Los Angeles Lakers lose a heartbreaker to Spurs in overtime

On the day after Rajon Rondo and Brandon Ingram received multiple game suspensions, the Los Angeles Lakers are still searching for their first win of the season.

Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma were inserted into the starting lineup replacing the recently suspended Rajon Rondo and Brandon Ingram. Unfortunately, the Los Angeles Lakers were still unable to capture their first win in the LeBron James era.

Going into this game, the Lakers had so many questions surrounding the team and things really didn’t start off all to well.

For starters, the Lakers defense was terrible right from the start, as they gave up a whopping 40 points in the first quarter.

DeMar DeRozan was essentially getting any shot he wanted as he went 5-for-5 from the field in the first 12 minutes.

It was really difficult to watch the Lakers defense giving up jumper after jumper to guys like LaMarcus Aldridge and Rudy Gay while the Lakers seemingly couldn’t buy a basket the entire time.

The Spurs were moving the ball effectively and being rewarded with great shots to open up the contest. And while LeBron had some sweet passes in the first couple of minutes, James started the game 0-6 from the field.

Offensively, James was nowhere to be found in the first half as he finished with 4 points on 2-for-8 shooting from the field in the first 24 minutes.

Kyle Kuzma, however, was sensational in the first half. He was active in transition and playing the glass effectively getting layups and even showing a little showtime as he finished the game with a team high 37 points and 8 rebounds.

The guy who really impressed me was Lonzo Ball.

Despite what I said about Lonzo in my previous article, he did everything I said I wanted to see from him this game.

He was active all game long, knocked down a couple of 3-point shots even though his second attempt was an air-ball, and even got to the rim a couple of times showing off that strength that he worked so hard to acquire in the offseason.

In the second half, the Lakers opened the quarter with two early buckets by LeBron and just like the Spurs in the first half, the Lakers moved the ball and were able to get great looks.

They continued to have success in transition, however midway through the 3rd quarter, JaVale McGee got into foul trouble and Luke Walton inserted Ivica Zubac into the game.

That proved to be fatal as Aldridge absolutely dominated Zubac down low, as Zubac somehow managed to acquire 5 fouls in 5 minutes.

It became so bad that Luke had to dive deep into his rotation and put Johnathan Williams in the game who surprisingly did a better job at guarding Aldridge than Zubac, even scoring twice off of a dunk and an alley-oop from Svi Mykhailiuk.

Down the stretch, the Spurs were able to hang on to the lead due to DeRozan’s beautiful use of the pump fake getting defenders off their feet and drawing fouls, but after the Lakers started making shots from the outside with Kyle Kuzma and Josh Hart spearheading a run in the 4th, the Lakers managed to tie up the game.

Late in the 4th quarter, LeBron started to assert himself and was more aggressive on the offensive end driving to the basket and drawing fouls.

After a couple of threes by the Spurs, the game seemed all but out of reach for the Lakers. However, after a quick basket, LeBron was able to find Kyle Kuzma in the corner for a 3-pointer to bring the game within 3.

After getting a stop on defense, LeBron scored the go-ahead 3-pointer with 2 seconds left to tie the game and send it to overtime.

In overtime, the Lakers played hard and were able to capitalize off of a couple missed free throws by the Spurs.

One of the heroes in overtime was Johnathan Williams who had two key buckets in overtime including a shot plus the foul as he provided much needed assistance in place of JaVale McGee who fouled out in OT.

Williams also played incredible defense even getting a block down the stretch which ignited a sequence that ended with an And-1 by James.

Unfortunately, a 3-pointer by Rudy Gay pulled the Spurs to within 1 and after 2 missed free throws by James, Patty Mills knocked down the 22-foot Jumper to ice the game and give the Spurs the Victory.

I really never thought that the Lakers would fall to 0-3 to start the season, but now that they are Wednesday’s game against the Suns is now a must-win for the Lakers.

If they indeed lose, then this team will have a lot of questions going forward, which might involve the front office having a raised eyebrow at Luke Walton.

I mean, the last time the Lakers lost their first 4 games, their coach was fired, that coach being Mike Brown.

I’ll leave it at that.