On Wednesday night, the Los Angeles Lakers suffered arguably their most humiliating defeat of the season, as they gave up 10 unanswered points in overtime and lost to the Houston Rockets, the worst team in the Western Conference.
It seems like every couple of weeks the Lakers lose another game that could be called their “worst defeat of the season,” hasn’t it?
The many causes for their poor play are widespread: Russell Westbrook’s inconsistent play, the multiple injuries LeBron James and Anthony Davis have dealt with, poor roster construction and perhaps a lack of confidence or urgency, just to name a few.
But there is another culprit that has become more and more glaring in recent weeks, and that is head coach Frank Vogel’s insistence on playing small, sometimes ultra-small lineups.
Such lineups are perhaps the biggest reason why the Lakers are such a poor defensive team and why they have such problems limiting their opponents to one shot.