Los Angeles Lakers: 5 takeaways from four-game road trip

2. Bad habits developing

The Los Angeles Lakers are rolling at 16-2. As a result, it is difficult to nitpick things going poorly as they are winning games at a rapid rate. However, if this road trip had any real negative takeaway, it is that the team is falling into bad habits.

They are constantly starting games slowly. They trailed going into halftime of every game, needing heroic efforts in some cases to get victories. Whatever they are doing or being told at halftime needs to be discussed before the game so they can come out with the same intensity and energy.

The defensive effort has waned recently as well. During an 82-game season, there will be some lulls. No team will bring it for all 82 games; teams always have an off night.

Los Angeles has taken advantage of a weak schedule for stretches. They are beating the teams they are supposed to, but the Lakers’ tendency to seemingly turn the switch on and off is not ideal. That may work against the lower-tier teams in the league, but if they are going to only play at their peak for quarters at a time, better opponents will steal some of those games.

However, our last slide is why the Lakers should go into every game confident that they can come out with a victory even if they are having a bad night.