The starting lineup for the Los Angeles Lakers has become a point of contention this season due to the inability to find any kind of consistency. With D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves as starters again, it resulted in two big-time wins against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Dallas Mavericks, it felt that the tide was turning.
However, it has been two steps forward and one step back as the L.A. lost to the struggling Brooklyn Nets on Friday, 130-112. The Lakers struggled mightily in the second half trying to find any kind of consistency on both sides of the ball.
Since Russell was re-inserted into the starting five a couple of games ago, miscommunications have been prevalent since this starting group has not played together since early in the season. From the second quarter on, the purple and gold could not get stops and deemed miscommunication as the reason for those struggles.
“They throw a lineup out there that’s very versatile so if you don’t communicate, they’ll take advantage of it from slips and screens,” Russell said. “Obviously Jacque Vaughn’s a hell of a coach. He’s drawing up sets and putting them in position to take advantage of any miscommunication or mishap on our end. So that’s what they did tonight, they took advantage of it.”
With this original starting five coming back together, it leans towards the offensive end, but there has not been a healthy balance. When asked if the team relies on offense to get stops, Russell was unsure.
“I’m not sure. I know we threw a group out there that’s very dominant offensively. And we saw a few games ago, Darvin [Ham] experimented with the defensive lineup as well. Like I said, that’s what the regular season is for, figuring it out,” he said. “What you want to do, what you want to prepare for going into the postseason, things you try that worked and may have not tonight. I think they just took advantage of our miscommunication a lot of the time.”
The Lakers offense that was clicking in the first half on Friday scoring 68 points, but the well dried up in the second half with only 44 points. Russell thinks they tried to make up for missed shots and ‘home run plays’ led to a snowball effect.
“I think definitely when shots aren’t falling, you try to make a way to make up for it. As a group, it’s something we obviously thought about. But individually, everybody, including myself, probably tried to make home run plays that led to easy transitions, miscommunications again in transition, things like that. It just kind of snowballed.”
Now with a record of 21-22, time and patience is wearing thin as nothing has seemed to work up to this point. However, Russell is maintaining patience and is not panicking yet.
“No. I mean it’s obviously something we need to figure out and continue to work towards. But I don’t think we hit the panic button yet,” he said. “I think as a group, we’re still dealing with injuries and things like that. We’re slowly figuring things out, we just played at a high level the last two games. This game was a little setback. I think this should motivate us for the next one.”
With a team that came into the 2023-24 season with lofty expectations, things have not panned out up to this point. As the trade deadline approaches on Feb. 8, time will tell if general manager Rob Pelinka still believes in this team turning it around.
D’Angelo Russell explains how he learned good communication from Rajon Rondo growing up
A prominent piece of the Lakers winning a championship in 2020 was Rajon Rondo, who was a great leader and communicator. Russell spoke about how he learned communication skills from Rondo growing up, both having the same coach in Louisville, Kentucky.
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