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Submit ReviewThe Lakers put two victories together heading into Thursday's nationally televised game against the Suns, but clearly aren't yet "healed" as a group. That became abundantly clear about two minutes into Thursday's game. Phoenix was all over the Lakers early, falling behind only once (7-6) in the entire game.
Frankly, the game wasn't as close as the 127-109 score might indicate.
The Lakers were sloppy, turning the ball over five times in the first quarter and 18 times overall. The Suns, meanwhile, aren't necessarily a group that forces a lot of TOs, but can certainly take advantage of them. The Big 3 was on point, with Bradley Beal and Devin Booker each socring over 30 points, allowing Kevin Durant to assert himself only as needed, which wasn't a whole lot.
Anthony Davis played his first fully "meh" game in a while, finishing with 13 points. LeBron had 10. Austin Reaves, whose play has been all over the map, was picked on mercilessly on the defensive side by Frank Vogel and the Suns offense. Booker, Durant and Beal are good enough to score on anyone when they're playing really well. If that player has vulnerabilities, whether footspeed/agility (Reaves) or experience (Max Christie) they'll toast you.
And that's basically what happened.
So why exactly are the Lakers so awful defensively? 24th in the league coming into Thursday's game, a number that will get worse, likely.
HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky
SEGMENT 1: The Lakers get throttled by Phoenix
SEGMENT 2: What went wrong on Thursday?
SEGMENT 3: How bad is the offense? Too bad to be fixed?
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