Injuries - Vando, Gabe, Cam, Rui. Big time contributors. Their absence isn’t nothing and it’s a big deal not having them on the court.

Is the season over? Nope, not by a long shot. We were 5 games under .500 last year at the trade deadline. We ended up making it to the WCF. There’s no reason to give up on the team as of right now.

However, this trend of falling behind quickly in games vs the good teams AND the bad ones is alarming. The fact that the team comes out looking extremely disinterested is alarming. Quite frankly, I’m sick of every post game show/podcast being titled something along the lines of “Lakers blown out” or “Lakers no show.”

The Sixers were healthy outside of Kelly Oubre. They had that going for them. I follow the Sixers semi-closely because I’m a diehard Eagles fan. The Sixers fans don’t have to wonder every game if Embiid is gonna show up. Their starters look energized. When guys are out their bench players step up. They made a great coaching hire in Nick Nurse.

Everything I just mentioned is the opposite over here. We have to cross our fingers on a nightly basis that AD shows up. Our role players look disinterested and confused. I don’t know how to properly evaluate LeBron because I realize that age is a factor, but on some nights he looks disinterested. Darvin was an OK hire, but how come we offered him a contract we weren’t willing to offer Ty Lue?

I don’t know. This loss just felt a little different. Philly is a great sports city. Their teams feed off each other. We don’t have that here. Granted, LA is a transient city that doesn’t share the same sports culture, but it was just hard watching this team mail it in after watching my Eagles bust their asses every week and seeing the Sixers follow suit tonight.

Just give us a reason to care, Lakers.