Los Angeles Lakers blow a big lead (again!) and lose to the Atlanta Hawks

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss: 

Somehow…someway, Anthony Davis is going to have to stay healthy!

This is a very different team with this dude in the lineup. Sure it’s easy to mention his scoring because he was wearing out the Hawks frontline to the point that it was clear that no one could stop him. That’s a given.

But it’s the defensive presence that AD brings that the Lakers desperately need. He can guard all five positions and even though the Hawks scored at times with little resistance, there were numerous missed layups in this game because of short-armed attempts.

But the Los Angeles Lakers are going to have to help this guy out until he gets his legs fully under him. For the first time since his return, he looked like he ran out of gas. Outside of Malik Monk, there wasn’t enough offensive production.

What’s even worse, there are no real offensive plays to go to when the Lakers go into a drought. AD in the fourth quarter at times settled for jumpers. If this guy has to chase everyone down on defense, the offense schemes have to be better.

Russell Westbrook:

He finished with 20 points, 12 assists and 7 rebounds.

But his perimeter defense is abominable. No, we are not just talking about Trae Young dropping a bomb in his face late!

The aggressiveness from the Charlotte game was not there and this is the result. Russ and this team has to figure out how to get things going with AD and LeBron when he comes back. Look none of those guys are going anywhere and they asked for this…

WORK IT OUT!