Last Sunday’s debacle in an uninspiring and ugly loss to a higher-seeded, more aggressive, more talented and more balanced Celtics team seemed to expose all the flaws that plague this struggling and inconsistent Lakers team.
They’re porous defensively and have a boring, predictable offense largely consisting of alternating one-on-one isolations between their “Big Three” most every trip down the court. When their unbalanced lineup of basically three similar point guards have an off night, like against the Celtics, they’re lost. Other players on the court can’t compensate and their bench disappears. All this on a “special night” when the Pat Riley statue is unveiled and the ‘80s Showtime Lakers are honored, the Lakers lay an egg to a team without Jayson Tatum.
They remain a middle-of-the-pack, unremarkable team that has little or no margin for error to win and/or make any kind of run through what now looks like a short postseason.
Rick Solomon
Lake Balboa
The last two Laker losses were travesties of defense. They were picked and screened to death, which led to numerous wide-open three-point shots by the Magic and Suns. Picks and screens are basic basketball plays that we all used and defended against in junior high and high school. This has been going on all season. The Lakers response? They traded for another weak defender in Luke Kennard. Absurd!
Richard Raffalow
Valley Glen
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