Nothing went right for the Lakers as the Heat steamrolled them on Wednesday night.
Wednesday’s game was ugly for the Lakers, who were demolished 134-93 on the road against the Heat.
Miami went nuclear from deep, setting an all-time franchise record for 3-pointers made in a game with 24 threes.
LeBron James ended the game with 29 points, eight assists and five rebounds. Anthony Davis struggled again, scoring just eight points with seven rebounds and five assists. D’Angelo Russell notched 10 points with four assists. Rui Hachimura pitched in with 14 points, going six for seven from the field.
LeBron got off to a fiery start, scoring all six of LA’s first points. Miami missed a few shots, but they eventually got going and jumped ahead by eight.
Haywood Highsmith, Duncan Robinson and Tyler Herro knocked down 3-pointers for the Heat.
The Lakers were falling apart with their defensive schemes, leaving Heat players wide open from behind the arc.
Things took a turn for the worse as the Heat went on a 20-3 run and extended their lead to 14. L.A. was also struggling to secure rebounds, with the Heat having 12 to the Lakers’ three.
Los Angeles started to gain some steam and cut the deficit to seven. D’Lo and Rui were up to five points each, shouldering the offensive load. LA was only down eight at the end of the first.
The Lakers allowed 6 offensive rebounds in the 1st Q, the last leading to a 3-pointer from Kevin Love that put Miami up 34-26 after 12 minutes of play.
They managed just 1 of their own, a Max Christie board that got Hachimura an open 3.
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) December 5, 2024
There wasn’t much good happening for the Lakers as they fell behind by 13 to start the second quarter.
Gabe Vincent made a 3-pointer, but nobody else was making good shots. Miami’s lead kept expanding as they continued getting good, open looks.
LeBron was still on fire, up to 16 points with only two missed shots. Another layup by LeBron cut the deficit to 10, forcing a timeout by Miami.
Highsmith drilled a 3-pointer out of the timeout. Miami kept shooting the lights out, pushing their lead to 17. L.A. continued to struggle heavily with their defense, turnovers and rebounding.
At halftime, the Lakers were down 17.
Miami put up 69 first half points on the Lakers, enough for a 17-point advantage, and a big hill for the visitors to try and scale.
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) December 5, 2024
A breakdown in defense, leading to a dunk by Butler, started things off in the second half. AD missed two straight shots, continuing his struggles. The Lakers called a timeout as Miami once again started cooking and extended their lead to 21.
LeBron finally hit a 3-pointer and scored on a midrange shot. After the previous game, in which D’Lo was the only one with offensive firepower, tonight, it was all LeBron.
The threes kept piling for the Heat, as they went 51% from behind the arc. Herro had taken 13 of Miami’s 31 attempts, converting on seven of them. He was on a 9-0 run by himself.
Los Angeles could not find answers for Herro, who kept drilling his threes. Rui was quietly having a great game for himself, only missing one shot, but it didn’t matter for the lifeless Lakers, who looked like a mess as a team.
At the end of the third, the Lakers were down by far too much.
With 8:44 left in the fourth, the purple and gold emptied the bench and called it a night.
Key Takeaways:
Where is the care? What’s going on with this team?
We’ve reached the point in the season when AD is having a stretch of bad games and none of us know what’s happening with him. How will he respond?
It’s very concerning that Dalton Knecht is not getting enough touches after seeing him have such great games. To help get him out of this slump, the Lakers must find ways to get him more looks at the basket.
The Lakers’ next game will be Friday against the Atlanta Hawks at 4:30 PM PT.
You can follow Karin on Twitter at @KarinAbcarians.