The bar for the Lakers to clear Friday night to look functional was remarkably low, a pair of unimaginably bad losses in Minnesota and Miami making “don’t get embarrassed” the only hurdle the Lakers needed to clear.
The Lakers, while technically 70 points worse than the Timberwolves and the Heat, have shown that they can be a winning team, a team that can share the ball, that can hit shots and, on occasion, be a team that can credibly defend.
“The consistency is probably the frustrating part,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said before the game. “It’s the consistency because the group has shown that they can do it. The guys have shown that they can do it. It’s just the consistency for everything.”
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Against the suddenly hot Hawks, the Lakers showed that they could, in fact, do the things required to win. And they did so many of the things that usually cause teams to lose.
But victory doesn’t require perfection — just an advantage. And the Lakers couldn’t end with one, losing to the Hawks, 134-132 in overtime.
With the Lakers up one in overtime, Anthony Davis’ pass to LeBron James was too casual, and Dyson Daniels stepped in front of it for the steal, no defenders between him and a go-ahead basket. But James, like he has so many times, caught up to the play from behind, a game-saving swat of the ball tipping the edge just so slightly back to the Lakers.
The Lakers, though, couldn’t cleanly inbound the ball, and Atlanta forced a tie-up with Davis and got possession after the ball went out of bounds off James.
With the game on the line, the one player on the court who the Lakers didn’t want open, Trae Young, got open and hit a three. James’ last-ditch chance to flip the game one final time rattled out and the Lakers lost for the seventh time in nine games.
Redick, in an attempt to get more physicality on the court, moved D’Angelo Russell back to the bench and started Gabe Vincent. Austin Reaves remained out, back in Los Angeles recovering from the injury to his back/pelvic area that has cost him four games.
Vincent responded with his best game as a Laker, scoring 12 points and playing the kind of defense the Lakers wanted. But he and Davis miscommunicated on a switch at the top of the key leading to Young’s open game-winner, crushing the Lakers on a night when they played mostly good basketball.
James scored 39 points with 10 rebounds and 11 assists, hitting six of 11 from three. Davis had 38 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, bouncing back after a miserable game in Miami.
The Lakers, who have been in a lifeless slump for most of the last two weeks after a heartbreaking loss to Orlando and spirit-snapping one to familiar foe Denver, found an actual rhythm early in the second half. They unleashed a 13-0 run on the Hawks, flying around the court, getting stops while converting on the offensive end, James even hitting a one-legged three, his shooting dry spell seemingly solved.
But as soon as they did that, they allowed Atlanta to make three straight threes, dashing any hope of rolling to the end.
And in the fourth quarter, the team’s execution and decision-making was good. Until it wasn’t.
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Up in the final few minutes, the Lakers tried to bleed the clock by in-bounding the ball with it running, the shot clock not yet triggered. Daniels hustled for the ball and Davis jumped in front of him and got called for an illegal screen.
Daniels scored on the next possession to put the Hawks up. The Lakers scored twice, late, to tie the game and Max Christie blocked Young’s potential winner to send the game to overtime.
Friday, the Lakers didn’t get embarrassed. But they didn’t win either.
And as they head back to Los Angeles, that’s what matters most.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.