On December 9th, when the Los Angeles Lakers took home the NBA Cup as victors of the first ever In-Season Tournament, their record stood at 14-9, good enough for 4th place in the Western Conference. Less than one month later, LA has plummeted down the standings, free falling all the way down to 10th place in the West with a 17-18 record. The big problem here is that the Lakers have benefitted from great health luck that has evaded them the previous handful of seasons. Had you told Lakers fans back in September that nearly halfway through the regular season, LeBron James and Anthony Davis would've only missed five combined games, there's no doubt they would've assumed a better record than 17-18. But here we are, in early January, and the Lakers find themselves in a similar position as they were last year.

Last season, the Lakers started 2-10 and were 14-21 at the 35 game mark. It looked like the rest of the Western Conference had them dead to rights. But thanks to some savvy deadline deals by Rob Pelinka, the Lakers turned things around, finished the season with a 43-39 record, and wound up making the Western Conference Finals as a 7-seed. They did so by finding three-man combinations that fit alongside their All-NBA duo, creating dynamic and successful five-man units that Darvin Ham just hasn't been able to stumble upon yet this year.

Lou Williams is spot on here. It's clear that Darvin Ham doesn't know what the best Lakers lineup is, and I'll be honest, I did some digging myself, and I'm not quite sure I've found an answer that is all that intriguing. We can assume that any lineup would feature both LeBron and AD, but beyond that, it's not so clear.

Last year during the NBA Playoffs, the Lakers best five-man lineup that logged at least 30 minutes together in the postseason was D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reeves, LeBron James, Rui Hachimura, and Anthony Davis, per NBA.com Advanced Stats. That lineup, in 32 minutes on the floor together, outscored opponents by 47.5 points per 100 possessions. This season, for lord knows what reason, that group of five hasn't even played a full minute together. You know the old saying, “If it ain't broke, throw it on the goddamn dumpster and light it on fire.”

This year, the Lakers have only played twelve lineups at least 25 minutes together, and only half of those lineups have a positive net rating. The best of the bunch is a LeBron-Reaves-Hachimura-Cam Reddish-Jaxson Hayes five that is outscoring opponents by 28 points per 100 possessions. While it's certainly a promising sign for Darvin Ham that a reasonably heavy usage lineup without Anthony Davis has had such success, the Lakers won't be able to lean too heavily on this five. The best of those twelve lineups that features both LeBron and AD is a group where the two Lakers All-Stars are flanked by D'Angelo Russell, Taurean Prince, and Max Christie. Does that group of five scream Championship Contender? I don't think so.

It would be foolish to bury the Lakers just yet. We went through this exercise last year, and LA ended up playing into late May. The same thing could very well happen this year, but with every game that passes by, the Lakers are running out of time.