FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

Lakers president Rob Pelinka announced Wednesday that Tony Bennett, who retired from Virginia in 2024 after a 364-136 record and the 2019 NCAA title, joins as NBA Draft advisor. Bennett’s UVA program produced 13 NBA draftees like De’Andre Hunter and Trey Murphy III, and his high-IQ player development drew praise from Pelinka as a key asset for scouting and drafts. The hire aims to build depth beyond LeBron James and Anthony Davis, with the team eyeing the No. 21 pick in 2026; fans and analysts call it a sharp, outside-the-box addition amid a middling season.

Lakers announce they have hired Tony Bennett as their NBA Draft advisor pic.twitter.com/a3UeDZd6US— Trevor Lane (@TrevorLane) February 25, 2026

ESPN ranks new Lakers draft advisor Tony Bennett as the 6th best college coach over the last 25 yearsGreat news especially ahead of a loaded draft class pic.twitter.com/vnn7vmmMEH— LakersMuse (@LALMuse) February 25, 2026

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

On Sunday, Lakers legend Magic Johnson was at Crypto.com Arena for Pat Riley’s statue unveiling ceremony. And it may not be a one-off appearance. Years after his abrupt departure from the Purple and Gold, Johnson’s relationship with the franchise appears to be on the mend, as new owner Mark Walter ushers in a fresh chapter.

The Los Angeles Lakers officially named Lon Rosen President of Business Operations on February 19. He replaced longtime executive Tim Harris, who had been with the franchise for more than three decades. The new president spoke about the internal changes, with Rob Pelinka continuing his role, and the possibility of the return of long-time friend Magic Johnson.

He told reporters that Magic Johnson will surely be around the franchise, while no official title has been planned for him with the Lakers at the moment. “Earvin is one of the most unique individuals I’ve known in my life, and he’s one of my closest friends,” Rosen said.

“Obviously, he’s a huge fan of the Lakers, but he’s not going to be, ‘Hey, Rob, go sign this player. Do that.’ He’ll always be involved with all the teams that he’s involved in, but no, he’s not going to have day-to-day involvement at all. He is a super Laker fan, and he’ll continue to be a super Laker fan. It’s not bad to have that.”

Rosen even stated that he had known Magic Johnson since they were 19 years old. In fact, his first job was an internship with the Lakers before he went on to be the agent for Johnson. That’s why the new Lakers President of Business Operations trusts the Lakers legend. Although an official title for Magic Johnson is not set, he has more freedom to speak with the front office.

The Lakers legend and former president of basketball operations had abruptly stepped down from his post at the end of the 2018-19 season. When he resigned, he spoke on ESPN and aired his issues about Rob Pelinka and how Harris’ influence was a roadblock. “I didn’t like that Tim Harris was too involved in basketball. He’s supposed to run the Lakers’ business, but he was trying to come over to our side,” Johnson concluded.

With his ties to Walter and Rosen from the Dodgers as well, Magic Johnson can have more honest communication.

Rob Pelinka’s role comes with a caveat

While Rosen safeguarded the Lakers’ general manager, Rob Pelinka’s future, there are some changes related to that front. “I just run the business side, Rob’s empowered to do what he does,” Rosen said. “Look, I have a really good relationship with Rob. I’ve known Rob Pelinka from when he was representing Kobe [Bryant]. I met him many, many years ago.”

While he plans no change for Pelinka, two new advisors will assist the GM. The Lakers hired Farhan Zaidi and Andrew Friedman, two key executives from the LA Dodgers, for advisory roles. The latter is currently the president of baseball operations and was one of Walter’s first hires when he took over the Dodgers in 2014.

In an expected restructuring after the team’s $10 billion sale, owner Mark Walter is now putting his stamp on the franchise. Clearly, moving on from the Buss family structure. How that works in the long run, only time will tell.

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

Another disappointment, this time on the final play

The Lakers’ slide continues. After a loss to a top-tier opponent against the Celtics, they had a chance to redeem themselves against a team closer to their weight class. Instead, despite Orlando missing two of its top three players, the Lakers still came up short, falling 110–109 to the Magic.

