Lakers try to group after her catastrophic 0-4 road trip in Los Angeles

Denver – “It was all a week ago.”

In his debriefing after the aftermath of Los Angeles Lakers’s 20-point defeat against the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday, coach JJ Redick Jay-Z’s song “A a week ago” quoted his team. The news should remind his group that on March 7, when they traveled to the east for a road trip with four games, were high on a winning streak with eight games and had been one of the best teams in the league for almost two months.

A week later, the road trip ended a bitter disaster. The Lakers went 0-4 and have since dropped to 5th place in the Western Conference classification from No. 2. LeBron James suffered a groin injury that keeps him away until next week, if not longer.

Redick excluded the efforts, communication and focus of the team after an embarrassing loss of Brooklyn Nets on Monday. They could hardly set their rotation until the end of their trip.

The cherry at the top was when it looked as if the Shorthanded Lakers-Six of the eight best players in James, Luka Dončić, Rui Hachimura, Jaxson Hayes, Dorian Finney-Smith and Gabe vincent-after west and wanted to shock the Denver Nuggets and started the last games of the road trip. However, some Miscues led to an 8-0 run from Denver in the last 48 seconds to get the game. The nuggets defeated the exhausted Lakers at five on Friday and sent the Lakers home with an acid taste in the mouth.

This trip should be a measurement floor for the Lakers, with matchups against three of the elite teams of the league in mid-March. Instead, it was a trip that would rather forget.

“We went 0-4, so it’s a pretty bad journey,” said Austin Reaves. “But S – -said JJ a week ago:” All, Lakers in five. “We just don’t listen to it.

“I think (Friday) was the greatest evidence.

Before losing the bucks, the Lakers James, Hachimura, Hayes and Maxi Kleber sent back to Los Angeles to rest and relax. Redick called James, Hachimura and Hayes “everyday life”, although he also found that they could return to one week within the next three days: “If not a little longer than that for a man.” This player seems to be James even though Redick has not specified.

Three days after Friday, the trio from the game on Sunday against Phoenix and possibly the game on Monday would be off against San Antonio off-switch-out games that suddenly won for the Lakers if they want to avoid No. 6 Golden State and No. 7 Minnesota who are on their heels.

One of the silver lines of performance on Friday was the opportunity to have several players, including Reaves (37 points, eight rebounds, 13 assists and four steals) and Dalton Knecht (32 points, his second highest number of the season). These two wore the crime, but also had help from Shake Milton (16 points), Jarred Vanderbilt (nine points, seven rebounds, seven assists and three steals), Jordan Goodwin (10 points and six rebounds) and Christian Koloko (eight points and seven rebounds). Bronny James played 16 minutes in the first season and looked confident and comfortable with the group.

“I think if you want to do a long playoff run, it is like another third of the season and (with) the intensity of the playoff games, every possession is important,” said Redick Pregame. “You may have hit boys in the playoffs and someone who is not in a playoff rotation you have to win a basketball game (Friday).

After the game, Redick confirmed that several players deserved increased confidence in the coaching team.

“It is certainly a point of reference,” he said on Friday. “Trust is also retained and maintained if it is consistent.

At the same time, there is no moral victories for the Lakers so late in the season. They have proven that the group can compete with almost anyone after January and belong in the conversation discussion as soon as they come past Boston, Oklahoma City and Cleveland. Your standards are higher; They expect the networks, dollars and nuggets to beat without James – or anything else – no matter how delusible it looks from the outside.

The Lakers sweep back to Los Angeles for a home state with five games, although it is not as pleasant as it sounds when you consider that they play two sets of two back-to-backs-the first starts on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. PT, about 36 hours after they came back from their nine-day road trip. The Lakers organize the Suns and Spurs in a back, then the nuggets and goats in a back on back before they close the home state with a game against the Chicago Bulls. Then it is back on the street for a four-game trip to Orlando, Indiana, Chicago and Memphis.

James’ absence is great, especially with the nuggets and goats on the slate. According to the tankathon, the Lakers have the remaining schedule for the sixth harbor, and every game that James misses is one that they can theoretically lose. Potential to get Hachimura and Hayes back should help strengthen their mined front square and add size, length and sportiness. The Lakers both sorely missed.

In the meantime, the Lakers only try to stay above the water in the dangerous west. Redick rejected the premise of aiming for an advantage of the home square, and said the goal was to just get into the post -season.

“We have to find a way to get into the playoffs, and that’s my focus,” said Redick. “We have to achieve further victories to be in the playoffs.”

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(Photo by Austin Reaves: Isaiah J. Downing / Imagn Images)