LOS ANGELES — April unraveled quickly for the Los Angeles Lakers, and now they’re almost out of time to fix it.
Through the first two games of the month, the Lakers have already matched their March loss total with blowout road defeats in Oklahoma City and Dallas. They also lost Luka Dončić (left hamstring) and Austin Reaves (left oblique) to soft tissue injuries that could cost both the rest of the month. LeBron James sat out Tuesday due to left foot injury management, while starter Marcus Smart missed his eighth straight game due to a right ankle contusion.
Before Tuesday’s 123-87 loss to the Thunder, Lakers coach JJ Redick made it clear his focus had shifted.
“We’ve got to get back to what we did for six weeks, which is being good on both sides of the ball,” he said. “I think that starts with our effort. … you’re not going to be able to guard if you don’t run back.”
Redick also emphasized that this final week of the regular season is no longer about trying to get the best playoff seed possible. The Lakers no longer control their destiny for the third seed with the heater the Denver Nuggets have been on, and the Lakers are on a collision course with the similarly hot Houston Rockets for a 4-5 matchup in the Western Conference first round, with the winner of that series likely taking on the defending champion Thunder in the semifinals.
“You obviously have to tackle the situation in front of you,” Redick said before Tuesday’s game. “We have a unique situation in front of us, and we’ve got to prepare our team, our group, that we’re gonna have available to play in a playoff series. So that’s how we approach the next four games, how we approach next week leading into Game 1.”
Now Redick has to evaluate the roster to see who he can trust. And that process is playing out in real time.
The Thunder blowout Tuesday was punctuated by runs of 14-0, 14-1 and 10-0. Afterward, Redick doubled down: “We’ll play the five that is all-in that day.”
There are 18 players on the Lakers roster. With Dončić and Reaves out, and Drew Timme, Nick Smith Jr. and Chris Mañon (two-way contracts) not postseason eligible, that leaves 13 Lakers competing for the nine rotation spots that Redick needs to figure out. Here’s how that race looks heading into the season’s final days:
Tier 1: The anchor
LeBron James
At 41, he’s still the best player on the Lakers entering the postseason. James can still get it done as a scorer, though the Lakers are 0-4 this season when he attempts more than 20 shots, as he did Sunday at Dallas. This has also been James’ worst 3-point shooting season (30.9 percent) in 10 years, an issue that gets more challenging when he is the focal point of the offense.
Tier 2: Rotation locks
Luke Kennard
Kennard has been a pleasant surprise in a significant role increase over the last two games, compiling 20 assists and only three turnovers in two starts at point guard. He posted his first career triple-double in Dallas. But like James, Kennard’s 3-pointer has gone missing with more touches. In three April games, Kennard has missed 9 of 11 3s.
Marcus Smart
Smart has been missed dearly. When he is on the floor, the Lakers allow only 110.9 points per 100 possessions (equivalent to the fourth-best defense in the NBA). When Smart is off the floor, the Lakers allow 118.0 points per 100 possessions (equivalent to the Milwaukee Bucks’ 25th-ranked defense). Redick says Smart is day-to-day and on track to return later this week. But Redick also admitted that the Lakers thought Smart would be back by now. Smart would be higher here, but he has to actually return.
Jaxson Hayes
Hayes was held out of Tuesday’s loss due to left foot soreness. Of the two Lakers centers, he seems like the more reliable option, which is saying a lot considering he went from starter to DNP-CD by the end of the playoffs last year. Hayes has scored in double-figures in six of the last seven games he’s played, making 84.1 percent of his field goals in that span.
Jake LaRavia
LaRavia has been extremely available for the Lakers. He’s played in every game this season and started every game since Smart went down, averaging at least 17 minutes in each of those eight games. The issue with LaRavia, who will be playing in his first career playoff games this month, is that he struggles on both ends of the floor. He is a 31.2 percent 3-point shooter who struggles to make them off the catch, and the Lakers have been worse on defense with LaRavia on the floor. He plays hard and has great positional size, but he’s the type of player who should have his minutes cut in the playoffs. Instead, he’s going to need to play at least 20 minutes a game.
