The Los Angeles Lakers insist they are getting their bearings again, and their next chance to show it comes with Friday’s visit from the Brooklyn Nets.
Not only are the Lakers continuing to get in sync with coach JJ Redick, they still are getting settled after a tumultuous time in their city following deadly wildfires that forced the postponement of two games last week.
After a rocky first half against the Miami Heat on Wednesday, the host Lakers dominated on both ends of the court and rallied for a 117-108 victory. Rui Hachimura had 23 points, while Anthony Davis had 22 points with 11 rebounds and LeBron James had 22 points with nine assists.
James acknowledged that his family has been evacuated from its home for a week, and the disruption has made an impact.
“I’ve just been off,” James said after the victory over the Heat. “I’ve just been completely off for obvious reasons, but hopefully things are contained or continue to be contained. And hopefully at some point we can start to push forward and move forward and put it behind us and rebuild our city, rebuild this beautiful city, and things of that nature.”
Following three consecutive defeats and a double-digit deficit at halftime on Wednesday, Los Angeles got its act together not with a change in strategy but with a request from Redick to put more effort into the game plan.
“In the second half, we matched their intensity. We exceeded it,” James said. “It helped us to play some good basketball and win the game.”
The Nets will need more than an increased will to win. Already in a rebuilding phase, injuries also have taken a toll, leading to a low point Wednesday in what has been a long season already.
Brooklyn enters Friday’s game off a crushing 126-67 defeat against the Los Angeles Clippers in the Nets’ first of two games in Southern California this week. The 59-point margin was the worst during a Nets loss in franchise history.
“It is never a good experience to go through this, but analyzing the whole season, they’ve competed the whole time, so all I can do is support them,” Nets coach Jordi Fernandez said. “If it’s nights like these that make us a little bit, even 1 percent better, then I’ll take it. It’s not fun, but that’s just the way you gotta see it.”
Brooklyn was still without Cam Thomas (hamstring) and Trendon Watford (hamstring) on Wednesday, while Cameron Johnson (ankle) and D’Angelo Russell (shin/hamstring) were out again. The latter two had returned for a 132-114 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday.
Ben Simmons (back) also was out against the Clippers in the second game of a back-to-back.
The Nets and Lakers completed a trade on Dec. 29 that sent Russell to Brooklyn for Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton.
Not only did Russell not play for the Nets on Wednesday, Finney-Smith was out for the Lakers for the birth of his child. Milton has played just six minutes over the past three games for Los Angeles.
