The Los Angeles Lakers are in a bit of a rut. The purple and gold have lost four games in a row and have lost five of their last six, all starting with Anthony Davis injuring his calf against the Denver Nuggets.
The Lakers are stumbling into the NBA All-Star Break and some fans may not be as confident as they were earlier in the season. The Lakers went from having all of the best advanced metrics in the league to getting blown out by the team that now holds the top spot in all those numbers — the Utah Jazz.
This loss may seem worrisome with the Jazz having the best record in the league and the road essentially going through them in the NBA Playoffs. However, while it was ugly, there is nothing to legitimately worry about… yet.
Here is why.
1. Let’s not forget that the Los Angeles Lakers are still playing in February
The first reason does not have to do much with the game it self (don’t worry, we will get there) but instead has to do simply with what point of the season we are in.
It is February. This is a Lakers team that we all projected to have some lumps early on. The team had a four-game losing streak at a similar point last season. It did not come in February, but it came in a similar number of games in.
I promise you that no Laker fans are talking about that four-game losing streak from last season, or how poorly the team played in the NBA bubble. They are talking about winning the NBA Championship.
It is February. The team just wants to make it to the playoffs healthy. They are not losing sleep over this, and you should not either.
But in case you are still pessimistic, there are even more reasons not to worry that pertain directly to the Utah Jazz.
2. The Los Angeles Lakers were playing seriously depleted
This almost goes without saying but it is a huge part of this story. This was not the Los Angeles Lakers that led to the team having the best advanced metrics in the league earlier this season. This was not the Los Angeles Lakers who will hopefully be suiting up in the NBA Playoffs.
This was a Los Angeles Lakers team that was missing its most impactful player when you consider his impact on both ends as well as their fourth-best player, Dennis Schroder.
Outside of LeBron James, these are the two hardest players to replace for the Lakers. Schroder is harder to replace than Montrezl Harrell because of what he offers to the team. Without Schroder, the team is really laking a secondary playmaker and the backcourt defense takes a hit.
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Davis also typically plays really well against the Jazz. Davis torched Rudy Gobert in the NBA bubble last season in one of the few promising games from the eight seeding games. His defense is paramount to this team and the Lakers simply have not been able to limit hit offensive output.
The Lakers can survive without Davis, they did so earlier in the season. Also not having Schroder puts a massive toll on LeBron James and at the end of the day he is 36 years old and this is February.
He is not going to completely will the team to win these regular-season games in the same way that he would in the NBA Playoffs with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
3. The three-point shooting disparity won’t be like this in the NBA Playoffs
This was simply awful timing for the Los Angeles Lakers. Not only did they have to play the best team in the league while they are in a rut, but they had to play the best team in the league while they are ice cold from beyond the arc.
Hot streaks and cold streaks absolutely are real in the NBA and the Lakers are in a cold shooting streak. The Lakers shot 8-33 (24.2%) from beyond the arc, turning in yet another woeful performance on top of the bad performances they have already put together.
The Lakers have shot under 30% from beyond the arc in eight of the last 10 games. That is really bad. There is a combination of reasons why. Schroder and Davis being out definitely does not help and LeBron has come back down to earth a bit.
He was shooting the best three-point percentage of his career but has regressed back towards his mean, which should be expected. The problem is that he is still taking threes like he is shooting at that career-best pace.
The Jazz also had a historic night. They put up the most threes in a half in franchise history and shot 22-48 from beyond the arc. Yes, the game was a blowout and they did not need a historic night from three, but this is not something that is going to happen again in the playoffs.
The gameplan for the Jazz to beat a healthy Lakers team in a playoff series is to have shooting nights like these and hope the Lakers are cold in a similar fashion.
That is not sustainable over an entire playoff series against a team like the Los Angeles Lakers.