The Lakers’ play-in hopes are hanging by a thread, but it was impossible to detect any real urgency from the team’s performance against Dallas on Tuesday. And that poses a few questions for the “I Love Basketball” crew on this week’s episode.
The first of those questions is what happened to Frank Vogel’s defense? Sabreena Merchant and Raj Chipalu discussed the team’s failings on that end against Luka Donu010diu0107, specifically a season-long inability to trap ball handlers, which was such a key component of the 2019-20 and 2020-21 Lakers.
The next question was whether a game against the Utah Jazz can be a salve for what currently ails the Lakers, since two of the team’s best showings this season came against the Jazz even when shorthanded.