With the Los Angeles Lakers on a three-game losing streak, here are a few reasons why they have struggled.
On Monday, the Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Indiana Pacers 110-100. The loss makes it three games in a row that the Lakers have lost. Other than the Pacers loss at home, the Lakers fell to the Miami Heat on Friday at home, and also lost to the Golden State Warriors on the second game of a back-to-back on Wednesday. With only 11 games left in the season for the Lakers, the team doesn’t want to end the season on a bad note.
There are a few reasons the team is streaking in the wrong direction, and the Lakers will have to take care of them if they want to finish the season strongly.
Injuries Hurting the Lakers
The Lakers are currently going through what is arguably their worst stretch of injuries all year. Josh Hart suffered a fracture in his left hand in late February that was projected to keep him out 4-6 weeks. To make matters worse, Brandon Ingram has been out since March 1st after he strained his groin in a win against the Miami Heat. In addition, Kyle Kuzma and Brook Lopez have been playing through minor injuries.
Those first two injuries, paired with the absence of Jordan Clarkson and Corey Brewer, has caused the Lakers to be short on wing players. This has caused Kyle Kuzma to play a lot of minutes at the small forward position, creating a snowball effect across the whole team in regards to their playing time.
Ingram and Hart won’t be gone for long though. Ingram has been cleared for non-contact basketball activities, but will unfortunately miss Thursday’s matchup with the Pelicans. Meanwhile, Hart said on Spectrum that the team and him have a plan in place for him to return March 30th against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Hopefully, Ingram will come back for Saturday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies, since the Pelicans game was a possibility. As for Hart, if he does return March 30th, that will be around 4 weeks that he had been gone. He would get back for the Lakers’ 7 final games to close out his good rookie campaign.
The Lakers have fared alright without Ingram and Hart. They’re 4-5 in the 9 games they’ve played without the two. That isn’t bad for a young team being without their starter and arguably their best scorer in Ingram. Hart is no slouch either, as he was shaping up to be a great role player before his injury.
However, it’s becoming pretty obvious that the team is missing the depth that Hart provides and the consistent scoring that Ingram provides. There’s been moments late in games including the recent loss against the Heat, where the Lakers could have used an easy basket from Ingram.
Hopefully Ingram is back soon, followed by Hart, so the Lakers can turn their play around.