The Los Angeles Lakers were hoping for a return to winning ways when they took on the Phoenix Suns at the Mortgage Matchup Center on Tuesday, but suffered a brutal loss instead. The Suns blew out the Lakers 132-108, and LeBron James had a simple explanation for what went wrong in his postgame press conference.
“Their offense was clicking, our defense wasn’t,” James said. “That’s literally what it was.”
That might be an understatement. The Suns were on a tear in this one, going 50-85 (58.8%) from the field and 14-34 (41.2%) from beyond the arc. They could have potentially gotten close to 150 points here, but didn’t play four of their five starters in the fourth quarter as the game was already all but over.
While the Suns deserve a lot of credit for their offensive execution, the Lakers didn’t offer a great deal of resistance. This has been the case far too often lately as well.
The Lakers have now given up over 130 points in three of their last six games. Luka Doncic has gotten a lot of the blame for their defensive struggles, but he wasn’t even playing against the Suns due to a lower left leg contusion. The fact that they were so bad shows that the problems go beyond Doncic.
James, who had 23 points (7-14 FG), two rebounds, and six assists against the Suns, was asked how the Lakers can improve on defense, and the answer was the same he had given earlier.
“It’s the same thing I’ve said before,” James stated. “It has to be five guys on the string. And these guys also made a lot of mid-range contested twos, too. And those are part of our keys that we’re willing to give up. It’s the fast break points, it’s the second chance points, it’s the open threes that we do not want to give up.”
While James wasn’t all too critical after this game, head coach JJ Redick sure was. Redick doesn’t think the Lakers have enough players who choose to play hard, and that is damning. He also added that pretty much nothing his team did defensively worked against the Suns.
The Lakers just aren’t a very athletic team, and they struggle when they come up against young, energetic squads. The Suns had also beaten them 125-108 when the teams first met back on Dec. 1. Redick said it feels like they are stuck in the mud when they face young teams that move, and it’s hard to see how there will be any notable improvement without trades.
The Lakers have dropped to 19-9 with this loss and take on the Houston Rockets next at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday at 8 PM ET. The Rockets also come into this Christmas Day game on a two-game losing streak, and both teams would be desperate to get back on track.
