expected them to be.
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