The Los Angeles Lakers faced the 21-42 Brooklyn Nets without LeBron James Monday night. They looked like the team holding onto 11th place, not a championship contender.
Los Angeles made a comeback attempt, with Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic both drilling three-pointers in the final 40 seconds, but they fell to the Nets, 111-108.
They weren’t just missing James, either. Forward Rui Hachimura is missing the Lakers’ entire four-game East Coast road trip. Dorian Finney-Smith missed Monday’s game with an ankle injury and center Jaxson Hayes missed both Saturday’s loss to the Boston Celtics and the Nets loss.
That meant the Lakers’ frontcourt rotation was made up of Alex Len, signed one month ago, and Trey Jemison, signed to a two-way deal in January. They still held the Nets to 41.1% shooting and continued their excellent recent defense.
The problem was the offense. Doncic came through with a triple-double (22 points, 12 rebounds, 12 assists) but shot only 8-of-26 from the field. He’s been filling up the box score since becoming a Laker but he’s only shooting 39% and 32% on threes. Doncic is also averaging 4.2 turnovers, up from 3.4 with the Dallas Mavericks.
Reaves had 10 assists, but shot 3-of-14. That’s the danger of having just two offensive threats — the Nets were free to focus on the Lakers duo, as opposed to the replacements.
But paradoxically, this game should make the Lakers more resolute about waiting for James to get completely healthy. First, they still almost won Monday’s game, with a patched-together lineup and poor shooting. It also showed the limits of their depth.
Having James covers a lot of rough spots on the roster. Not having James makes this team very beatable. As long as the Lakers stay out of the play-in zone, their top priority should be getting James as fit as possible by April. Even if it leads to some ugly nights like the one they just had in Brooklyn.
