Lakers' Struggles Continue: Heavy Losses Pile Up for Los Angeles

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00:00The Lakers, after a 10-4 start to this year, and looking like they were going to cruise,

00:08LeBron wants to play all 82 games.

00:11Well, it's been anything but here as of late in the last two-and-a-half weeks or so.

00:16The Lakers now have lost six of their last eight games, and not just losing at the buzzer

00:22or losing close but keeping games competitive, but getting their doors blown off as of late

00:28after a 29-point loss in Minnesota earlier this week, a 41-point loss last night in South

00:36Beach against Miami, the Heat roll 134-93, easily covering as a three-point home favorite.

00:44And Donnie, this is not a Miami team that is off to a 15-6 start this year.

00:49That win last night got Miami back to an even 500 and just 6-7 ATS when booked as the favorite

00:55this season.

00:56Yeah, so many times we've been talking about those tired legs for the Lakers where they

01:00show up last night and go 5-of-22 from three-point range.

01:02And also when you talk about analytics, 22 three-point shots in the NBA for a night,

01:07that's ridiculous.

01:08Flip it over to the other side there, the Miami Heat, 47 three-point attempts, 24 of

01:12them made 51 percent.

01:14That's where the game was won.

01:15That's where they got smoked.

01:16But I talked about this a little bit yesterday, Ben.

01:18Here's the interesting part where the NBA is kind of different than other sports.

01:22Players, the reason why they take those full games off, because statistics do matter.

01:25They understand the length of their careers and what they want to put out, points, rebounds,

01:29assists.

01:30Like LeBron James says he wants to play all 82 games, but that doesn't come at like, okay,

01:34once a week I'll play 11 minutes here.

01:36Then he scores six points, three rebounds and two assists, messing up his seasonal statistics.

01:40Look, selfish or not, that's where we are in the NBA.

01:44That's why they take the entire night off, because you're not, hey, look, coach, if you

01:47need me in the fourth quarter, in the final two minutes, put me in.

01:49No, they're not going to do that, absolutely not.

01:51So you have to make a decision.

01:53And also you don't have the luxury, Ben, of saying for the Lakers, well, we're the two

01:56seed right now.

01:57LeBron can take a couple of days off.

01:58They're going to fight for their life once again, just to get into the play in this season.

02:02They have no choice but to play him and Anthony Davis way more minutes than they're supposed

02:06to, which is a terrible thing for the Los Angeles Lakers.