Lakers Third Quarter Problem Gets Worse
The Lakers have had a problem with consistency from quarter to quarter, but the one thing they have been consistency atrocious in is their play in third quarters. The team was outscored 12 points in Boston on Friday. Just last week, the Lakers embarrassed themselves when they were outscored 40-12 at home against the lowly Timberwolves.
This stat is mindboggling. Houston and New Orleans are in the same tier as Los Angeles and Detroit with a -85 and -89 respectively. Both Houston and New Orleans have combined for four total wins for the season. To be honest, it is surprising the Lakers are even hovering close to .500 with a -92 in the third quarters.
Anthony Davis talked about the poor play in the third quarters, and emphasized they need to find a way to simply put points up in the third.
“We’ve just got to find a way to score in the third quarter. That’s been our Kryptonite the whole season.
We can’t score, and that’s putting us at a deficit. We come out, miss some shots, they get out in transition.”
The Lakers are only 17 games in, but they need to clean this up quickly if they want to even stay afloat in the top-8 of the Western Conference. The team has already blown multiple double digit leads to lottery teams like Oklahoma City and San Antonio. This is simple inexcusable if they want to call themselves contenders.
On the bright side, the Lakers will play the Pistons today, so hopefully they can improve on that atrocious third quarter margin, especially with Detroit being the absolute worse in third quarters.
