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Lakers Highlights: LA's Draft Day Mistake Comes Back to Haunt Them in Blowout Loss to Rockets

The Lakers were never really in this game.
Martand Bhagavatula|
Lakers Highlights: LA's Draft Day Mistake Comes Back to Haunt Them in Blowout Loss to Rockets
Lakers Highlights: LA's Draft Day Mistake Comes Back to Haunt Them in Blowout Loss to Rockets

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Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers have fallen at the hands of the Houston Rockets 135 to 119, a score that was definitely a lot closer than the game itself. 

The Rockets led by as many as 30, sparked largely by an explosive run to end the first quarter by rookie Cam Whitmore. 

Whitmore, selected 20th overall in the 2023 NBA Draft, was passed upon by the Lakers in favor of Jalen Hood-Schifino, who, frankly, hasn't shown that he can withstand the level of competition in the NBA.

I wrote a piece on this back in October, detailing why the Lakers would regret that decision. Whitmore has not only been stellar in his own regard but showed the Lakers today why they made the wrong call. 

Whitmore finished with 18 points on 6-10 shooting but had 12 to finish up the first quarter alone. This includes two monstrous dunks that were massive energy boosters for the Rockets. 

For the Lakers, Anthony Davis was good offensively, finishing with 23 points, but was surprisingly terrible defensively, yielding a destructive 31 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists to Rockets center Alperen Sengun. LeBron added a 23-point, six-rebound 10-assist performance on 9-15 shooting. However, a slightly off day for D'Angelo Russell and a miserable day for Austin Reaves kept the Lakers out of the game. 

A Jarred Vanderbilt ejection didn't help, at all, as he was thrown out of the game for pushing Dillon Brooks in the second quarter. In his place, Taurean Prince simply did cardio, finishing with five points in 25 minutes on 33% shooting from the field. 

Here are the two good Lakers plays on the day, as well as the sequence that got Vanderbilt ejected:

Los Angeles takes on the Atlanta Hawks at 4:30 pm PT tomorrow. 

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Martand Bhagavatula
MARTAND BHAGAVATULA

Martand is currently a student at the University of Southern California, and has prior experience in the NIL space, sports financial advisory, and publishing in sports analytics. As a Lakers, Chargers, and Angels fan, he often finds himself disappointed.

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