After starting the season 0-5, the Lakers showed some signs of life last week, grabbing some well-earned wins to break their five-game losing streak.
Sadly for Lakers Nation, the team’s success would be short-lived. Their loss to Cleveland on Sunday evening marked their second-straight defeat, and now they stand at just 2-7 overall.
It’s still pretty early on in the season, but Lakers fans couldn’t help but feel frustrated with the current state of their team.
idk if this Lakers team can be fixed… Our role players can’t compete.
Wenyen Gabriel, Toscano-Anderson, Troy Brown Jr, Pat Bev, and Kendrick Nunn aren’t winning you games lol
— LakeShowYo (@LakeShowYo) November 6, 2022
Horrible!!!!! They done even try.. I am mad bruh #LakeShow pic.twitter.com/9Yeuemwsnf
— King Lemor (@EmperorG24) November 6, 2022
https://twitter.com/imnotlazy22/status/1589392411700400129
Lakers owner Jeanie buss and GM’s Rob Pelinka/LeBron James have renamed The Lakers to the pic.twitter.com/yV1RwN0pKe
— Meth “Freakin” Trollings (@MethTrollings) November 6, 2022
LeBron James with this Lakers team pic.twitter.com/0oekLkvX80
— McNeil (@Reflog_18) November 6, 2022
After Laker lose today’s game pic.twitter.com/8U2PB6BDzc
— Grizzlies Taiwan Fans🇹🇼 (@deanleeeee) November 6, 2022
Lakers fans watching every game pic.twitter.com/bsJ7rs7Szw
— Josiah Johnson (@KingJosiah54) November 6, 2022
https://twitter.com/mu7ual/status/1589393883653623809
The Lakers don’t have enough shooters or scorers. Everyone’s been saying this. All we need is for Rob to actually do something about it. It’s costing us games
— Mr.Maresca (@Imtrashkid11) November 6, 2022
ATTENTION ALL LAKERS FANS #LakeShow #NBA #LeBron pic.twitter.com/VCCFqgcuEP
— Mr.Maresca (@Imtrashkid11) November 6, 2022
After starting off strong and building a solid lead, the Lakers fell apart in the second half, allowing Donovan Mitchell and other Cavs stars to go off when it mattered the most. Together, Cleveland’s starting backcourt dropped 57 points, with another 16 coming from All-Star big man Jarrett Allen.
On the Lakers’ side, a quick look at the stat sheet will tell you that the bench laid another dud tonight, which is unsurprising given how inconsistent they have been to this point. Of course, Anthony Davis also struggled to find his shot, scoring just two points in the second half. LeBron James led his team with 27 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists in what was another rough shooting night from him (he went 1-4 from downtown).
Lakers Look Completely Lost Amid 2-7 Start
The lone spot for L.A. was Russell Westbrook, who was once again the best player in a Lakers jersey. Besides his resurgence, the Lakers have looked really bad, and even LeBron himself has been the subject of criticism.
The key for this Lakers team, besides shooting the ball better, is turning up their defensive intensity, which has already looked pretty solid this year.
“We don’t never want it to happen, but there are some games throughout the course of an 82-game season where you obviously just don’t have it defensively. And we didn’t have it for 48 minutes. We had it in spurts. But, we know in order for us to win, we’ve gotta defend. And, tonight, I think we had a 50-40-90 offensive night, and we still lost. So, that’s why I was talking earlier in the season about ‘it’s not about the offense, we have to defend.’ Obviously, we gotta make shots, but if we defend, we’re gonna give ourselves a better chance to win,” LeBron said after L.A.’s loss to Utah.
Needless to say, the Lakers have a tall hill to climb if they want to start the process of turning this season around. With so many things to address, and so many flaws to fill, it will not be an easy task for this team to get to a place where they want to be.
In the meantime, they will likely continue to get smacked by better competitors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjB4N7b8qvA
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