The Athletic has live coverage of Lakers vs Suns in the quarterfinal of the NBA In-Season Tournament.
LOS ANGELES — As the Los Angeles Lakers gathered in their huddle between the third and fourth quarters in Wednesday’s matchup against the Sacramento Kings, head coach Darvin Ham presented his group, trailing by 24 points, with a choice: Concede defeat or try to rally for a few more minutes.
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The Lakers, riding a three-game win streak and a newfound spirit, decided to attempt the improbable on the second night of a back-to-back.
“I know the amount of scoring that we have on our team, particularly those guys, the five guys that finished for us,” Ham said. “You got to give them a chance to see what we can do.”
Ham rolled out the best offensive lineup he could deploy — Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Cam Reddish, Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell — and the Lakers nearly rallied, slashing the deficit to as little as nine points with 3:05 remaining. Los Angeles’ comeback ultimately came up short, though, and the Lakers fell 125-110 to the Kings, suffering their first home loss and dropping to 6-6 overall.
Twenty-four hours earlier, the Lakers were riding the high of their first near-wire-to-wire victory, dominating the Memphis Grizzlies in a 134-107 rout in their second In-Season Tournament tilt. The Lakers pushed the pace, moved the ball well, made their 3s and were proactive and disruptive defensively. Their point total was a season high and they tied their franchise record for 3-pointers made (22). Most importantly, they gave James and Davis a chance to rest during the fourth quarter for the first time this season.
It was the type of feel-good win the Lakers had yet to experience this season, a commanding blowout that reminded the greater basketball world of their immense ceiling.
But many of the Lakers’ consistent shortcomings re-emerged a night later against Sacramento, troubling trends in all of their losses and even some of their wins. They came out sluggish — Kings All-Star De’Aaron Fox scored an and-1 within the first three seconds — and trailed by double-digits early (as many as 20 points in the first quarter). They turned the ball over too frequently (23 turnovers, 20 of which were Kings steals), leading to 30 Sacramento points. They were outshot at the 3-point line, 16 makes to 11. They allowed too many offensive rebounds (11).
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Perhaps the most concerning trend: The Lakers’ success has often been determined by the caliber of their opponent. Through 12 games, they are 1-6 against teams currently above .500 and 5-0 against teams currently below .500. For a team with championship aspirations, that’s concerning.
“We’re trying to figure out, again, how can we maintain consistent, high-level basketball (on) both sides of the ball, defensively and offensively,” Ham said of the current sate of his team. “And that process won’t stop. It’ll continue throughout the year no matter what’s happening. Win three in a row, lose three in a row, what have you.”
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Davis, who’s been managing a hip injury for over a week, finished with a season-low-tying nine points on 3-for-9 shooting against Sacramento. After scoring four points early in the first quarter, he didn’t score again until the fourth. Kings big man Domantas Sabonis (29 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists and three steals) confidently took Davis off the dribble and scored on him in the paint multiple times.
Davis refrained from blaming his poor performance on his injury, even though he was clearly laboring during several stretches of the game.
“I just played bad,” Davis said. “I’m not going to put it on anything. … It was just missed shots. I just played like s— tonight. It’s that simple.”
The night before, Davis overwhelmed the Grizzlies, physically imposing his will — no, seriously — as he posted 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting, 11 rebounds, five assists and six blocks in 27 minutes.
He admitted that his treatment options ahead of Wednesday’s games were limited, but confirmed he plans on playing Friday in Portland in the Lakers’ third In-Season Tournament matchup.
“I’m still treating it every day,” Davis said. “Obviously, you don’t get that day to really attack it with the back-to-back. But it is what it is. I suit up, I will play. I got to be more effective. Obviously, it was still bothering me a little bit, but I still got to go out there and do my job.”
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The Lakers wasted a record-setting James performance, as he became the second-oldest player in NBA history to record a triple-double, finishing with 28 points (on 9-for-15 shooting), 10 rebounds and 11 assists. James also moved up two all-time lists, passing Jason Kidd for No. 5 on the all-time triple-doubles list (108) and Jason Terry for No. 8 on the all-time 3-pointers made list (2,283).
James, who rejected the premise of a moral victory, was dismissive afterward regarding what the Lakers could take away from this game.
“Nothing,” James said curtly.
When asked a follow-up question of if he was frustrated, James clarified his perspective.
“No,” James said. “We were down too many times throughout the game, pretty much the game kicked around pretty much. They played exceptionally well. You could tell they came in with a lot of fresh legs and they looked like us from the beginning, like we was in three in four nights. But I don’t take nothing from that.”
