I asked Luke Walton the other night if he thought that their disastrous, 133-96 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder was an outlier, from an effort perspective. While that performance didn’t sit well with him, he thought that it was.
I disagree. The Lakers aren’t playing hard, and haven’t been for several games. It shows on tape.
There has been a precipitous drop in the Lakers’ effort level since Christmas Day, and it has raised red flags amongst those of us who love them. Even the ever-unflinching Darius is worried that the well may be poisoned from within.
In this installment of Laker Film Room, I don’t provide much analysis, frankly. I had about 12 minutes of footage of players not giving the requisite effort in the 6 games since Christmas Day, which is entirely too much. I trimmed that down to highlight the main offenders and edited out those who weren’t habitually bad and/or likely won’t be playing much going forward. This need to change.
The goal of Laker Film Room is to provide Lakers fans with consistent, thoughtful content that helps you enjoy the game on a deeper level. I’m able to do that because I don’t work for a publication that demands that I cover the most sensational material, which typically gets the most views and clicks. As a result, I rely on the support of Lakers fans to help me produce my work. If you believe in what I do, please considering support my work on either Venmo or Patreon.