Top Takeaways from LeBron James, Lakers' Loss vs. Raptors
The Los Angeles Lakers are now 10 games under .500 (29-39) following a 114-103 loss to the Toronto Raptors on Monday night at Crypto.com Arena.
LeBron James had a game-high 30 points and nearly finished with a double-double after grabbing nine rebounds. Talen Horton-Tucker came off the bench to score 20 points.
The Lakers remain in ninth place but now have only 1.5 games separating them from the Portland Trail Blazers in 11th. The 17-time champions could wind up backsliding out of the play-in tournament entirely.
While Monday's defeat didn't necessarily represent the nadir of Los Angeles' season, the degree to which these kinds of performances have become commonplace reinforces how precipitous a fall L.A. is experiencing only two years after its last title.
It's Really Not Going to Get Much Better, Is It?
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The final score doesn't illustrate how one-sided this game was. The Raptors went on a 21-2 scoring run to open the contest en route to taking a 33-12 lead into the second quarter. Toronto led by as many as 28 and had a 20-point cushion when the fourth quarter got underway.
By now the ship has sailed on the Lakers being considered favorites for the title. They have the 15th-best championship odds (+8000) at FanDuel, putting them just behind the Cleveland Cavaliers (+7000), James' old team.
Still, you keep expecting L.A. to at least begin equalling the sum of its parts. Like Lakers legend James Worthy passionately argued, this is a roster that should be pushing to get out of the play-in tournament.
Russell Westbrook might be a diminished version of his old MVP self, but he's only one year removed from helping catapult the Washington Wizards into the playoffs. Carmelo Anthony is still a good shooter in a limited role. Malik Monk is the one piece of offseason business that has worked for general manager Rob Pelinka. Anthony Davis will return at some point. And Los Angeles still employs LeBron James.
But it's so blindingly obvious now how deep the fissures are within the Lakers, and it extends to every level of the organization.
Look on the bright side. Los Angeles was hammered by the Phoenix Suns by 29 points on Sunday. A nine-point loss one night later represents progress.
Slow Starts Remain Major Problem for Lakers
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Maybe the Lakers should petition the NBA to start games in the fourth quarter and work backward from there.
Los Angeles' brutal opening 12 minutes Monday night were part of a larger trend. Here's the team's net rating by quarter this season, per NBA.com:
In that aforementioned matchup with the Suns, L.A. trailed by 26 points after the first quarter. Phoenix was nearly halfway to the century mark with 48 points.
Both Horton-Tucker and Westbrook were at a loss to explain why this keeps happening.
"If you take away the first quarter, we win the game," Anthony said to Spectrum SportsNet's Mike Trudell. "We've been digging ourselves holes to start the game off with."
That's technically true. The Lakers outscored the Raptors 91-81 over the final three quarters.
Unfortunately for Los Angeles, the scoreboard doesn't reset after the first quarter. And isolating the final 36 minutes ignores how the Raptors could afford to coast to the finish line. Outperforming your opponent in garbage time doesn't really count for much.
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