The latest on Zach LaVine
The backdrop to the Lakers’ back-to-back homestand is the potential ramifications from the latest development in Chicago: the Bulls and star guard Zach LaVine are both increasingly open to “exploring a trade,” as The Athletic’s Shams Charania and Darnell Mayberry reported Tuesday. The Lakers, Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers are three teams are expected to have interest in LaVine, according to Charania and Mayberry.
The Lakers’ interest in LaVine is real — at the right price. However, LaVine’s potential availability also hints at the possibility of a fire sale in Chicago, with the organization seemingly looking to finally pivot away from its longstanding mediocrity. If additional Bulls players become available, the Lakers would also have interest in DeMar DeRozan and/or former Laker Alex Caruso, according to multiple team sources.
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The Lakers have exhibited interest in DeRozan and, to a lesser extent, LaVine for several years. Meanwhile, Caruso’s departure in the summer of 2021 remains a thorny topic around the organization.
The Lakers’ biggest concern in a potential LaVine trade is his gigantic contract: In addition to his $40.1 million salary for 2023-24, he’s owed $138 million over the next three years (which includes a $49 million player option in 2026-27 he seems likely to exercise). Moreover, LaVine has a 15 percent trade kicker that he’d almost certainly have to waive to make a trade to the Lakers feasible financially. Conversely, DeRozan is on an expiring $28.6 million contract, while Caruso is making just $9.6 million this season and $9.9 million in 2024-25 (only $3 million of which is guaranteed).
There’s also an open question of how much LaVine would actually address the Lakers’ needs, particularly perimeter defense and 3-point shooting.
This season, LaVine is averaging 21.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 0.8 steals in 35.2 minutes per game. He would give the Lakers a reliable third (and even second, on some nights) scoring option. He’d also give them a much-needed infusion of perimeter athleticism and 3-point shooting – he’s making just 33 percent from 3 this season, but 38.2 percent for his career. At the same time, though he’s improved as a defender through the years, LaVine remains a liability on that end and would exacerbate LA’s current backcourt issues.
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Another swing factor is the Lakers are temporarily limited in what they can offer the Bulls. Because so many of the Lakers’ players recently received new contracts, the only players they can include in a trade at this very moment are James, Max Christie, Jalen Hood-Schifino, Maxwell Lewis and their three two-way contract players (Colin Castleton, Alex Fudge and D’Moi Hodge).
The Lakers would realistically have to wait until at least until Dec. 15, when most of their roster becomes trade-eligible (Russell, Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince, Reddish, Christian Wood and Jaxson Hayes). Beyond that, Reaves and Rui Hachimura become trade eligible on Jan. 15. (Davis becomes trade eligible on Feb. 6, but don’t expect them to move him or James. Jarred Vanderbilt cannot be traded due to his multi-year contract extension.) The Lakers aren’t interested in including Reaves in a potential LaVine deal despite his recent move to the bench, according to multiple team sources.
Would the Bulls be willing to wait for one-to-two months — and pass on potentially better offers — just to move LaVine to Los Angeles?
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The most likely framework of a LaVine deal would center around Russell, who waived his implied no-trade clause over the offseason. It’d also need to feature Hachimura or Vincent as additional matching salary, another player and either the team’s 2029 or 2030 first-round pick – potentially with protections. (It cannot include both due to the restrictions of the Stepien rule). The Lakers would prefer to expand a theoretical trade to include Caruso, in the scenario that he’s eventually made available. One complication in that case is that the Lakers do not have many available first-round picks left to trade, though they could insert another pick swap (the first-round pick they don’t send between 2029 and 2030) and have four second-round picks available to trade.
Because the Lakers are hard-capped at the first apron ($172.3 million), they’d only be able to bring back roughly $4.9 million in additional salary (their roster total is roughly $167.4 million). They’d also have to have at least 14 players on their roster.
In any event, any potential Lavine trade — and/or one involving DeRozan and/or Caruso — is several weeks away at a minimum. The Lakers’ play between now and Dec. 15, but more likely Jan. 15, will ultimately determine which of their players are made available in a trade and whether they decide to pursue a bigger or smaller move. As long as their record continues to yo-yo, there will be speculation about potential deals that would affect this season’s title chances.
In the short term, the more pressing challenge for the Lakers is navigating the every-other-day nature of the schedule and establishing a baseline level of consistency.
“We have too many games that’s coming up on top of us very soon and they’re going to be flying,” James said. “This is three in four nights. We play Friday. We play Sunday. We got a lot of games coming. You learn from some of the mistakes. You learn from some of the good things. But then you move on.”
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(Top photo: Adam Pantozzi / Getty Images)