This time it wasn’t a blowout loss, but a clutch breakdown. The game was lost on a poorly executed final play with the outcome on the line.

With this loss, the Lakers closed their eight-game homestand at a flat 4–4 and slipped to sixth in the Western Conference instead of climbing the standings.

Today’s notes:

The final possession as a reflection of the Lakers’ offensive disconnect (VIDEO)

Luka’s struggles

With the offense struggling, still not enough attention to detail, especially late

More evidence the old starting five doesn’t fit (VIDEO)

A surprisingly deliberate attempt to punish switching through Ayton (VIDEO)

1-The final possession as a reflection of the Lakers’ offensive disconnect (VIDEO)

The Lakers had a chance to win the game on the final possession, coming out of a timeout with six seconds left. The play was drawn up for Luka Dončić to get an open look off a pin-down screen. Dončić did get it for a split second, but uncharacteristically hesitated and then gave up the ball to LeBron James for a difficult, contested fadeaway three that never had much of a chance.

The final play was the culmination of a rough offensive night for the Lakers, and especially for Dončić, following a pattern we have seen in the last couple of games. None of the three stars were ever really in rhythm, taking turns trying to be aggressive, but also trying to defer to each other.

The result is that, apart from Dončić’s dominant performance against the Clippers, we haven’t seen any of the big three fully in rhythm and at the top of their game in recent matchups. And that proved costly on the final play, where a lack of confidence and comfort showed up as hesitation and a botched execution.

2–Luka’s struggles

Dončić will have to take the blame for another subpar offensive game and, consequently, for the loss. He’s the main engine, the player who takes the most shots, and his shotmaking simply wasn’t good enough last night. Dončić did have a strong playmaking performance, finishing with 15 assists and only two turnovers, but his 8-of-24 shooting, 2-of-10 from three, and five costly missed free throws were not good enough.

Dončić is a rhythm and confidence player, and neither seems to be fully there since he came back from his hamstring injury. After winning Player of the Month for his outstanding play in January, he is averaging just 24.8 points on 40 percent shooting in six February games. That average is skewed by the 10-point outing in 16 minutes before he injured his hamstring against the Sixers, but you still cannot escape the feeling that the games have felt like a slog recently.

The inconsistency — the up-and-down swings between dominant stretches and dry spells — seems more frequent than what we have seen from Dončić in the past. Some of it can probably be attributed to the weird, transitional roster and season. But if Dončić wants to be in the MVP and best-player-in-the-league conversations, he needs to deliver more consistently, even in a non-optimal environment. He has the talent to do so.

Another predictable struggle for Dončić, and to a lesser extent Austin Reaves, is something I wrote about back in January: the NBA adjusting the level of physicality allowed and the resulting drop in free-throw rate.

The NBA’s Free-Throw Decline and What It Means for Luka Dončić and the Lakers
Iztok Franko
·
Jan 15
The NBA’s Free-Throw Decline and What It Means for Luka Dončić and the Lakers
Yesterday, Tom Haberstroh published a detailed piece on Yahoo about the NBA’s sudden free throw decline and the league-wide scoring dip that has followed. It immediately caught my attention, not just because I’ve been following Tom’s work on this topic since 2024, but because this has been sitting in the back of my mind …

Dončić and Reaves were living at the free-throw line earlier in the season, but their free-throw rates have dropped, and I thought last night was a good example of that. There were several attempts to initiate contact without getting the call they felt they deserved, which led to off-balance misses and visible frustration. Both will need to adapt and accept the new reality.

3–With the offense struggling, still not enough attention to detail, especially late

The winning formula for the Lakers this season has mostly been just-good-enough defense paired with good-to-great offense. In recent games, however, despite JJ Redick stating that the effort and defense have been good enough, the Lakers have not found ways to overcome their offensive struggles.

Last night they managed to execute the key part of their defensive plan: keep the Magic in a half-court game and capitalize on their poor shooting. Orlando shot just 6 of 28 from three, a big reason the Lakers were still in the game despite their own offensive struggles. But there were still too many miscommunications on rotations and other breakdowns, especially down the stretch.

