Five takeaways from the Lakers’ 109-88 loss to the Golden State Warriors

The Lakers (8-28) fell hard to the Golden State Warriors (33-2) on Tuesday night. Here are five takeaways from the Lakers’ 109-88 loss at Staples Center.

1. Playing without Kobe Bryant and D’Angelo Russell, the Lakers were competitive until the third quarter, even with Klay Thompson scoring 22 first-quarter points.

“I thought the second quarter, we seemed to kind of settle down,” said Coach Byron Scott. “In the third quarter, I thought we started missing shots, and we just started thinking about misses and forgetting that you have to get back on defense and guard these guys.”

2. The Warriors are the best team in basketball for a reason. The tandem of Stephen Curry and Thompson in the backcourt is all but unguardable when supported by players like Draymond Green, Andrew Bogut, Andre Iguodala and Harrison Barnes.

What does it take to beat Golden State?

“If I knew, there would have been a different result tonight,” said Larry Nance Jr. “I think that is a problem the whole league is facing right now.”

3. Lou Williams scored 10 points without making any of his seven field-goal attempts, just the 23rd player in the NBA to do so.

Magic Johnson is the only other Laker to do the same, scoring 10 points on April 2, 1996.

Jerryd Bayless was the last player to score 10 points without a basket, on Feb. 22, 2011.

Former Bruins and Clippers guard Derrick Martin has the NBA record with 15 points without converting a field goal.

4. The night produced extreme +/- numbers. The Lakers were outscored by 36 points over the 29 minutes Jordan Clarkson was on the floor.

Roy Hibbert was a -31, but Marcelo Huertas was a +13. Ryan Kelly and Tarik Black played the final 7.5 minutes of the game, both finishing at +7.

Meanwhile, Draymond Green was +32, Klay Thompson +31 and Stephen Curry +29, while Jason Thompson was a -9.

The real damage was done in the third quarter, when the Warriors punished the Lakers for 22 straight points.

5. The Lakers are still in last place in the Western Conference, better than just the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Lakers are 8.5 games behind the eighth-place Utah Jazz (15-18) and 3.5 behind the 14th-place Phoenix Suns (12-25).

Looking ahead to the 2016 NBA draft lottery, the Lakers would have a 55.8% chance of a top-three pick in next June’s draft. If the Lakers fall below third in the lottery, Philadelphia will get the team’s pick as part of the Steve Nash trade, via the Phoenix Suns.

Email Eric Pincus at eric.pincus@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @EricPincus.