The Los Angeles Lakers fell to third place in the Western Conference after losing two games in a row. On Saturday, the Lakers had a 111-101 loss against their longtime rivals, the Boston Celtics. That was also the same game LeBron James sustained a groin injury. On Monday, the team had another loss, this time against the Brooklyn Nets, 111-108.
The team was without James, their best player. The Lakers also didn’t have Jaxson Hayes (right knee contusion), Rui Hachimura (knee) and Dorian Finney-Smith (ankle). Without some of the key players, head coach JJ Redick had to play some of the players for longer minutes. Both Luka Doncic and Dalton Knecht played for more than 40 minutes in the game.
Lakers’ guard Austin Reaves also spent more time on the court than usual. He played 36 minutes of action and had 17 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists on 21.4% shooting from the field. Reaves didn’t have the best efficiency on the floor. However, he made the most of his chances from the free throw line.
Still, Reaves felt like he could’ve done more for the team with how poorly he shot the basketball.
“I just thought I played incredibly bad,” Reaves said. “That’s really about as much as I can say about that. It’s frustrating not helping your team win and when Bron’s out, I gotta be better and I wasn’t. That’s why we lost,”
Without James, the Lakers need Reaves to be reliable and make the most of his chances. The 6-foot-5 guard has appeared in 55 games, averaging 18.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 5.8 assists. Over the past five games, the team’s third option has not performed well, averaging 14.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists.
The Los Angeles Lakers head coach enumerates the problems the team faced against the Nets
In their first game without James, the Los Angeles Lakers failed their test. One of the main issues for the team was that they didn’t have most of their best players. However, head coach JJ Redick pointed out a few problems the team encountered. According to the former Duke star, the team lacked communication against the Nets.
“It was a very low-level communication game for our team,” Redick said. “I don’t think being short-handed is an excuse for how we played basketball tonight.
He also said the team couldn’t execute their offense properly.
“… We just wanted to take shortcuts. … We ball-watched all night. … We couldn’t even pass to each other. We couldn’t enter our offense running ball screens at literally halfcourt.”
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen on Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
