5 Lakers to Blame for Embarrassing Stretch

The Los Angeles Lakers lost three straight and seven of their last nine games to fall to 12-11 for the season. It is increasingly becoming clear that the issues plaguing the Lakers were larger than Darvin Ham or coaching.

Early on in the season, there was a lot of optimism around new head coach JJ Redick. That quickly went away as the Lakers fell back to their old habits, including a lack of effort and discipline on both ends of the floor.

When you suffer multiple embarrassing blowout losses in the last week like the Lakers did, there is usually plenty of blame to go around.

The biggest disappointment for the Lakers this season is their defensive performance. They currently allow 118 points per 100 possessions, the fifth-worst mark in the league. For a team that has Anthony Davis as their anchor, that is a disastrous ranking.

It's not like the Lakers are setting the world on fire offensively. They score 114.6 points per 100 possessions, good for the 12th-best mark in the league.

Considering that the team has generally been very healthy other than Austin Reaves, this paints a bleak picture. Let's try to dig deeper and see who is the most to blame.

D'Angelo Russell

This is a no-brainer. As has often been the case for D'Angelo Russell teams, the scoring guard was recently benched in favor of a more defensive-minded guard. Gabe Vincent took over the starting role against the Hawks on Friday but couldn't fix the Lakers' problems.

Russell's defensive woes are well-documented at this point. He offers little intensity, questionable effort, and non-existent athleticism. This requires him to make up for this on the offensive end and he hasn't been able to do that this season.

After shooting over 40% from three last season, Russell is down to 33.1% from downtown this year. He is having a wildly inefficient season, even for his standards, making him difficult to play in a larger role other than as an instant scorer off the bench.