The Lakers are struggling in January, despite Doncic

Some of the old hands may remember the Hornets’ visit to Crypto.com Arena to face the Lakers. Against the backdrop of Luka Doncic’s recent arrival in California – and a canceled trade between the two franchises – Charlotte scraped together an improbable road win that pleased their fan base, even if it did little to alter their standing in the Eastern Conference. History, it seems, is bound to repeat itself. Another season drifting aimlessly under Charles Lee, and one of the roughly 15 wins they are likely to post will again come in this building.

In a defensive farce starring J.J. Redick’s players, the scoreboard read 117–135 by the end of Thursday night into Friday. The coach leaned heavily on his rotation, part wake-up call, part admission that he had run out of buttons to press. A brief surge lit up the faces of the home crowd, dreaming of the comeback of the season, until LaMelo Ball delivered two decisive blows that drained the Lakers to the final buzzer.

The Hornets simply identified the weaknesses and pressed on them. They finished with 15 more rebounds and knocked down 20 shots from beyond the arc. The Lakers are struggling badly to recover physically – and this has been happening for a while – and their previous win over the Hawks now looks like a mirage. Heavy legs told the story. They were ineffective on the glass and slow closing out shooters in the game dissected here.

Doncic once again gave everything offensively, pouring in 39 points on an impressive 15-of-26 shooting, but his passes found little reward. Not so at the other end, where the Hornets racked up 34 assists to the Lakers’ 18, playing with far greater flow. It didn’t help that the two main shooting guards produced these three-point numbers: Smart went 1-for-5, Vincent 0-for-5. The Slovenian’s frustration was evident. Alongside him, LeBron James delivered a solid outing, with LaRavia and Ayton also contributing.

The Lakers have already faced three back-to-backs to open the calendar year, with another still to come this week. After that, an eight-game road trip awaits – one of the toughest stretches, if not the toughest, on their schedule. The strain is showing in stark contrast to earlier weeks. But at home, against these Hornets, it should be enough. January, however, has shown no mercy: they are suffering.

Other NBA results from the night:

• Magic 118 – Grizzlies 111
• Pistons 108 – Suns 105
• Mavericks 144 – Jazz 122
• Blazers 117 – Hawks 101
• Warriors 126 – Knicks 113
• Heat 114 – Celtics 119
• Rockets 91 – Thunder 111
• Spurs 119 – Bucks 101

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Los Angeles Lakers

Stats

23 LeBron James
12 Jake LaRavia
5 Deandre Ayton
77 Luka Dončić
36 Marcus Smart
6 Kobe Bufkin
28 Rui Hachimura
9 Bronny James Jr.
14 Maxi Kleber
4 Dalton Knecht
3 Nick Smith Jr.
17 Drew Timme
2 Jarred Vanderbilt
7 Gabe Vincent

Stats

	Min	Pts	TR	OR	DR	Ast	Los	Rec	Blk	S1	S2	S3	RF	CF	Val
23 LeBron James	32	29	9	2	7	6	3	2	1	6/7	7/13	3/6	0	0	0
12 Jake LaRavia	37	18	3	3	0	3	2	2	0	5/5	2/6	3/4	0	2	0
5 Deandre Ayton	31	12	6	2	4	1	1	1	1	0/0	6/10	0/0	0	1	0
77 Luka Dončić	35	39	3	1	2	4	1	0	0	3/7	9/15	6/11	0	3	0
36 Marcus Smart	32	10	4	0	4	3	0	2	0	3/4	2/4	1/5	0	3	0
6 Kobe Bufkin	16	0	3	1	2	0	1	1	1	0/0	0/1	0/1	0	1	0
28 Rui Hachimura	17	3	1	0	1	1	1	0	1	0/0	0/0	1/4	0	2	0
9 Bronny James Jr.	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	1	0
14 Maxi Kleber	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
4 Dalton Knecht	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/1	0/0	0	0	0
3 Nick Smith Jr.	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/1	0	0	0
17 Drew Timme	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
2 Jarred Vanderbilt	14	6	5	3	2	0	0	0	0	0/0	3/3	0/1	0	0	0
7 Gabe Vincent	15	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/2	0/5	0	4	0

Charlotte Hornets

Stats

0 Miles Bridges
7 Kon Knueppel
14 Moussa Diabaté
1 LaMelo Ball
24 Brandon Miller
21 Pat Connaughton
10 Josh Green
4 Sion James
11 Ryan Kalkbrenner
23 Tre Mann
31 Tidjane Salaün
8 Collin Sexton
2 Grant Williams

Stats

	Min	Pts	TR	OR	DR	Ast	Los	Rec	Blk	S1	S2	S3	RF	CF	Val
0 Miles Bridges	33	25	8	3	5	4	1	0	0	2/2	4/6	5/7	0	1	0
7 Kon Knueppel	32	19	7	1	6	4	0	0	0	2/2	4/5	3/5	0	2	0
14 Moussa Diabaté	30	8	6	3	3	2	3	0	0	0/0	4/5	0/0	0	3	0
1 LaMelo Ball	28	30	6	1	5	11	2	0	1	1/1	1/3	9/17	0	4	0
24 Brandon Miller	39	26	2	1	1	5	3	1	2	6/6	7/13	2/6	0	3	0
21 Pat Connaughton	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
10 Josh Green	13	0	3	1	2	2	0	1	1	0/0	0/1	0/1	0	0	0
4 Sion James	16	9	8	2	6	2	0	0	0	0/0	3/6	1/4	0	4	0
11 Ryan Kalkbrenner	15	9	6	2	4	1	1	0	0	1/2	4/6	0/0	0	1	0
23 Tre Mann	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
31 Tidjane Salaün	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
8 Collin Sexton	13	6	0	0	0	3	2	1	0	0/0	3/4	0/2	0	1	0
2 Grant Williams	13	3	3	0	3	0	0	0	1	3/3	0/0	0/1	0	2	0