Player Grades: Lakers vs. Hornets ‏The Lakers have suffered this specific type of loss a half-dozen times at this point in the season

 

‏Player Grades: Lakers vs. Hornets

‏The Lakers have suffered this specific type of loss a half-dozen times at this point in the season.

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‏A team with athletic wings and some outside shooting torches them defensively and the team can’t keep up on the other end, resulting in a blowout loss. The really frustrating part is that it just happened on Sunday, so the hope would be that the team would have a little bit of shame and ensure it didn’t happen again within the same week

‏Alas, this is an unserious team.

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‏So, let’s dive into the loss. As always, grades are based on expectations for each player. A “B” grade represents the average performance for that player.

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‏LeBron James

‏33 minutes, 29 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 3 turnovers, 10-19 FG, 3-6 3PT, 6-7 FT, -7

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‏Outside of his inability to dribble the ball at times on the night, resulting in his three turnovers, it was about all you could ask from a 41-year-old playing his third game in four nights.

‏Jake LaRavia

‏37 minutes, 18 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers, 2 fouls, 5-10 FG, 3-4 3PT, 5-5 FT, -6

‏I was really tempted to give everyone an F tonight because I hadn’t gone to that bit in a while. However, there were just enough good performances that it would have felt a bit too much and LaRavia was one of them.

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‏Grade: B+

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‏Deandre Ayton

‏32 minutes, 12 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover, 1 foul, 6-10 FG, -4

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‏Ayton, however, was not one of them. He’s given a fool’s errand of trying to cover for this team defensively so I won’t fault him too much there. But six rebounds against this team is unacceptable.

‏Marcus Smart

‏32 minutes, 10 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 3 fouls, 3-9 FG, 1-5 3PT, 3-4 FT, -1

‏Only once in the last five games has Smart shot above 33.3% from the field. It’s not been in ideal circumstances, but he’s not exactly made a great case to remain in the starting lineup when Austin Reaves returns.

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‏Grade: D

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‏Luka Dončić

‏36 minutes, 39 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 turnover, 3 fouls, 15-26 FG, 6-11 3PT, 3-7 FT, -13

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‏For the second time in a blowout loss this week, the question I left the game with was “Where would this team have been without Luka?”