Lakers Highlights: LA Slips to 2 Games Under .500 Despite Season-Best D'Angelo Russell Night
An Anthony Davis triple-double combined with a D'Angelo Russell hyper-efficient 39-point performance would almost always sound like a guaranteed victory.
That wasn't the case today. Playing without LeBron James and trotting out a questionable starting lineup made things harder from the jump, but now having fallen to the Utah Jazz 132-125, the team is now 19-21.
Russell's terrific game fortunately brought quite a few highlights, so here's a look at those:
A poor shooting night from Anthony Davis (5-21 from the field) is more or less the only notable dent on the team's box score, as Christian Wood, Rui Hachimura, and Taurean Prince joined Austin Reaves, Russell, and Davis as double-digit scorers, making it one of LA's more well-rounded offensive performances of the season.
It always seems to be one issue or another for this team, however, as even if their 23rd-ranked offense seems to click (as it did tonight), their defense falters, giving up 132 points. On other nights, they'll defend well, but fall short because of their offense that possesses clear issues.
It's questionable what trade is even the best route to take at this point, but we've discussed quite a few of them on the All Lakers podcast, which is linked here.