The Magic scored on their last three possessions, a sequence that featured:

Paolo Banchero scoring and drawing a foul on Deandre Ayton in isolation for an and-one

A miscommunication between Rui Hachimura and Ayton on who to pick up in transition, resulting in Ayton being late in Banchero’s pick-and-roll coverage and LeBron James overhelping off Desmond Bane, who then drained the spot-up three

Austin Reaves failing to box out Anthony Black, allowing him to get a hand on a contested rebound against three Lakers defenders, with the ball eventually ending up in Wendell Carter Jr.’s hands under the rim for the game-winning field goal

The last missed box-out was crucial, but it was not the only one. The Magic held an overall rebounding edge, resulting in seven more scoring opportunities in a game decided by one possession.

4-More evidence the old starting five doesn’t fit (VIDEO)

Ayton had a very good scoring game (more on that in my next point), which earned him extended minutes, including in crunch time — something we have not seen much of lately. However, Redick did not close with his new starting five featuring Smart, opting instead for the old group with Hachimura.

It is hard to question the decision to go for more shooting with the offense struggling, particularly after Hachimura made a clutch three-pointer with just over two minutes left. Seeing the Hachimura–Ayton pairing together again down the stretch, failing to rotate properly or even pick up the right assignment while setting the defense after a free throw, was another reminder of why the old starting unit, with those two on top of its other limitations, is so hard to trust defensively.

5-A surprisingly deliberate attempt to punish switching through Ayton (VIDEO)

I mentioned Ayton’s big scoring game. He finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds, the kind of monster 20–10 output we saw far more frequently earlier in the season.

The Magic tried different coverages early, but reverted to switching after Ayton caught and finished a couple of lobs from Dončić and James. If there is a positive takeaway from this otherwise disappointing loss, it is the way the Lakers — and specifically Dončić — trusted and fed Ayton to punish mismatches. Dončić can be difficult to convince in these situations, as he often sees attacking the big himself as the better option (which, when he is at his best, usually is). But in this one, he made a deliberate effort to reward Ayton with precise passes after he sealed the smaller defender inside.

Ayton’s experience has been mostly disappointing, but his ability to score and punish switches was one reason I was perhaps delusionally optimistic that his pairing with Dončić could work out, at least offensively. The Lakers do not have many better alternatives than playing Ayton for the remainder of the season, so why not lean more intentionally into his strengths?

Final: Magic 110, Lakers 109LA falls to 34-23. They’re now No. 6 in the West and a full game back of No. 5 MIN. Orlando’s size, athleticism and physicality was the difference. They overpowered LA in the paint and on the glass. Luka had 22/9/15.Up next: at PHX on Thursday.— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) February 25, 2026

Down one point on Tuesday, Luka Dončić got free on an inbounds play but didn’t take the go-ahead shot.That hesitation left LeBron James attempting a falling-out-of-bounds miracle jumper that missed — and the Los Angeles Lakers fell 110-109 to the Orlando Magic. pic.twitter.com/CKHfEhVEzh— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) February 25, 2026

AUSTIN REAVES TONIGHT 🌟 35 minutes 🌟 18 points 🌟 3 assists 🌟 2 rebounds 🌟 6/16 FGHE IS NOT HEALTHY 🤬 pic.twitter.com/AF2T3uz9jV— Lakers Lead (@LakersLead) February 25, 2026

Tonight was the Lakers 1st loss of the season when leading after 3 quartersThey were 25-0 in such games 👀 pic.twitter.com/Bdx5zZUJOA— Lakers Lead (@LakersLead) February 25, 2026

This is the stat of the year and reason #1 I don’t think JJ has what it takes. If you can’t get your team up for the best teams, either in spirit or preparation, you’re just not very good at the basics of the job. Lotta dudes can talk a good game, and maybe that’s what suckers Rob the Agent in, but if you are closing up year 2 and the team looks about the same as the one that got bounced (and it does) the writing’s on the wall.

