The Los Angeles Lakers are in a slump. They have just not looked great of late, having lost their last three games and five of their previous seven.
The latest was another painful one that went down to the wire, as Los Angeles got knocked off by a clutch 3-pointer by Royce O'Neale in a 113-110 road loss at the hands of the Phoenix Suns.
The losses have indeed been piling up for JJ Redick's team, making the spotlight the Lakers are eternally under even more intense.
That is also the point that Redick made following the setback in Phoenix.
“Our losses are louder than other teams. Because we’re the Lakers — and how we lose,” Redick said, via Benjamin Royer of The Orange County Register.
To refresh, the Lakers were blown out of the water by the Boston Celtics in a 111-109 loss at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday before losing to the Orlando Magic, 110-109, at home on Tuesday.
The ending to that Magic game made the defeat harder to accept for Lakers fans. Then, against the Suns, Los Angeles got beaten by a perfectly executed play down the stretch by Phoenix that did not even have Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks.
The loss to the Suns wasted Luka Doncic's 41 point-eruption, while LeBron James and Austin Reaves combined for 29 points.
However, the Lakers got repeatedly burned by Phoenix's outside shooting, with the Suns making 22 3-pointers on an absurd 44 percent success rate. It is always going to be hard to beat teams that shoot that well, but the Lakers could have also gotten better performances from Doncic's supporting cast, including Deandre Ayton, who coughed up just two points and grabbed four rebounds in 23 minutes.
