JJ Redick, renewed by the All-Star break, bounded through the halls of the Lakers’ arena like a rested golden retriever. His team had a week off and a clean injury report, a 30-game sprint to the finish with a chance to have their best regular-season finish since their 2020 title run.
There were reasons everywhere to be excited. The 48 minutes that followed in a miserable 100-97 loss, though, wouldn’t provide any of them.
LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges broke down the Lakers’ defense time and again in the fourth quarter, the Hornets hunting Luka Doncic and attacking a defense sorely lacking rim protection.
The Lakers missed a pair of key free throws, and while a LeBron James bailout three gave them some hope, his two chances at forcing overtime on the Lakers’ final possession rattled out.
The Lakers’ gigantic midseason move, adding Doncic in a trade for Anthony Davis, fundamentally changed the way the Lakers are going to play basketball. And in their first game out of the All-Star break, they looked like a team hopelessly trying to figure all of that out.
The confusion, which started with five lightning quick turnovers from Doncic, cascaded into a game full of painfully unserious basketball. Austin Reaves double-dribbled in transition. Dalton Knecht airballed an open corner three. James couldn’t buy a basket after a hot start and Doncic, the piece that undoubtedly upped the Lakers ceiling, showed his floor, badly struggling in his third game with the team.
What the Lakers can be — a team that can attack defenses with elite playmaking from James, Doncic and Reaves, that can scramble around the court on defense and create turnovers — flashed. So did the reality of what the Lakers kinda are — a team still learning one another and experiencing the inevitable growing pains even when facing one of the worst teams in the league. The pains Wednesday were so bad, they resulted in the Hornets ripping off a 23-1 run during the third and fourth quarters.
The Lakers, who managed to lead by 13 before that stretch, were in that position mostly because Charlotte was even worse.
Doncic made just five of 18 from the field, hitting only one three in nine attempts. Reaves, who struggled nearly as much, got ejected after two technical fouls in the third quarter while the Hornets made their push. And no one could stop Ball, 27 points, and Bridges, 29, when the game got tight.
Compounding matters, the Lakers head to Portland to play Thursday night in what would’ve been their first game out of the break had it not been for Wednesday’s meeting with the Hornets, which was postponed by the Palisades and Eaton fires.