Yes. Do please consider hustling and save the whining for dead balls.

Hard to disagree but I honestly think the defense can improve. We can ditch switch everything, because it doesn’t put our best defenders in the position to succeed. Since February they lead the league in deploying the Zone (17.6%) and I think they should nudge that even closer to 20%. That allows guys like LeBron, Vando and Smart to play the lanes and get steals for potential transition buckets.

There isn’t a much better offense this team can build as currently constructed. LeBron, Reaves, Luka and Smart are the primary ball handlers and they get assists off of holding the ball. There isn’t a solid system in place. Much like Darvin Ham before him, JJ seems content to let the wattage of his superstars carry the load. He talks a big post game about sharing the rock but we’re well into season 2 and it’s the same package. So the coach isn’t able to, or willing to, adapt. The players won’t change because, to a man, this style has worked at every other stop on their journey.

My opinion is we have 20-24 or so games to build something, there’s 26 games to go and we’d love to get fined by Silver for resting a couple dudes, if at all possible.

The fact is this team has a lotta soft players and a stubborn coach. The defense is awful, we’ve stuck with the same, predictable scheme for just about 2 years now. The zone we use is so much better than our switching, not sure why that’s not the go-to. Vando may be a negative offensive player but he plays twice as hard as just about everyone else not named Smart or LaRavia on D. Yet he barely sees the floor. Not really expecting much more out of the season , at this rate I’ll be astounded if we make the conf. Finals but you never know. No way we best Boston or Detroit in a 7 game series so it all feels kinda moot.

19 of the 26 games left are against teams with winning records. After 15-4 start, Lakers went 19-18. If they lose 19 of the next 26 games, they will finish at 41-41, the ultimate .500 team.

Pressure from whom???

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

The Los Angeles Lakers are looking to finish the second half of the season strong and secure a favorable spot in the playoffs. However, it has been an up-and-down year for Los Angeles. For LeBron James, the bigger picture is his potential options this offseason.

“Cleveland is one of them. I’m not sure I’d put the Heat on the list. Golden State depending on how things go would be one. There’s a place of two that I won’t say right now that I’m keeping my eye on… I have a team or two that I think he could consider going to and I have researched the concept and I will continue to keep my eye on the concept,” Brian Windhorst said on the Rich Eisen Show.

If this is indeed his final season, James wants to be part of a contender.

“LeBron wants to compete for a championship,” James’ agent Rich Paul told ESPN. “He knows the Lakers are building for the future. He understands that, but he values a realistic chance of winning it all. We are very appreciative of the partnership that we’ve had for eight years with Jeanie [Buss] and Rob [Pelinka] and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career.”

On the court, head coach JJ Redick believes the Lakers need to share the ball more to maximize their potential.

“That’s, again, it’s something we talk about all the time. We’re a better basketball team. We win more games if we have more potential assists. And get more assists,” Redick said after a loss to the Boston Celtics.

With Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, and James on the floor, ball movement shouldn’t be an issue. Yet, for some reason, the ball is sticking in one spot longer than usual when the Lakers are dropping games.

When all three stars are working together and moving the ball effectively, the Lakers become a formidable force. The team’s main challenge is finding consistency in connecting with one another on the court.

The next time JayJay takes any personal accountability for these failures will be the first time he does it. That’s why I love Rams Head Coach Sean McVay’s coaching style. He constantly protects his team and says he & his staff needs to do better. JayJay should reach out to him…

Jamie, you nailed the core of it, and honestly the most frustrating part is how predictable this kind of performance has become. On a night that should’ve been dripping with pride and edge—Riley’s statue going up, the building buzzing, the Celtics in the house—we somehow managed to look like the team least interested in being there. That’s the part that stings.

What bothered me most wasn’t even the missed calls or the bad shooting stretches. It was the complete absence of urgency. Boston came in undermanned and still played like a group that understood the moment. We played like a group that assumed the moment would just hand itself to us. That’s not a contender’s mentality; that’s a team hoping talent alone will bail them out.

