The Lakers gave up 130 points to the Jazz after being considered one of the best defensive teams in the league
The Lakers were trending up as their shooting has gotten better and their defense remained on par with what they’ve been doing so far. However, against the Jazz the Lakers did exactly the opposite.
The Lakers were on a two game win streak with three games under their belt since the Russell Westbrook experiment. Offensively the Lakers seemed fine as they scored 116 points and shot 42.3% from the 3-point line despite LeBron James shooting 0-5 from three.
Westbrook has embraced his role and the Lakers have been able to squeak by with some wins, but Darvin Ham did not like what he saw from his team defensively against the Jazz. The Jazz scored 130 points giving the Lakers virtually zero chance despite hanging in until the end of the game (via Spectrum SportsNet).
“No we took a huge step backwards tonight. Giving up 75 points in the first half and giving them at-least three 30plus quarters. We can’t play like that. We were good during different stretches. The overall picture that was painted by us defensively sucks. We’ll address it through film and practice and get together and do a deep dive to figure out why things were the way they were tonight.”
The Lakers are starting to slowly figure out how to put points up on the board but they have to also get back to playing tough defense. The Lakers have been able to remain in games, despite losing them, with their defense and poor offense.
Once the team can figure out how to blend the two together, the Lakers can get some serious momentum after such a cold start to the season.