Tier 3: Called out by Redick but should still play
Rui Hachimura
Hachimura’s shot making has been great all season. He’s a jump shooter who makes 51.3 percent from the field and 43.6 percent from 3. But Redick called a timeout with 9:33 left in the first quarter Tuesday specifically to bench Hachimura for blowing a defensive assignment. Hachimura was supposed to be at the top of the Lakers’ 2-3 zone following a made field goal, and because he wasn’t in position, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got into the paint and lofted a pass inside to Chet Holmgren for a bucket. Rookie Adou Thiero wound up getting an early run, though Hachimura eventually got back into the game and made 7-of-10 shots.
Deandre Ayton
Ayton has started all but seven games in his NBA career, including the playoffs. But this is the first season that he is averaging fewer than 29.5 minutes per game. Ayton’s leash has been short all year. His minutes have decreased each month since December. And just when he appeared to be locked in and playing well in March, he’s back in a strange place. Ayton has only eight rebounds in 62 minutes this month, and Redick repeatedly said after Tuesday’s game that Ayton’s struggles to catch the ball have limited his chances of making more of an impact offensively. It’s a damning statement for a player who needs his teammates to get him touches.
Tier 4: Limited but accountable
Maxi Kleber
Redick threw Kleber into an elimination game last year after he hadn’t played since being included in the Dončić trade. This season, Kleber hasn’t been healthy enough to play more than nine consecutive games, and he can’t really produce anymore at this stage of his career. But Kleber screens well, especially off the ball and in Gortat screen situations, and the Lakers have defended well in his minutes. Kleber closed Sunday’s game alongside Hayes while Ayton was on the bench for the final 18 minutes. The Lakers are 4-1 when Kleber plays at least 19 minutes this season, although all of those games were before the All-Star break.
Tier 5: Uncertain standing
Jarred Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt has been in Redick’s doghouse for much of this season, and those frustrations might be coming to a head. The Lakers called a timeout 16 seconds into the second quarter Tuesday, and Vanderbilt was subbed out, never to return to the game. Redick and Vanderbilt had words at the Lakers bench during that timeout, which Redick downplayed.
In describing Vanderbilt’s benching, Redick said it was “a confluence of things.” Considering Vanderbilt’s last plays were stealing a Gilgeous-Alexander pass, drawing a Gilgeous-Alexander shooting foul that resulted in a failed Thunder challenge (and three missed Vanderbilt free throws) and setting an exit screen on the first play of the second quarter, it was an odd sequence to see Vanderbilt benched permanently. He might need to play in the postseason, but it doesn’t appear that Redick wants him to.
Tier 6: Developmental group
Bronny James
The Lakers have given James a seven-game run in the rotation with Smart out, but the minutes haven’t gone well. James lacks consistent aggression, attempting only two free throws in his last 100 minutes. He has as many turnovers (six) as assists in the last seven games, notably struggling with Cason Wallace’s pressure last week in Oklahoma City. He has more than twice as many fouls (10) as rebounds (four) in that span. He’s been targeted on defense, and he has only made 36.1 percent from the field and 22.2 percent from 3.
Kobe Bufkin
Bufkin got an opportunity to play Sunday. In only 200 first-half seconds, the Lakers were outscored by 14 points in Bufkin’s playing time. The lowlight was Bufkin missing a 3 poorly on one end before Klay Thompson hit a 3 from the opposite wing in front of Bufkin in transition. Bufkin played very well in the G League this season while leading the South Bay Lakers in scoring. He’s the type of player who needs to take advantage of Redick’s open competition.
Adou Thiero
Thiero has obvious athleticism that the Lakers lack; he just hasn’t been healthy enough this season to consistently play. He finally made his first NBA 3-pointer Tuesday, and he drew 10 free-throw attempts. But Thiero’s second 3-point attempt, along with his five missed free throws, showed how far behind he is in his shot development.
Dalton Knecht
Outside of the two-way contracts, Knecht was the last healthy Laker to actually get a chance to play meaningful minutes this month. The only time he scored in double-figures in a win this season was at Minnesota in October. He hasn’t been part of the rotation since that 16-game stint from mid-December through mid-January, which resulted in 36.7 percent field goals, 24.2 percent 3s, a 1:8 assist-turnover ratio, one steal, two blocks, one free-throw attempt in 147 minutes and no trade.