And you’re right about the whining. It’s one thing to be frustrated, but when the complaining becomes the identity of the team, it’s a problem. The Celtics were bumping, pressing, scrapping, and we responded by looking at the refs for sympathy. That’s not the DNA of a team that wants to make noise in May.

Smart and Ayton… man. I wanted both of those guys to be tone‑setters, but right now they’re setting the wrong tone. Smart’s supposed to be the emotional thermostat, but lately he’s either ice‑cold or boiling over. And Ayton—how do you have that size, that skill, and still disappear for entire quarters? It’s maddening.

Reddick getting out-coached was another tough look. Boston dictated the pace, dictated the matchups, dictated the physicality. We just absorbed it. Riley’s statue is outside now, but the spirit of Riley-ball was nowhere near the floor.

And Reaves… I love the guy, but if Payton Pritchard is outworking you on both ends for 48 minutes, that’s a wake-up call. Not a “shrug it off” night. A wake-up call.

The saddest part is your last point: LeBron. He deserved a team that rises to big moments, not one that shrinks from them. Nights like this make it feel like we’re wasting whatever is left of his greatness.

There’s still time to turn it around, sure—but at some point the “time” argument becomes a crutch. This team has to decide who it wants to be. Because right now? It’s exactly what you said: slow, soft, and heartless. And that’s not a reflection of talent—it’s a reflection of mindset.

If last night didn’t embarrass them into some self-reflection, I don’t know what will.

We’re simply not a very good basketball team. We’re not a few minor adjustments away from becoming a contender. And it gets exposed just about every time we run up against a true contender.

Man, DJ, you’re preaching to the choir. Last night felt like watching a team stuck between who they think they are and who they actually showed up as. The loose balls alone had me ready to walk onto the court and dive for them myself. And the 3‑point shooting? At this point I’m convinced the rim filed a restraining order.

Ayton… look, I want to believe, but you’re right—he moves like he’s buffering. And Smart? He’s either the spark plug or the unplugged lamp. No middle ground.

But here’s the thing: this team has too much talent to keep sleepwalking through games like this. The pieces are there. The identity just isn’t. Yet.

So where are the Lakers? They’re in there somewhere, buried under the turnovers, the missed rotations, and the ‘my bad’ hand taps. But when they finally decide to wake up and play with some urgency, some pride, some actual fire—may be we can watch out.

Until then, though? Yeah… we’re all just sitting here like, ‘Hello? Lakers? You coming out or nah?’”

Smart is just too old snd thinjs he’s Steph Curry. Shoulda kept Jordan Goodwin…

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

The Lakers blitzed to a hot 15-4 start to the season that included some impressive wins. They managed to hand the Spurs their second loss of the season and stole a win against the Blazers while extremely shorthanded in a game where Nick Smith emerged as the unlikely hero.

This start is now all but forgotten. Although they’re 34-22, they’re essentially in a five-way tie for third place in the West. What differentiates them from that morass is that they’re the only ones without a positive net rating. The consensus view on them is that they’re not a true title contender due to their lack of defensive personnel.

There are a couple of positives to take away from that start. Austin Reaves has emerged as an All-Star-level player who complements Luka Doncic similarly to how Kyrie Irving did in Dallas. Also, JJ Redick continues to consistently dig deep in the rotation for solutions to get the Lakers playing above their weight. At the very least, he’s proven to be a strong floor-raising coach, and that’s valuable for a team with as many flaws as this Lakers roster has.

The trade deadline passed without a move to address their lack of rim protection or point-of-attack defenders. In most years, there are high expectations for the Lakers to do something at the trade deadline and improve the roster before being mostly inactive. This year was the first time in a while that there was an expectation that the Lakers would likely stand pat despite having a superstar in his prime.

The lone Lakers trade this month was acquiring Luke Kennard from the Hawks for Gabe Vincent and a second-round pick. The sharpshooter is yet another weapon for one of the more lethal offensive teams when fully healthy. But acquiring a player who might not play more than 8 minutes in a playoff game, when Doncic and Reaves are likely getting close to 40 a night, doesn’t raise their title odds. It felt like a move made just for the sake of making one.

