Lakers hit by a bad pitch, lose to Spurs, 109-87

The Lakers weren’t having much fun these days, so it was time to reflect on their past, which, actually, wasn’t very fun for them either.

They played against LaMarcus Aldridge for the first time since he rebuffed them in the wild first few days of July. You could say they lost again.

Aldridge had 24 points and 11 rebounds in 27 minutes of the San Antonio Spurs’ 109-87 victory Friday at AT&T Center.

It didn’t take long for the Lakers to be reminded of their latest free-agent failure. He had 14 points and five rebounds in the first quarter.

“He had one of those All-Pro type games,” Lakers Coach Byron Scott said.

The Lakers (3-20) actually hung around for a while, thanks to another growth game from rookie D’Angelo Russell, who had 24 points, six rebounds and six assists while starting in place of injured Jordan Clarkson (sprained ankle).

It was Russell’s second consecutive strong game, prompting Scott to give him a seven on a scale of one to 10 in his development so far.

“Two or three weeks ago, I would have said five,” Scott said.

Eventually, as a two-point halftime differential continued to grow, it was time to reflect on why Aldridge didn’t choose the Lakers, and how they planned to change that in the future.

They had a 50-50 chance at Aldridge, according to a person familiar with his thinking, and even had the first shot, sitting down with him as free agency began.

He was turned him off almost immediately — too much style and not enough substance in the Lakers’ pitch.

“I think we looked at it more as a business presentation. It wasn’t basketball and that’s probably where we made our mistake,” Scott said.

It will be different in the future, Scott pledged, an important concept with the Lakers on the lookout for free agents next summer, notably Kevin Durant.

“Most of these guys want to know the basketball part of it. We’ll change that part as far as most of the meeting, 75% of it of more, will be about the basketball part and then the other part will be a little bit about the business part,” Scott said. “I think we found from a great player that he was more interested in the basketball on-the-court stuff than anything else.”

The Lakers’ meeting with Aldridge included executives from AEG and Time Warner Cable discussing off-the-court opportunities. The team ran out of time to go in-depth on basketball analytics and requested a follow-up with Aldridge to go over it.

A second meeting took place, but Aldridge’s mind was already made up. He would sign a four-year, $80-million contract with San Antonio.

The Spurs were more low-key while sitting down with him.

“I don’t pitch too much. We don’t try to ‘convince’ people,” Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich said. “I think it’s overblown, like we’re going to have some sort of a sales deal. We tried to sell Jason Kidd and it didn’t work. We had mariachis and everything, all kinds of stuff. After that, I decided never again — if they come they come; if they don’t, I don’t care.”

Besides Popovich, the Spurs had two very important people in the room with Aldridge — veterans Tim Duncan and Tony Parker.

“We just did the polite thing. Our guys talked to him, he talked to us,” Popovich said. “They asked a few questions, he and his agents, and that was that.”

Aldridge, 30, has been only OK with the Spurs, averaging 15.4 points and 8.8 rebounds before Friday. He has been acting deferential on offense and his 45.5% shooting will be a career-low if it doesn’t improve.

The Lakers would take him, though.

Beyond Russell and Lou Williams (19 points), there wasn’t much they could cheer Friday. Kobe Bryant had 12 points and Julius Randle was off the mark with only four points while making two of nine shots.

There’s no way the Lakers would be this bad if Aldridge signed with them, no?

“I have no idea,” Scott said. “It is a big what-if.”

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

Twitter: Mike_Bresnahan