Lakers point to injuries, no 'cohesion' as skid continues - ESPN

HOUSTON — The Los Angeles Lakers' nightmare of a road trip continued with another injury to a rotation player and another loss — this one in blowout fashion, 128-94 to the Houston Rockets — on Wednesday.

Eight games into the season, with L.A. 3-5 and 0-3 on its current four-game road trip to drop its record to 0-5 outside of the friendly confines of Crypto.com Arena, LeBron James admitted that he doesn't know what to make of his team so far.

«I don't have an assessment,» James said after scoring 18 points in 27 minutes, as coach Darvin Ham finally found a way to cut the star's minutes by sitting him the entire fourth quarter with the game out of reach.

The end of L.A.'s bench in the fourth quarter — as the Rockets were putting the finishing touches on a game in which they outrebounded the Lakers 57-34, fueling a 24-3 advantage in second-chance points — said it all. Four players — Anthony Davis, who was a late scratch because of spasms in his left hip; Jaxson Hayes, who missed his second straight game with a sprained left ankle; and Jarred Vanderbilt (left heel) and Jalen Hood-Schifino (right knee), who both have yet to play this season — sat beside each other in street clothes.

«I mean, we can't build cohesion if we don't have our unit,» James said. «It's that simple. It's just, we're very depleted on the injury side.»

The Lakers are hopeful that Davis will play in the road trip finale Friday in Phoenix, sources said, which doubles as L.A.'s first group-play game of the in-season tournament.

But the return of the star big man won't fix everything. Through eight games, the Lakers have been outscored by 74 points in first quarters, which is the worst margin through eight games in NBA history, according to ESPN Stats &