Without their two best playmakers, the Lakers’ offense ground to a halt against the team with the league’s slowest pace.
Kobe Bryant (right Achilles strain) and D’Angelo Russell (right ankle sprain) both sat out due to injuries, as the Lakers avoided their lowest scoring effort in the Los Angeles era by only four points in an 86-74 loss to Utah on Sunday.
“You get more open shots when (Bryant) is out there, because the entire defense is focused on taking away No. 24,” Larry Nance Jr. said. “When he’s not, as you saw tonight, we take some more contested shots.
“D’Angelo’s a terrific facilitator. He’s constantly finding guys open for shots.”
Despite a roster of 15, the Lakers finished the game with only eight players. Bryant, Russell and Brandon Bass (corneal abrasion) were all injured, while Tarik Black and Ryan Kelly were in Santa Cruz with the Los Angeles D-Fenders for the D-League Showcase. Roy Hibbert and Julius Randle fouled out.
Fresh off dropping a career-high 44 points on Friday, Lou Williams tried to take charge of the offense alongside Jordan Clarkson, but backcourt duo shot a combined 11-of-36.
Williams led the Lakers with 18 points, a season-high eight rebounds and six assists.
“We tried to play aggressive (as a team),” Clarkson, who had 14 points and four steals. “It just wasn’t going our way today.”
The pair faced many of the same shooting issues as the rest of the team, which missed 60 of its 89 shots (32.6 percent) and went just 3-of-21 from 3-point range.
However, several Lakers noted that their shot selection was fine, but they just weren’t hitting their open looks.
“I could see our guys getting frustrated and shaking their heads because they couldn’t figure it out,” head coach Byron Scott said. “It was just one of those days where you have to look at it like we weren’t making the shots we’ve normally been making.”
Scott, Clarkson and Nance each said they felt as if there was “a lid on the rim,” which was evident from the start, as the Lakers (8-31) opened the game just 1-of-10. However, the Jazz (17-20) began just as cold until the second quarter.
Utah rattled off 11 unanswered points to take a 33-18 lead that it would never surrender, thanks largely to a game-high 25 points from Gordon Hayward, who also had three blocks.
The Lakers tried to parlay 16 offensive rebounds into offensive production, but they largely resulted in simply more misses, as L.A. took 20 more shots than its visitors but made two fewer.
Notes Nance recorded his third career double-double (10 points, 11 rebounds), though he shot 4-of-11. … The Lakers’ lowest scoring effort since moving from Minneapolis in 1955 came in an 89-70 loss at Cleveland on Nov. 5, 2002. … Each available Laker played at least seven minutes. … Utah’s pace results in an NBA-low 93.5 possessions per game. … A crowd of 18,997 packed sold-out Staples Center.
Going !!
A photo posted by Los Angeles Lakers (@lakers) on Jan 10, 2016 at 8:20pm PST
