Short-handed Lakers can’t keep Magic off glass in losing effort
At this point, Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley said, the data isn’t anywhere complete enough for a team to make any real statistical evaluations.
But, Mosley said before Saturday’s game against the Lakers, it’s never too early to be on the lookout for trends. And for the team his Magic defeated, there’s one trend staring it in the face.
The Lakers were mostly an uninspired mess in Orlando, a team beset by all kinds of problems in a 120-101 loss to the Magic. They set sloppy screens. They played with limited offensive rhythm, relying too much on isolation. They struggled to knock down shots. They got beaten backdoor, and they couldn’t contain dribble penetration.
Lakers’ Rui Hachimura voices a cartoon version of himself for an episode of the Japanese anime show ‘Crayon Shin-chan.’ He’s in concussion protocol with the team.
But more than anything — and at this point, it’s the trendiest trend — the Lakers were dominated on the glass, Orlando extending possession after possession while the Lakers stood, arms at their sides and hands on their hips.
The Magic had 19 offensive rebounds leading to 36 second-chance points, each one serving as a backbreaker for a Lakers defense that was having a hard enough time getting stops.
Teams have outscored the Lakers 117-54 on second-chance points through six games this season, a crippling deficiency they’ve had to fight against each time they’ve played.
“You can’t scheme rebounding. You’ve got to want to get the damn ball. Plain and simple,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said after the loss. “The shot goes up, if your opponent is in your area, you’ve got to get hits, put bodies on bodies and be the most aggressive one to the ball. That’s it. There’s no play I can draw up to get more rebounds.”
Ham said it’s simple.
“The game basically comes down to approach, mental approach. Their energy, their effort, they outworked us,” Ham said. “And because of that energy and effort, they saw the ball go in. They did a great job of just playing fast continuously, covering for one another defensively and just pounding us on the glass. It’s a huge, huge step backwards for us in terms of our defensive rebounding.”
The Lakers, again, were short-handed, their regular rotation hit hard for the second straight game.
Gabe Vincent will sit out at least two weeks as he deals with knee swelling. Taurean Prince sat out his second game in a row with what the Lakers are calling “patellar tendinitis.” Rui Hachimura is still in concussion protocols. And Jarred Vanderbilt is still limited to stationary on-court work in his recovery from a heel injury.
Rookie Jalen Hood-Schifino has also been out since late in the preseason after hyperextending his knee.
Hachimura was on the court for shootaround Saturday morning, a sign that he could be nearing a return. Same for Prince, Ham said, adding the two would be back “sooner than later,” with both scheduled for evaluations Sunday ahead of the game Monday in Miami.
Their return would, in part, help the Lakers get better on the boards.
“It’s not as simple as just boxing out. If the guy’s bigger than you, he’s simply bigger than you. You can box out but still lose the offensive rebound battle for sure,” LeBron James said. “We’ve seen that plenty of times. But it definitely helps when you have bigger bodies. I mean, we have three of our bigger bodies out right with injuries in Rui, Vando and TP. So, I mean, it would help. But we definitely got to do a better job of when we do box out of helping.”
Cam Reddish got pushed into the starting five and in an overtime win over the Clippers, Reddish showed the on-ball defense that has the team hopeful.
Cam Reddish, one of the defensive stars in the Lakers’ comeback win against the Clippers on Wednesday, started again for Prince. But unlike that game, he wasn’t able to generate the same kind of winning plays on either end of the court.
Same for backup big man Jaxson Hayes, who was called for two illegal screens in his 11 minutes on the court.
D’Angelo Russell also struggled, missing nine of his 10 three-point shots while scoring just 11 points.
Anthony Davis led the Lakers with 28 points, 13 rebounds and seven blocked shots. James had 24 points, and Austin Reaves scored 20.
Franz Wagner had 26 points and Paolo Banchero added 25 for the Magic, who were without starters Wendell Carter Jr. and Markelle Fultz and key reserve Gary Harris.
The Lakers, for the fifth time in six games, trailed by at least 10 in the first quarter, and the Magic‘s lead would grow to as many as 25 in the second half before the Lakers made a run.
The Lakers believed in Austin Reaves enough to reward him with a four-year contract worth almost $54 million. He will have to play better.
Reaves and Russell both had chances to hit shots to cut the lead to 10 but neither fell.
“Other teams are coming out and playing a little bit more aggressive,” Davis said. “It’s not even a skill or talent. It’s the offensive rebounds, turnovers leading to transition points, 50-50 balls. It’s those types of plays that get us down.”
Asked if he anticipated teams testing the Lakers’ on the boards more going forward, he didn’t hesitate.
“I mean, I would,” he said. “The scouting report: attack the glass, get out and run. I mean, that’s been our Achilles heel. That’s what’s going to lose us games. We know our problem. We got to fix it.”
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