The Lakers were able to make this trade due to their limited assets. They were only able to trade one first-round pick and one second-round pick ahead of the trade deadline. They now have zero second-round picks, largely fueled by trading three for Dorian Finney-Smith and one to get off Jalen Hood-Schifino last season.

It’s been telegraphed for nearly a year now that the Lakers are keeping their powder dry and maximizing cap flexibility to reshape the roster. The acquisition of Doncic renewed their present and future, but the rest of the roster wasn’t equipped for him. Their quickest path to acquiring the best types of players to surround him with is with cap space.

Yes.

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

Instead of a statement win, another statement loss.

This was supposed to be the night when the Lakers showed they could do it. That they could beat the best teams.

Fully healthy. Biggest rival. National TV. The unveiling of Pat Riley’s statue before the game. Instead of a Showtime flashback in front of its architect, the Lakers delivered another no-show.

This was another disappointing blowout, a 111–89 loss to the Boston Celtics, in a season defined by uncompetitive performances against elite opponents. The Lakers looked overmatched again, adding another entry to a long list of noncompetitive breakdowns against the league’s best. A list that includes losses to the Boston Celtics twice, the Oklahoma City Thunder twice, the San Antonio Spurs twice, as well as the Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets, Phoenix Suns, New York Knicks, and Cleveland Cavaliers.

Today’s notes:

Failure of shotmaking and lack of backup solutions

Base defense good enough, attention to detail not

High-profile Luka breakdowns, low-profile strong point-of-attack defense (VIDEO)

When shots and calls don’t go the Lakers’ way

Ayton and Smart low-floor games

1-Failure of shotmaking and lack of backup solutions

If you want a simple reason why the Lakers lost this one, it’s shotmaking. They followed up one of their best offensive games of the season against the Clippers with one of their worst against the Celtics, posting a 45.3 percent effective field goal percentage, their second-worst mark of the season.

Lakers lowest scoring outputs this season (source: Cleaning the Glass)

None of their three stars had a good shooting night. Neither did the role players. The Lakers never found any offensive rhythm, which suggests the diagnosis might be more complicated than simply saying the shots didn’t fall.

In the preview, I highlighted Boston’s clarity of vision. Last night was system versus star power, and system won. The Lakers, for the most part, rely on their three stars to win games through talent and shotmaking. But on off nights, they do not have the cohesion or the system to bail them out.

Boston, like the Suns and the Spurs before them, opened the game in a conservative drop scheme, aiming to contain the Lakers’ stars in one-on-one and two-on-two situations. The Lakers’ three stars took turns trying to crack it, but they simply did not make enough shots to force Joe Mazzulla into adjustments or push the Celtics out of their comfort zone.

Luka Dončić, LeBron James and Austin Reaves combined to shoot 22 of 53, just 41.5 percent. Dončić could not find his touch inside the arc, especially in the in-between spaces that are so crucial against drop coverage. James missed a couple of layups and went 1 of 5 from three. Reaves had an odd, low-usage night where his opportunities were far too rare, and he struggled to convert when he did get them.

Again, sometimes it really can be as simple as making enough shots to force adjustments. But we have seen the Lakers get sucked into a your-turn, my-turn style of attack against this coverage too many times not to recognize the pattern. When the individual approach is not working, they need a better systemic response.

2-Base defense good enough, attention to detail not

If there is one silver lining, it is this: the defense was not the main culprit. Against one of the league’s most efficient offenses, the Lakers were competitive on that end. As Redick put it, “We did enough defensively…we were just awful offensively tonight.”

The problem for the Lakers was that because the offense was so pedestrian, their margin for error became razor thin. They could not afford even the smallest breakdowns. And unfortunately, they had a few.

One of the key points in the scouting report against Boston is that they crash the glass from the wings. Yet the Lakers still gave up a couple of costly offensive rebounds that led to dagger threes from Payton Pritchard. They also had a few transition breakdowns, failing to contain the ball and giving up easy baskets. In a game played in the trenches, those details make all the difference.

