The Los Angeles Lakers saw their four-game win streak come to an end on Wednesday as they came up short against the Los Angeles Clippers. Despite LeBron James, Anthony Davis and D’Angelo Russell all suiting up the Lakers just didn’t have enough in the tank to take down a well-rested Clippers team.
One positive was that the team was at full strength for the first time since the trade deadline. Not only were LeBron, Davis and Russell active, but big man Mo Bamba was also back from a sprained ankle, even though he didn’t get any minutes.
The chemistry of this Lakers team is still lacking thanks to all of the injuries since the deadline, but it hasn’t stopped them from winning. After the game, LeBron admitted that the Lakers still need to improve that chemistry, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Obviously since the trade we’ve been playing some good basketball, but the one thing we’ve been lacking a little bit is just the consistency of our lineups. I was out four weeks, DLo has kind of been in and out, but for the majority part guys have definitely stepped up. So with these last two games, you definitely want to see if we can figure something out as far as our chemistry. But at the end of the day, we’ve been still playing good ball so I’m not thinking about that too much.”
The Lakers have still been much better since the trade deadline, regardless of who has been available and while credit is deserved, but there are still some things to work out. James and the rest of the regular rotation players remained on the court until the end despite the game being out of reach and LeBron knows that was for a reason:
“We capture it on film and we can watch it and see some of the things we did well, some of the things we didn’t do so well. At this point in the season, you don’t have the ability to actually get on the floor and play 5-on-5, that’s literally out of the question at this point. The only time you can really do that is if you get into the postseason and you close the series out fast and you have quite a while until you play the next series, then you can get a little bump. But other than that you get most of your work in film sessions and shootarounds and things of that nature.”
No team is really scrimmaging at this stage so these are the only times the Lakers are able to really get those reps in. With just two games remaining, every second they can get on the court together matters.
LeBron James believes ‘scheduling conflict’ hurt Lakers vs. Clippers
Something else that also hurt the Lakers against the Clippers was their recent road trip. The Lakers were playing their fifth game in eight days including the night before, while the Clippers hadn’t played since Saturday.
LeBron chalked it up to what he said was a ‘scheduling conflict’ and called it one of the toughest games of the year for the Lakers, believing it got the best of the team on this night.
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