MINNEAPOLIS — The Lakers’ offensive struggles in their 97-87 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night at Target Center can be chalked up to multiple factors.
They were again without contributions from LeBron James, who missed his second consecutive game because of left foot soreness. He was away from the team earlier in the week for personal reasons and had an excused absence for the team’s one-game trip to Minneapolis.
While the four days between games may have given players and coaches more time to rest their minds and bodies, rust may have been an unintended consequence of the lengthier break, with the Lakers committing a season-high 22 turnovers Friday, including 11 in the first quarter.
The Timberwolves, who rank No. 5 in defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) at 107.4, have stifled the Lakers’ offense this season.
Regardless of the reasoning, Friday provided a familiar result: another game in which the Lakers struggled offensively.
“Got to score,” Lakers big man Anthony Davis said. “Getting good looks. We haven’t been shooting the ball from 3 well. Just got to make shots. We’re getting great looks. We’re generating open 3s, generating open looks for our guys. We just got to be confident enough to make them.”
Friday was the eighth time in the Lakers’ last 10 games that they’ve failed to score at least 110 points.
The Lakers are 10-4 when they score at least 110 points and 3-8 when they don’t.
They scored at least 110 points in 12 of their first 15 games, leading them to a 10-5 record behind a 118.3 offensive rating, which ranked No. 4 in the league. They’ve gone 3-7 since, with an offensive rating of 102.6 in those 10 games for the league’s second-worst mark.
“Nobody’s given up on this team,” Lakers guard Max Christie said. “Everybody has belief in us still. You just gotta be better. Our defense has given us chances to win games, It’s just a little bump in the road that we got to fix. We got enough guys in this room and enough firepower. So it’s just a blip for us.
“And we’re not concerned, it’s a long season. We’re over about a quarter of the way through. So we got three-fourths still this season to go. So we’re not worried. We got a lot of time to fix it. And we’re going to be proactive with that for sure.”
The Lakers’ offensive struggles have been compounded by their poor shooting over the past few weeks.
They shot 48.4% from the field, including 55.4% on 2-pointers and 37.6% on 3-pointers, for a true shooting percentage (a formula that incorporates free throws and higher-value 3-point shots) of 59.7% in the first 15 games – the league’s fourth-best mark.
The Lakers have shot 45.1% (54.1% on 2-pointers, 30.7% on 3-pointers) for a true shooting percentage of 54.2 % in their last 10 games. They’re also attempting nine fewer, and making seven fewer, free throws per game over the previous 10 games compared to their first 15 games.
The Lakers’ effective field goal percentage (a formula that adjusts for 3-pointers being worth more than made 2-pointers) of 49.5% over their last 10 games on “wide-open shots” is the league’s worst percentage. Their effective field goal percentage of 59.9% in their first 15 games ranked No. 12 across the league.
“You have to trust the process of running good offense and getting good looks,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said, “And trust that those shots will, in the aggregate, go in more.”
But basketball isn’t just a math equation played on a court.
Frustration builds. There are human reactions when shots aren’t falling – even when the players try not to let them.
“It shouldn’t,” said Lakers guard Austin Reaves, who made his return Friday after missing the previous five games because of a bruised left pelvis. “Especially if you like the shots that you’re getting. When you create good looks and they don’t go in, it shouldn’t be turn away from that. But I do think human nature, you do get frustrated. You got to stick with the process of doing the right thing, playing the right way.”
Reaves acknowledged that the Lakers haven’t been as consistent with their offensive process over the last few weeks compared to the first month of the season.
“We did get away a little bit from the process that we were talking about, to be completely honest,” Reaves said. “That’s human nature to do that. In any profession, you become a little frustrated if the results aren’t what you want them to be. And I don’t think the change is necessarily bad. I think people are trying to figure out what we can do to be more successful. And I think that we can go back to a lot of the things we were doing at the first of the season and that will help us be more successful.”
When: 6:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV/radio: Spectrum SportsNet/710 AM
