Lakers are on the doorstep of some bad history, hoping to avoid a club record-tying 10-game skid
Lakers’ Roy Hibbert (17) has the ball stripped by Clippers’ Chris Paul (3) and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (12) during the first half on Friday.
The Lakers’ young players show the same reaction.
They frown in an animated, taken-aback fashion.
If the Lakers (9-40) lose to Charlotte on Sunday, they tie the franchise record of 10 consecutive defeats.
“Really? The record? Oh my,” rookie D’Angelo Russell said with sad amazement.
The 1993-94 team managed to lose 10 in a row, a rough season with James Worthy and Kurt Rambis on the downside of their careers.
That team cobbled together 33 victories. This team is on pace to win 15, easily the fewest in the Lakers’ 68-year history. The losses have come by an average of 16.6 points since a victory over New Orleans on Jan. 12.
Jordan Clarkson wasn’t thrilled to hear about a possible run with infamy.
“We’re just trying to get this thing together somehow,” he said Friday after the Lakers fell to the Clippers, 105-93.
Mr. Quote
Russell has become the go-to guy on the Lakers for interviews that are humorous or insightful or sometimes both.
It started earlier this month after his 27-point outburst against Sacramento, his “Y’all ain’t seen nothing yet” making the rounds quickly on Twitter as the quote of the day.
After a bad effort Thursday against Chicago, Russell was surprisingly self-critical, sounding nothing like a teenager and everything like a veteran.
He was in line to return to the starting lineup soon, Lakers Coach Byron Scott said before that game, but Russell said the promotion wasn’t warranted.
“The way I’m playing, I don’t think I deserve that,” he said. “I’ve just got to stop being lackadaisical.”
The rookie was similarly down on himself after Friday’s loss. After an eight-game run of double-digit scoring, Russell has scored three and eight points the last two outings.
He’s aware of the criticism sometimes lodged at the second pick in last year’s draft.
“Any time anybody says anything bad about me, that means I’ve got to work,” he said. “LeBron [James] still gets criticism. Jesus still gets criticized.
“My family is my biggest critic and my boys that I keep in my circle, my brothers that live with me. They’re the first ones to tell me, ‘You stunk it up tonight.’”
Russell was more disappointed with his defense Friday than his three-for-10 shooting.
“Don’t take plays off on the defensive end and on the offensive end, don’t be nonchalant,” he said. “No player in this league is nonchalant. They might be really, really good and they look like they’re playing nonchalant but they’re not. Me at this point, I tend to be nonchalant at times.”
Up next for the Lakers:
vs. the Charlotte Hornets
When: 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Staples Center.
On the air: TV: TWC SportsNet, TWC Deportes; Radio: 710, 1330.
Records: Lakers 9-40; Hornets 22-25.
Record vs. Hornets: 0-1.
Update: Jeremy Lin is averaging 12.5 points and 3.2 assists in his first season with Charlotte after leaving the Lakers as a free agent last July. He signed a two-year, $4.4-million contract with the Hornets but might not play Sunday because of a sprained ankle. Kobe Bryant missed 15 of 20 shots in the Lakers’ 108-98 loss last month at Charlotte.
Twitter: @Mike_Bresnahan
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