The Los Angeles Lakers recently made a huge change to their starting lineup against the Oklahoma City Thunder as they demoted D’Angelo Russell to a bench role.
Although the Purple and Gold’s strategy worked against the Thunder, it failed against the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day.
The Lakers suffered a 126-115 defeat at the hands of the Celtics with the same lineup as they did against the Thunder.
Speaking of the starting lineup, NBA analyst Jovan Buha revealed the disastrous side of it via his official Twitter handle.
Lakers’ new starting lineup in 18 minutes:
– 105.0 offensive rating (worse than 30th-ranked Spurs)
– 125.0 defensive rating (worse than 30th-ranked Wizards)
– -20.0 net rating (worse than 30th-ranked Spurs)
– 40.0 eFG%
– 46.8 TS%Minuscule sample size but it’s been a disaster.
— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) December 26, 2023
The new starting lineup of the Lakers has played just 18 minutes so far but has a league-wide worst offensive and defensive rating.
On top of that, the Lakers also have a -20.0 net rating, which is again the worst in the NBA.
Sure, the Lakers haven’t really used the new lineup for a lot of minutes, but coach Darvin Ham needs to ensure he makes a good rotation strategy to make it useful for the remainder of the season.
Despite losing the Christmas Day matchup against the Celtics, the Lakers are still the ninth seed in the Western Conference with a 16-15 record.
The Purple and Gold still have a chance to salvage something good from the remainder of the regular season.
After all, the dynamic duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis is still present on the roster and has the potential to make a stunning comeback over the remaining games.
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