Lakers Highlights: Despite Tweaked Starting Lineup, LA Falls To Heat In Slugfest

Your Los Angeles Lakers are officially in a brutal slump.

LA has gone 2-8 across its last ten games after losing to a Jimmy Butler-free Miami Heat club tonight, 110-96, despite playing at home in Crypto.com Arena. 

An ailing LeBron James looked listless (and ditched reporters after the game, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN). Anthony Davis looked great, and it didn't matter one iota. Austin Reaves, making his first start in months, had an okay night, but like much of the team his shot wasn't falling. No one else did much.

Turnovers were the story of the opening quarter. LA had 10, tying a team record for an opening quarter (the record for any Lakers quarter is 12). Happily for the Lakers, the Heat looked entirely out of sorts in the first frame without leader Jimmy Butler available.

Miami made 32% of their field goals in the frame, Los Angeles just 33%.

FG %

Q2:

Jalen Hood-Schifino saw some early minutes at the top of the second quarter.

53-45

45 points on 35.3% field goal shooting. Luckily, the Heat weren't much better, going 15-of-39 from the field for a still-bad 38.5% (5-of-17 from deep).

Season-low points in a half

Season-most TO's in a half (14)

Only 6 FB points

Miami's zone D kept the Lakers out of the paint

Q3:

3-point shooting was a big difference tonight, as both teams struggled to shoot overall, but Miami made way more triples and was able to avoid turnovers.

Darvin Ham, desperate for some offensive juice and missing three rotation guys, gave us lots of Max Christie and Christian Wood minutes. Both responded well. Christie in particular showed that he can do more than shoot corner jumpers -- he can also drive in from those corners for baseline dunks: