The Los Angeles Lakers made several changes to their roster ahead of the 2023-24 NBA season.
On paper, the Lakers have a complete roster, with several quality players available to play in all five positions.
However, one thing that the Lakers lack right now is being consistent during their matchups.
A perfect example of it was the Lakers’ recent defeat against the Orlando Magic, as the 17-time NBA champions fell short in the rebounding department against the Magic.
Lakers superstar Anthony Davis identified a huge issue for the Lakers against the Magic via Spectrum SportsNet on Twitter.
“We just created a hole for ourselves in the first quarter,” Davis said.
Anthony Davis on tonight’s loss: “We just created a hole for ourselves in the first quarter… even though we tightened up the screws a little bit, the offensive rebounds killed us the entire game.” pic.twitter.com/rRIhhxxRk7
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) November 5, 2023
As Davis mentioned, the Magic took a huge 39-25 lead over the Lakers after the first quarter.
Following the opening quarter, the Lakers did have a few scoring runs, but they were simply not enough to erase the deficit.
A key reason behind the Lakers’ struggles was getting dominated on the boards by the Magic.
Anthony Davis addressed the issue in the above-attached video as the veteran superstar blamed the Lakers’ inability to grab offensive rebounds as the cause behind their defeat.
After four quarters, the Magic led the Lakers 19-10 in terms of grabbing offensive rebounds.
Considering grabbing offensive rebounds often leads to second-chance points, the Magic took full advantage of their better rebounding skills.
At the end of the day, the Los Angeles Lakers have fallen to a 3-3 record, as they hold the eighth seed in the Western Conference right now.
Moving forward, the Lakers need to improve their rebounding, otherwise, they may end up getting eliminated sooner rather than later from the race to clinch the 2023-24 NBA Championship.
