On Monday night, the Los Angeles Lakers lost their third game in a row when they fell to the Utah Jazz, and fans are growing uneasy.
They have been hoping for a significant trade to upgrade the team’s roster, but judging by the postgame comments from head coach Darvin Ham, it seems nothing of the sort will end up happening.
“We need to step up and play better,” Ham said. “We can’t go out and get people, we are already a repeat tax offender. We can’t spend money to build a team. We already have three big-time, first-ballot future Hall of Famers that a chunk of our budget is spent on, and there’s only so much left.”
The Lakers were competitive with the Jazz in the first half, as they somehow managed to score 71 points without LeBron James and trailed by just five at halftime.
But, they ran out of steam in the third quarter, and they couldn’t get stops, allowing Utah to build a substantial lead.
Russell Westbrook continues to play well in his new role off the bench, and although there are still trade rumors involving him that are circulating, the team may not be able to afford to lose him if he continues to thrive like this.
Reportedly, the Lakers have been reluctant to take back any players in a potential Westbrook deal that have contracts lasting beyond this season. It seems like they want to have plenty of cap space for next summer in order to go after a big-name player.
Some fans feel the team is merely going to stand pat all season no matter how bad things get.
In reality, the Lakers aren’t really as bad as their 2-8 record indicates. They’ve had a very difficult schedule to start the season, and their offense, which has been their biggest problem, has been trending upward, as they’ve scored at least 116 points in all but one of their last five contests.
The returns of guard Dennis Schroder and center Thomas Bryant should help with some of the team’s deficiencies. Both have been out with thumb injuries and could come back soon.
The Lakers will return home for five straight contests at Crypto.com Arena, mostly against teams with bad or mediocre records. That gives them a solid opportunity to start winning games and stabilize their overall situation.
