Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers

Monday night in Phoenix, the Lakers were without Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Austin Reaves and Russell Westbrook. Sure, Patrick Beverley and Wenyen Gabriel were back in the lineup, but that wasn't nearly enough and predictably, the Lakers lost big to the Suns. It was in many ways a scheduled loss, and it seems Darvin Ham might have had his eye on keeping James healty heading into Wednesday's game against Sacramento, and then Friday's very winnable game against the Hornets...

The Lakers have big, scary, difficult decisions to make. Are they waiting for a magic bullet?

The Lakers won Friday against Denver with Anthony Davis on the sidelines for most of the game. Sunday, news broke that Davis is expected to miss about a month because of a foot injury (no official confirmation from the team, yet, but an announcement of some sort is expected Monday). Sunday night, the Lakers beat a struggling Wizards team at the Crypt, 119-117. Without question, they caught some breaks, and benefitted from the general terribleness of their opponent...

AD is reportedly going to miss a month. Can the Lakers stay afloat?

There was good news and bad news Friday at the Crypt. The Lakers, coming off an incredibly frustrating loss to Boston Tuesday night, bounced back with a decisive win over a very good Denver team, 126-108. LeBron James was incredible, finishing with 30 points, nine rebounds and four assists, on a tidy 13-20 from the floor. Russell Westbrook finished with a triple double (15/11/12) and didn't turn the ball over in the second half...

The Lakers got big contributions from LeBron, Russ and more... but is Davis going to miss time?

The Lakers play a big game on Friday, welcoming Denver to the Crypt. Given the schedule for the rest of the month —decidedly short on home games—and their current record—not very good—it's about as close to a must-win as December games get. And their track record following disappointing games like the Boston loss on Tuesday is pretty good! So there are reasons to believe the Lakers will, at the least, put on a credible show...

Also, remembering the night Gilbert made Kobe really mad...

After the Lakers gave up a 13 point fourth quarter lead to the Celtics, this after mounting a huge comeback to overcome a 20-point deficit, coach Darvin Ham noted that one problem the team has is falling behind early. Stop doing that, and you don't need to expend the energy for furious comebacks, and maybe it'll be easier to hold leads late. Fair enough! And if that's the case, one way to solve the problem is change who starts, because the Lakers are consistently a terrible first quarter team...

The numbers are in, and they are definitive.