3-High-profile Luka breakdowns, low-profile strong point-of-attack defense (VIDEO)

Luka Dončić’s defensive performance was the epitome of the Lakers’ good-effort, costly-couple-of-mistakes game. Poor shotmaking and a couple of high-profile breakdowns, arguing a missed call and of course being called out by Reggie Miller for not running back to prevent a layup, are always going to be part of the Luka discourse whenever Miller calls his games. Getting caught off guard by Hugo González’s cut on a sideline out-of-bounds play was the much bigger breakdown.

It is unfortunate because this was otherwise a very good defensive game by Luka Dončić. In my view, he was the best Laker last night when it came to staying in front of Boston’s two main scoring threats, Jaylen Brown and Payton Pritchard. Brown shot 2 of 9 on attempts defended by Dončić, compared to 8 of 19 against everyone else. Overall, Boston shot 7 of 19 (37 percent) with Dončić as the closest defender.

The Lakers needed Dončić to be the best shotmaker, and he wasn’t. Pritchard got that title, at least for one night. But Dončić at least showed Redick a reference point for what he can be when locked in defensively, especially in terms of staying in front of the ball.

4-When shots and calls don’t go the Lakers’ way

If the Lakers got a couple of favorable breaks in their last game, they ended up on the wrong side of a few missed calls in this one.

A couple of missed offensive fouls on push-offs by Brown and Pritchard resulted in open buckets. A missed Brown elbow on a drive against Smart. And two obvious goaltends that were not called, one of them leaving Redick in disbelief even after the game, worse, turning into a big five-point swing. All of that culminated in visible frustration and three technical fouls assessed to Reaves, Smart, and Redick.

Dan Woike
@DanWoikeSports
Luka Dončić was asked about the Lakers’ three techs for arguing calls Sunday. “You’re surprised it wasn’t me, huh?” he replied. “Then you know it’s bad.”
7:55 PM · Feb 22, 2026 · 8.32K Views
12 Reposts · 250 Likes

The Lakers managed to battle through missed shots and bad breaks in the first half, but as both continued in the second, it felt like they lost the composure and confidence to keep fighting, and the game turned into another collapse. Another recurring theme in their defeats against elite teams.

5-Ayton and Smart low-floor games

When the Lakers finally got fully healthy and rolled out Smart and Ayton in the starting unit alongside their big three in Game 55, the general consensus was that this was the long-overdue right move. However, last night we saw that even if this is probably the best option, there is a downside to relying so heavily on two players who were signed on the cheap off the buyout market in the summer. The Lakers’ three stars struggling to score was the main problem, but the other two starters scoring just four points on 2-of-13 shooting provided little of the much-needed relief.

Smart has been a feel-good story, staying relatively healthy and making an impact with his hustle and defense. But the floor of his bad games is very low. This was the second game this season in which he played more than 20 minutes and failed to score. Smart has had several huge moments, coming up big in key stretches, including the win against the Clippers. But there have also been plenty of nights when he simply cannot buy a bucket, and teams start to disregard him. Boston even defended him with a center in the fourth quarter, which made life even more difficult for the primary creators.

If Smart has ups and downs, with Ayton it feels like the low- or no-impact games have become the norm over the last couple of months. I don’t know if it’s a lack of touches, involvement, or just confidence, but even the element of his game that made Ayton a success early in the season — his elite touch — seems to have deserted him lately. He’s missing the short hooks and floaters that were automatic early in the season, and when those shots are not falling, the other parts of his game tend to crumble as well. Last night, that meant being outworked on the glass by Neemias Queta, who posted 12 rebounds, four offensive boards, and three blocks, while Ayton managed just one rejection. Ayton’s low-energy night was even more problematic because the other big man, Jaxson Hayes, played only five first-quarter minutes before leaving the game with an ankle injury. And the Lakers, especially Dončić, really missed his preferred lob partner to make the Celtics’ big men more uncomfortable in drop coverage.