On Saturday evening, the Los Angeles Lakers continued their losing ways with a blowout road loss at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers. The Lakers were playing without several key pieces, including Luka Doncic, in this one, but it was still a disappointing performance, dropping their record to 24-16 in the process.
After the game, head JJ Redick played the excuses card in the aftermath of Los Angeles' latest defeat.
“This has been like the normal all season…you get one guy healthy, another guy gets injured, you get one guy back, another guy gets injured, two guys go out so now you play without your two centers. Just been our season,” said Redick, per Oh No He Didn't on X, formerly Twitter.
The Lakers have dealt with their fair share of injuries this season, with LeBron James missing the opening chunk of the season, Austin Reaves now having been sidelined for multiple weeks, and Doncic also missing a few games here and there throughout the 2025-26 campaign.
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Still, even when fully healthy, many skeptics have poitned to the Lakers' lack of viable two-way players as a reason to not take them seriously as threats in the Western Conference, and they have started to fall back down to Earth over the last few weeks after a hot start to the season.
Prior to the loss in Portland, Los Angeles had gotten blown out by the Charlotte Hornets at home. Amazingly, the Hornets now have a higher net rating than the Lakers this season, who are currently number 18 in that department in the league, adding further fuel to their idea that their record is a bit misleading at best.
In any case, the Lakers will look to have some of their key players back in the lineup when they next take the floor on Sunday evening for a home game against the Toronto Raptors.