Lakers: Frank Vogel Has No Answers For LA's Awful Third Quarter Play This Season
Things got off to a great start for the Lakers on Friday night in Los Angeles. Wearing their City Edition jerseys for the first time this season, they came out and 49 first-half points and carried a 5 point lead going into the third quarter.
That's when the wheels fell off for the Lakers. The Timberwolves came out firing and scored 40 points in the third and outpaced Los Angeles by a wide margin.
The Lakers managed to score just 12 points in the third quarter, making it a 28 point difference in scoring between the two teams. That margin was the second-largest single-quarter differential for Los Angeles in the shot clock era.
But when asked about the third quarter struggles overall this season, Frank Vogel could not provide an answer. And that's a bit of a concern.
We’re talking about it and challenging our guys to be better. I don’t know what it was. We get control early in the game, we play well and then just aren’t executing the plan.
So far this year, the Lakers have been exceptionally bad in the third quarter. They've been outscored by 24.6 points per 100 possessions coming out of the first half, the second-worst margin in the NBA.
The Lakers ended up losing that one 107-83 and the Staples Center crowd was understandably upset. Los Angeles fell to 7-6 and have lost 4 of 7 games without LeBron James in the lineup.
They have to figure things out, and fast.
