Lakers can’t overcome a season-high 24 turnovers in loss to the Knicks.
After coming off arguably their best win of the season the Lakers came into tonight’s matchup against the Knicks with a different energy. The Lakers committed a season-high 24 turnovers falling to the New York Knicks 111–96, moving their season record to 33–21. The Lakers are 3–3 so far in the first 6 games of a 7 game road trip as they still remain in 5th place in the Western Conference. Lakers Dennis Schröder described tonight’s loss to the Knicks as disappointing, saying: “We all got to do better.”
You have to give credit to the New York Knicks, who made it disruptive all night for the Lakers on defense and capitalized on their mishaps on the offensive end scoring 29 points off of 24 Lakers turnovers. Despite only shooting 18.5% from the three-point arc the Knicks were still able to knock out the defending NBA champs behind the huge performance from all-star Julius Randle. In 38 minutes, the former Laker Julius Randle had a game-high 34 points and 10 rebounds on 13 of 23 (56.5%) shooting from the field goal helping lift this Knicks squad over his former team.
The Lakers completely lost the rebounding battle tonight, giving up 15 offensive rebounds to the Knicks with the Lakers adding a season-low 4 offensive rebounds. The Lakers were completely out-rebounded tonight with the Knicks finishing with 47 rebounds to the Lakers 33. The Lakers finished with 43.8% (35–80) total from the field and 33.3% from the perimeter shooting 12 for 36. Head coach Frank Vogel spoke on the Lakers struggles of their season-high 24 turnovers saying:
“Really poor passing and some bad decisions. You have to credit the [Knicks] defense. As good as we were offensively two nights ago we were just as bad tonight. We had 24 turnovers and had our shot blocked 9 times which we count as turnovers.”
The Lakers turnovers in the previous 4 games:
Vs. NYK: 24
Vs. Nets: 14
Vs. MIA: 22
Vs. TOR: 21
The Knicks executed tonight’s game plan to do whatever they could defensively to keep Lakers center Andre Drummond from scoring. They Doubled him on almost every possession when he touched the ball in the post, forcing him to make dangerous skip passes as Drummond finished with 4 turnovers. In 25 minutes of action, Andre Drummond finished with 3 points and 10 rebounds on 1 of 3 (33.3%) total from the field. Frank Vogel spoke about getting Drummond familiar with their system, saying: “We have to do it as fast as possible, we have to integrate him into our system as quickly as we can. It’s not going to be perfect, we’re expecting that.”
After combing for 81 points in Saturday’s big win over the Nets the Lakers starting unit combined for 67 points with 4 of the Lakers starting 5 scoring in double figures. Starting point guard Dennis Schröder led the way with a Lakers high 21 points on 7 of 13 (53.8%) shooting from the field and added 6 assists on the night. Markieff Morris was second in scoring for the Lakers with 17 points on 3 of 6 (50%) shooting from three and 7 of 11 (63.6%) shooting from the field. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope finished with 12 points 5 of 10 (50%) total and 2 of 4 (50%) shooting from the perimeter. The Lakers welcomed back Kyle Kuzma to the lineup after missing the previous two games due to a calf strain. In his game back Kuzma finished with 14 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 blocks while going 5 for 13 (38.4%) total from the field.
The Lakers bench had another quiet night, making noise scoring only 29 total points in tonight’s loss. Talen Horton-Tucker led the way for the bench with 10 points on 4 of 9 (44.4%) shooting from the field in 22 minutes of action. After having a scorching night shooting from three against the Nets Ben McLemore finished with 8 points on a not-so-hot 2 for 7 (28.5%) from the three-point arc. A huge surprise came from one of the Lakers most consistent players this season, Montrezl Harrell. Harrell finished with a season-low of 0 points on 0 for 4 total shooting in 15 minutes of action.
The Lakers will travel to Charlotte tomorrow for the second night of a back-to-back against the Hornets for the 7th game of their 7 game road trip. The Charlotte Hornets are currently in the 6th seed in the East with a record of 27–25. Tomorrow’s matchup will be a fun matchup to watch as both teams try to stay afloat in the standings.