Knicks get blown out by the Lakers

The Knicks are really working on filling out their road trip bingo card.

They had the blown lead (Friday's loss to Phoenix), the fake comeback (Sunday's close call with the Clippers) and now a blowout loss, dropping 117-87 to the Lakers at Staples Center in a game that was never really close.

Short their best player in Marcus Morris after his career-high 38-point effort on Sunday, the Knicks were given a look at what a Morris-less team could look like if the Knicks trade their hottest commodity. The answer: not great.

If not for a second straight (relatively) efficient night for RJ Barrett, there almost wouldn't be a single positive takeaway from this game, a clear mismatch between a team competing for a title and a team searching for an identity to hopefully start its own journey back to relevance sooner rather than later.

Luckily, Barrett's standout play saved the day in an otherwise uneventful affair. The rookie carried over his strong play from Sunday, not getting to the line nearly as much this time (only 1-2 from the stripe) but scoring a team-high 19 points on 9-19 shooting.

A renewed commitment to getting into the paint and doing damage there has led to the revitalized Barrett these last two games. The rookie had a number of fancy finishes in this game, ranging from pure power to pure finesse, showing off the repertoire in the paint that helped him earlier in the season.

The zero in the assists column for Barrett once again could be seen as a cause for concern, but when watching the Knicks play lately, it's clear that the early-season days of "Point RJ" are long gone under Mike Miller. Miller has Barrett playing more like a traditional shooting guard/wing, putting him in positions where once he gets the ball, it's generally with the idea of him taking a shot.

But even Barrett took until the second half to get going, when things were basically already lost for the Knicks. After only being outscored by five points in the first quarter, the Knicks entered the half down 17 and never really recovered. LeBron James notched a game-high 31 points and six 3-pointers to lead the Lakers.

The game wasn't even a huge failure strategy-wise, at least not early on. The Knicks were producing open looks, but just couldn't hit any of them. It was very reminiscent of Miller's second game at the helm against Portland on the road, when the Knicks also lost by close to 30.

Tragedy almost struck for the Lakers when Anthony Davis took a scary fall onto his back defending a Julius Randle layup, but despite needing to miss some time, it seems that he's going to be alright.

Speaking of Randle, he certainly missed having Morris in the lineup as well. With the burden mostly on him to be the primary option in the offense, Randle once again posted a subpar shooting line (15 points on 5-16 shooting), an unfortunate trend so far on this road trip.

Up next is a back-to-back Wednesday night against a nuclear hot Jazz team that's won 11 of its last 12 games, so the finale of this road trip isn't getting any easier for the Knicks. Tomorrow maybe the Knicks can finally finish the bingo card with a win.