The Orlando Magic gained a bit of revenge for their close loss to the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this week with a commanding 120-101 win on Saturday night. The Lakers were completely outclassed on both ends of the floor, and their fans were furious after the defeat.
One blasted the teams for embarrassing the fanbase.
you guys stay embarrassing us
— alex (@lakers_4everr) November 5, 2023
A fan wants head coach Darvin Ham to be fired.
Please fire Ham 😭😭😭
— Shinya (@S3LAL) November 5, 2023
This performance was termed as embarrassing and disgraceful by one fan.
Embarrassing, disgraceful. Play with some actual ambition and show some heart
— 🥷🏽 (@LBJcrib) November 5, 2023
Another fan called for Ham to be fired, and he also wants D’Angelo Russell to be traded.
If you wanna be a somewhat respectable team you have to
1. Fire Darvin Ham immediately
2. Trade DLo asap
— ⚖️ AndyMPok 🦉 (@AndyMPok) November 5, 2023
A fan wants the Lakers to part with Cam Reddish.
Reddish leave my beautiful team
— 👑🥷🏾(Parody) (@g12_lj) November 5, 2023
Anthony Davis led the Lakers with a double-double in this one as he had 28 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists, and 7 blocks. He was powerless, though, to prevent the Magic from dominating on the glass, as they won the rebounding battle 51-40 and had 19 offensive rebounds compared to 10 for the Lakers.
LeBron James, meanwhile, didn’t have a great game by his high standards, finishing with 24 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals. D’Angelo Russel was the biggest disappointment, however, with 11 points on 4-17 shooting from the field, and he was also just 1-10 from beyond the arc.
After the high of finally ending their 11-game losing streak to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday, this was a dud from the Lakers. They dropped to 3-3 with the loss and will take on the Miami Heat on Monday next.
As for the Magic, the duo of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner shone. Banchero had 25 points, 7 rebounds, 10 assists, a steal, and a block while Wagner ended with 26 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal, and a block. They improved to 4-2 with this win to continue their fine start to the season.
The Lakers Are Struggling At The Start Of Games This Season
It is still early on in the season, but these slow starts from the Lakers are starting to become a big concern. They were outscored 39-25 by the Magic in the first quarter here, which has been the theme of their season so far.
In the opener against the Denver Nuggets, they were outscored 34-20 in the first quarter and never really recovered after that. Then they were down 30-18 against an undermanned Phoenix Suns squad but recovered to win.
The Sacramento Kings then went up 41-28 against the Lakers and would go on to win in overtime. Interestingly, that first game against the Magic was the only time this season that the Lakers led after the first quarter, as they were up 29-24.
They couldn’t build on that against the Clippers, however, falling behind 37-24 before mounting a comeback to win in overtime. LeBron and Davis playing out of their minds helped them win some of these games despite these early deficits, but you can only do that for so long.
Unless they start playing with more urgency to start these games, this season is going to ultimately end in disappointment. Ham and his staff need to do a better job of game planning as well, as some of this is down to them getting outcoached. The Lakers have plenty of time to turn things around, but bad habits are often hard to get rid of, and you’d want things to change sooner rather than later.
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