Lakers left contemplating ‘a lot’ of changes after historic blowout loss to 76ers
Tyrese Maxey rejected a Joel Embiid screen on the left wing, took a dribble, stopped, pivoted backward and shoveled a pass to a wide-open Embiid.
With Anthony Davis in drop coverage and ready to corral a potential Maxey drive, he shuffled back to Embiid and halfheartedly contested his catch-and-shoot 3-pointer. The shot splashed in, kickstarting a 20-2 run for the Sixers that swung Monday’s anticipated matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers .
From that moment on, the Sixers outscored the Lakers by nearly 50 points, leading to a historic 138-94 Lakers loss at Wells Fargo Center.
“They beat the s— out of us,” Austin Reaves bluntly told reporters after the game.
In one of the biggest tests of the first 20 games of their season, the Lakers failed spectacularly. The considerable shellacking erased the goodwill L.A. had recently established by winning seven of its previous nine games.
The 44-point margin of defeat was tied for the fourth-largest in franchise history — and the largest against the 76ers across the franchises’ 290 battles. It also marked the biggest loss of LeBron James’ career.
“Feel like we just weren’t together,” Davis said.
The 76ers have now beaten the Lakers seven straight games. Los Angeles is 10-8 overall and just 3-6 on the road. They’ve fallen to eighth in the West.
James, who normally keeps a calm demeanor in losses, was visibly frustrated during his postgame press conference. He responded curtly, speaking no more than a couple sentences at a time. He hinted at the need for grand changes for the Lakers, though he declined to go into specifics.
“What needs to change in order for that not to happen again?” James said. “A lot.”
When asked if there were any changes in particular, James again declined to disclose much: “No. A lot.”
The game was so one-sided that head coach Darvin Ham, who has been reluctant to pull his starters in the fourth quarter, waved the white flag by pulling his starters at the 8:18 mark of the final frame after the Sixers opened the quarter with a 13-4 run to extend their lead to 27 points. All in all, the Sixers outscored the Lakers 40-14 in the fourth despite Embiid sitting out the entire quarter.
“Your competitive spirit has to be at a high level,” Ham said. “It almost has to be bulletproof to a certain degree. You have to meet force with force. They outhustled us.”
Ham was especially disappointed with the effort from the late-game crew of rookies Jalen Hood-Schifino and Maxwell Lewis and two-way rookies D’Moi Hodge and Alex Fudge , as the group was crushed in garbage time.
“When you’re in a fight, you can never stop throwing punches,” Ham said. “You gotta let your hands go. You gotta keep swinging.”
Off-nights happen in the NBA . A blowout loss on the road to an elite opponent isn’t necessarily unique. But this exacerbated what’s been a troubling trend for the Lakers against elite competition. Record-wise, the Sixers (12-5) are tied with the Orlando Magic for the best team the Lakers have faced. And the Lakers’ ledger is becoming full of losses to good teams and wins against mostly mediocre and bad teams. Through 18 games, they are 5-8 against teams .500 or better and 5-0 against teams below .500.
Of course, the Lakers were incredibly short-handed against the Sixers, missing Jarred Vanderbilt (heel), Gabe Vincent (knee), Cam Reddish (groin) and Rui Hachimura (nasal fracture) — representing four plus-defenders and three of the team’s four best perimeter defenders overall. There’s a trickle-down effect to not having as much perimeter size, athleticism and defense that can affect the offensive side of the ball, too.
“We’re dealing with some unfortunate circumstances that’s beyond anyone’s control,” Ham said. “But at the same time, once the games start, whoever we have in uniform, we have to come out and continuously swing and play with force on both sides of the ball. That’s it in a nutshell. It’s not rocket science.”
But the Lakers still had their four leading scorers and best players in James, Davis, Reaves and D’Angelo Russell , and were adamant that they had enough to win the game and weren’t going to excuse their lackluster effort.
Philadelphia’s stars, reigning MVP Joel Embiid and breakout fourth-year guard Maxey, thoroughly outplayed the Lakers, nearly doubling them in scoring.
Embiid posted his sixth career triple-double (30 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists, one steal, one block) and won the head-to-head battle with Davis (17 points, 11 rebounds, two assists, one steal, one block). Maxey led all players in scoring (31 points) and assists (eight). James had 18 points, five assists and zero rebounds — the first time he failed to grab a rebound since Nov. 2, 2010.
“Just got to play better,” James said.
The thrashing spoiled another James record, as he passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for most minutes played on an NBA floor between the regular season and playoffs (66,319 minutes in his career, passing Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time total of 66,297 minutes). Afterward, James brushed off the accomplishment.
“That doesn’t mean much to me,” James said.
The Sixers made a season-high 22 3-pointers (on 46 attempts), the most the Lakers have allowed in a game this season. They made a season-best 13 in the first half — more than their average entering Monday’s contest (11.2). The Lakers, in contrast, made just seven of their 25 3-point attempts for the game.
The Sixers made 15 more 3s than the Lakers and attempted 18 more. In addition to Maxey’s five makes, Patrick Beverley and Marcus Morris Sr. both made a season-high four 3-pointers. To compound matters, the Sixers also made 13 more free throws and attempted twice as many as the Lakers (26 to 13). The 3-point and free-throw deficits were far too great for Los Angeles to overcome.
“The 3-point line,” James said. “We got killed on the 3-point line today.”
Though Davis said the Lakers should “flush” the result, he believes an honest, all-out film session could do wonders for the group that has perhaps tiptoed around one another too often as they’ve gotten acclimated with each other.
“We’ve got to look at it, embrace it, own it,” Davis said. “I know that in the course of the game, we’ve challenged each other. If someone’s not playing well or someone is, what’s the word, BS’ing I guess, we’ve been calling people out.”
The Lakers get a much-needed palate cleanser with a road matchup against the Detroit Pistons on the front end of a back-to-back (they play at Oklahoma City in the second game). They will be heavy favorites, even if Reddish is unable to return. (Ham said Reddish is “extremely close” to returning.)
And, as James suggested, there could be larger changes in the works, with the team potentially considering another starting lineup change or adjusting the rotation after such an embarrassing result for a team with championship aspirations.
This setback is arguably the lowest point of the Lakers’ season — one in which they’ve rarely looked like true contenders on the level of Denver, Boston, Milwaukee or Philadelphia. They seemingly reached their nadir earlier in the month when they suffered three straight losses to drop to 3-5. After a blowout loss on the road to the Houston Rockets, Los Angeles responded with three straight wins, including an impressive fourth-quarter comeback in Phoenix .
How will they respond this time around?
Only time will tell, but James it clear that he’s displeased with Monday’s humiliating outcome, regardless of how anyone else in the organization feels.
“I don’t know how a team (should respond),” James said. “I can only speak for myself. I don’t like it.”
(Photo of LeBron James and Nicolas Batum: Tim Nwachukwu / )
