The frustration became apparent sooner. And it was hard to know what bothered the Lakers more. Was it a run or fatigue?
If that wasn’t one thing, it was the other, losing to the lottery-bound Brooklyn net, and there would be tough days in the next four weeks.
Playing without four regular rotation players on Monday night due to injuries, the Lakers were the best, physically short, the best mentally released, the best, physically not nearby.
“I think it was the overall idea of just taking shortcuts tonight. JJ Redick spoke about the team after the match. “Too many… they scored 20 points in our gambling. They had 16 offensive rebounds. We watched the ball all night. Dare we didn’t have any shots. I can’t. Just a shortcut.
“Want to be a good team? Do you want to win in the NBA? You have to do something difficult. We couldn’t even give each other. We couldn’t get into the offense and literally ran the ball screen on the half court. Yeah, that’s going to be sales. I don’t know what we’re doing.”
The Austin Raves hoped LeBron James would take on more offensive roles as he missed his first game with a tense gro caliber. Alex Len and Trey Jemison III are big accessed at Jackson Hayes, where the Lakers deal with swelling knees from bone bruises.
And Luka Doncic, the Engine Lakers, need to push through this cruel schedule stretch, missed a shot and turned their eyes to the whistle ref that never came. When he finally got his first one – midway through the third quarter, he threw his hand into the air in celebration. He waved negatively to the refs in disbelief when the foul was dominated by the floor and the manufactured basket was wiped out.
“I mean, at the end of the day, there was a lot,” Donsic said, admitting his dissatisfaction with the host. “That wasn’t fair, but we still had to play the game. I started to continue playing the game.
“But it was a lot.”
And with a fourth deep stop, the Lakers forced a mistake on Dangelo Russell, but ended with Jarrred Vanderbilt pushing onto the floor and Giare Williams grabbing the rebound and scoring.
Doncic needed 26 shots with 22 points rebounds and 12 assists. The Reaves missed 11 of 14 shots, going with eight rebounds and 10 assists.
“I have to get better,” Reeves said. “Yeah, I mean, we’ll start there.”
Gabe Vincent and Dalton Knecht scored 24 and 19 points on the starters respectively, while Jordan Goodwin scored 17 points from the bench, but the Lakers didn’t run well on either end.
Brooklyn shot five more, and 11 more free throws. The Lakers (40-23) only tried twice in the first half.
Monday’s game in Brooklyn was one of the few games the Lakers will face the team this month from playoff photos. They returned to Los Angeles for five games for seven nights after completing their current trips to Milwaukee and Denver on consecutive nights.
Pre-match Reddick said James’ injured gro caliber was still being evaluated and the team didn’t have a clear sense of severity. Hayes’ knee injury is still considered daily, but he is very likely to miss more game time. Working towards a return from a knee injury, Louis Hachimura is not scheduled to be re-evaluated until the Lakers returned to LA and Dorian Finney Smith was unavailable due to continued problems with his left ankle.
That meant that the Lakers started Ren at center alongside Knecht, Vincent, Reaves and Doncic.
The Lakers made more than 15 balls, leading to 19 points. They stayed in the game for Vincent and Goodwin, who made 11 of the Lakers’ 19 three.
Turnovers were all kinds of breeds, but often stemmed from Brooklyn’s flying two defenders with Don Sic and Reeves. Reddick said it was an easy fix. The Lakers simply pass to the open man and play advantage basketball, but they said the lack of communication is a problem that prevents that from happening.
“It was important,” Donsic said. “That was my fault and we should have done better with it.”
