{"id":130611,"date":"2025-03-25T06:30:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T10:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=130611"},"modified":"2025-03-25T04:37:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T08:37:22","slug":"lakers-struggles-despite-clean-injury-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/25\/lakers-struggles-despite-clean-injury-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Could Be In Trouble Despite Clean Injury Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lakers are on a three-game losing streak and the timing isn\u2019t ideal. They are currently sitting as the fourth seed in the Western Conference, but are tied in losses with the Denver Nuggets (third seed) and Memphis Grizzlies (fifth seed). The Lakers also only sit two games above the sixth-seeded Golden State Warriors. Things are tight in the Western Conference playoff race<\/a>. Yet, despite there now being a clean Lakers injury report, a loss in the Lakers vs. Magic game has the team on a three-game skid. With LeBron James<\/a> back in the lineup, the Lakers need to re-establish their rhythm or they are at risk of losing their favorable seeding for the 2025 NBA playoffs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lakers Could Be In Trouble Despite Clean Injury Report<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Lakers vs. Magic Game\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Lakers lost again on Monday night even with stars LeBron James and Luka Doncic<\/a> in the lineup. Los Angeles started strong, with a 60-58 lead at halftime. Doncic\u2019s 21 first-half points led them into the break. However, the game blew open in the third when Orlando outscored them 34-18. Defensive breakdowns and poor shooting doomed the Lakers. They have now lost seven of their last ten games.<\/span><\/p>\n

Doncic finished with 32 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists but struggled with efficiency, hitting just nine of 23 shots. James added 24 points, seven assists, and six rebounds, while Austin Reaves<\/a> contributed 18 points. Dorian Finney-Smith<\/a> chipped in 14 points, but the Lakers\u2019 bench managed just 14 total points.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lakers Injury Report is Finally Clean<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Although a road loss to a team like the Magic doesn\u2019t seem like a huge deal, these are the types of games that the Lakers need to win down the stretch of the season. The Lakers injury report has been fairly crowded lately, but the team is finally pretty much fully healthy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jaxson Hayes<\/a> has been back for a few games, and this was James\u2019 second game back after a seven-game absence. Just weeks ago, people were claiming that a fully healthy Lakers team might be able to contend for a championship. Their last two games are telling a bit of a different story.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lakers Upcoming Schedule<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The upcoming schedule for the Lakers is going to be tough. They face the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night, who have won five straight games. Then they have a chance at redeeming themselves against the Chicago Bulls (the Lakers were blown out by the Bulls over the weekend). Neither of these teams are considered title contenders, but both are playoff (or Play-In Tournament) bound and won\u2019t be easy outs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, things get even tougher for the Lakers. The Lakers have three straight games against the very teams they are jockeying for position with in the Western Conference playoff race. First, they face the Houston Rockets followed by the Grizzlies and Warriors. Each game should have a playoff feel, and if the Lakers don\u2019t come with their best stuff, they could lose key positioning in the standings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By the end of that five-game stretch we should know a lot more about the Lakers championship chances. Was their hot streak after the Doncic trade<\/a> legitimate? Or are their obvious size and defensive deficiencies destined to doom their championship chances?<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lakers are on a three-game losing streak and the timing isn\u2019t ideal. They are currently sitting as the fourth seed in the Western Conference, but are tied in losses with the Denver Nuggets (third seed) and Memphis Grizzlies (fifth seed). The Lakers also only sit two games above the sixth-seeded Golden State Warriors. Things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":130632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,26,62],"tags":[4556,2272,1962,38,1133],"class_list":["post-130611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-nba","tag-austin-reaves","tag-dorian-finney-smith","tag-jaxson-hayes","tag-lebron-james","tag-luka-doncic"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130611"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130633,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130611\/revisions\/130633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}