Jan. 23, 2026, 6:04 p.m. PT<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> failed to put together their third win in a row on Thursday when they lost to the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a>, 112-104<\/a>. While their defense in the first half was lackluster and a step or two too slow, their offense thruoghout the entire game was arguably just as big a culprit.<\/p>\n They shot a mediocre 45.5% from the field and 33.3% from 3-point range, and only four players got into double figures in scoring for them. Only two of their players \u2014 Luka Doncic and LeBron James \u2014 got over 12 points, and overall, they had a lack of pace, ball movement and player movement.<\/p>\n Coach JJ Redick said that the Lakers didn’t pass the basketball enough, and he also said there wasn’t enough trust. He said that having trust in teammates has to start<\/a> with Luka Doncic.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s gotta be a trust factor with all our guys, just to trust the pass. That starts with Luka, he\u2019s going to have the ball the most of everyone. He\u2019s gotta trust the pass. He\u2019s got two on him, he\u2019s playing in a crowd, he\u2019s gotta pass the ball. And I think as much as we can talk about being connected on defense, you gotta be connected on offense.\u201d<\/p>\n Doncic did score 32 points and had eight assists, but he shot just 11-of-27 from the field and 3-of-13 from 3-point range. When the Lakers don’t move offensively, he ends up taking a lot of tough shots, especially from long range, and while he’s capable of making plenty of those shots, it isn’t a consistent recipe for success.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n Opponents often trap Doncic on the perimeter near the 3-point line and force him to give up the ball. While he does need to trust his teammates \u2014 and he often does \u2014 the other part of the equation is that his teammates need to move into open spots on the floor.<\/p>\n Redick even surmised that the approaching trade deadline could have something to do with the lack of team offense on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it just goes back to the human element of everything. Guys are worried about their futures, and that\u2019s what happens when you\u2019ve got a team full of free agents and player options. I think it\u2019s just natural that you\u2019re going to worry about the offense. I\u2019ve been there, you can get in your head a little bit. Oh I\u2019ve played five minutes, haven\u2019t got a shot yet. And that\u2019s a human thing, it\u2019s not anybody\u2019s fault.\u201d<\/p>\n The heart of an eight-game road trip is coming up for Los Angeles. It will face the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> and Chicago Bulls<\/a> on Saturday and Monday, respectively, and both teams will be tougher than their mediocre records may suggest. L.A. also has contests against the potent Cleveland Cavaliers and an excellent New York Knicks team coming up on this trip.<\/p>\n It is natural for players to be a bit distracted near the trade deadline, especially while playing for a team such as the Lakers that needs to make a trade or two in order to become a contender. But the court needs to be their sanctuary during that time, and they need to leave their concerns behind when they step onto the hardwood for battle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 23, 2026, 6:04 p.m. PT The Los Angeles Lakers failed to put together their third win in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[72400,7,559,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6,53093,72522,72404,72440,72464,76117,72546,72413,72689,73132,72666,72406,72403],"class_list":["post-557236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-clippers","tag-accessfree","tag-basketball","tag-clippers","tag-la","tag-la-clippers","tag-laclippers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesclippers","tag-nba","tag-sstssportsnba","tag-sstsnnba","tag-tagbasketball","tag-tagchicago-bulls","tag-tagdallas-mavericks","tag-tagj-j-redick","tag-taglebron-james","tag-taglos-angeles-clippers","tag-taglos-angeles-lakers","tag-tagluka-doncic","tag-tagoverall-negative","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115948805553654206","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}