Although it certainly felt like it at several points, the Lakers’ Tuesday loss to the Bucks was nowhere near rock-bottom, or even something out of the ordinary. It was just the latest example of issues that have ailed the team all year.
The club’s defense continues to hemorrhage points, their effort level waxes and wanes, and the relative failure of the Russell Westbrook experiment is still the talk coming out of nearly every postgame presser. The latter occurred yet again following Westbrook sitting out the entirety of the fourth quarter, in which the Lakers made a late run to close the gap.