Following their defeat to the Boston Celtics, ending their eight-game winning streak, the Los Angeles Lakers proceeded with their road trip on Monday evening against the Brooklyn Nets.
The Lakers were greatly undermanned in this game missing LeBron James, Jaxson Hayes, Rui Hachimura, and Dorian Finney-Smith, and this disadvantage resulted in a frustrating 111-108 defeat.
Gabe Vincent, stepping into the starting lineup with numerous teammates absent, began well by scoring 13 points early, including three three-pointers, which helped the Lakers take a swift 21-13 advantage.
Luka Doncic was engaging his teammates, assisting Dalton Knecht and Jordan Goodwin, and then participating in the play himself with a drive to the hoop. After Austin Reaves located Knecht to conclude a commanding first quarter, the Lakers were ahead 28-16.
Goodwin made two 3-pointers at the start of the second quarter, while the Lakers had difficulty preventing the Nets from grabbing offensive rebounds on the other end.
This caused a scoring streak for Brooklyn, while L.A.’s offense significantly decelerated due to their frequent turnovers. As Doncic and Reaves struggled to draw fouls on their shots, the Lakers lost their lead and headed into halftime behind, 48-47.
For the Lakers to regain their offensive momentum, their star players had to establish a rhythm. However, Doncic and Reaves both remained ineffective at the start of the third quarter, resulting in a 9-1 run by the Nets, spearheaded by Keon Johnson, prompting the Lakers to call a timeout.
When the deficit grew to eight, Reaves and Doncic began to find their rhythm, with Reaves drawing fouls and hitting the free throw line, helping to spark a 7-0 run for their team.
Even though Doncic wasn’t hitting his shots effectively, he achieved a triple-double by the middle of the third quarter. Many of those passes positioned teammates like Knecht and Vincent for open 3s, but the Nets managed to keep pace, leading to a fourth quarter score of 81-79 in their favor.
The Lakers were unable to prevent Brooklyn from dominating the offensive rebounds, causing the gap to rise to seven once more, which prompted another timeout for L.A.
At that moment, it was a critical test for L.A. as they were down by six with only a few minutes remaining. Vincent scored another significant triple, but ex-Laker DโAngelo Russell countered with a triple of his own.
Following Reaves’ 3-pointer, the Lakers urgently required a stop. However, they were unable to grab a rebound, allowing the Nets to secure another second-chance point to finish the game.
What are the Lakersโ next steps?
The Lakers will finish their road trip with a challenging back-to-back matchup against the Denver Nuggets and Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday and Friday, respectively.