Once again, the Los Angeles Lakers were without a significant portion of the rotation and it showed. Brandon Ingram did all he could to carry the team — setting a new career high with 36 points in the process — but as the Philadelphia 76ers were at full strength, L.A. simply didn’t have enough firepower to outlast them, finishing with a 121-105 win.
Ingram’s performance should be noted, though. Despite all the noise over the last couple days about Anthony Davis and whoever might be on the trade block, Ingram went out and played one of the most complete and efficient games of his career.
Outside of Ingram, the Lakers were pretty quiet all around, especially in the starting unit, as no one else was able to top double-digits in scoring, and everyone finished in double-digit negatives in box plus-minus. This has a lot to do with the talent gap, as the Lakers were missing three starters compared to a star-studded Philly starting group, but it was a pretty disappointing effort from those Lakers outside of Ingram nonetheless.
Philadelphia blitzed the Lakers right from the get-go, jumping out to a double digit lead seemingly during warmups. While the Lakers made a couple charges at a few points throughout the game, that early lead proved too much to come back from. One thing that didn’t help was the gap in the two teams’ production from the three-point line, as L.A. finished with seven made threes to Philadelphia’s 15.
The Lakers will hopefully get LeBron James back as they get ready for a game against the Clippers on Thursday that will hold immense playoff implications. It’s likely James will be rusty and probably play under a minutes restriction, but getting him back would do wonders for an offense that has been mostly inconsistent (if not consistently bad) with him out.
The Lakers would also hopefully get Kyle Kuzma back that game, too, because Anthony Davis trade or not, the Lakers need to start getting healthy if they really want to position themselves for a run at a spot in the postseason.
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