Getty Images Dwight Howard of the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Los Angeles Lakers are on a four-game losing streak, but Dwight Howard isn’t too worried about the team’s championship prospects going forward.
Howard sounded off in a recent clip put out from TMZ, hoping to put Laker Nation at ease. In short — Howard thinks the Lakers will be peaking at the right time.
“Yeah, we good man,” Howard told TMZ Sports. “Right now this season it’s early. Everybody’s playing at a really high level right now. We expected that. We expected everybody to come out and play their hardest against us. With that being said, we’re gonna be ready by the time the playoffs start. That’s when we start dominating.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day. This is a brand new team than it was in 2020. All of us are really trying to learn how to play together and get our games going. It’s not about how you start, it’s how you finish. Don’t worry, Lakers fans. When it’s time to dominate, the Lakers gon’ be there.”
The Lakers dropped below .500 at 16-17 with a loss to the Spurs on Thursday and some are already burying the squad, which had the second-best championship odds entering the year.
Lakers Dealing With Chemistry Issues
The main problem for the Lakers for the early part of this season has been chemistry. The team’s roster has been in flux due to injury and COVID-19 issues, making it nearly impossible for the team to build the needed chemistry to be a championship contender. Lakers star Lebron James sounded off over the issue after the Lakers’ latest loss.
“We have no chemistry with any lineup from the simple fact that we haven’t logged any minutes,” James said on Thursday, December 23. “All of our defensive guys are in health and safety protocols. … We don’t need a full roster. We just need some of our guys back.”
Teams around the league are dealing with issues stemming from COVID-19 and James said the uncertainty has made it tough for a team with so many new pieces bond.
“Well this is the unknown, obviously, you don’t know. This is like I said, I say every year has its own challenges and this is another year where you can literally have one guy one night and the next night you won’t. You really don’t know, it’s up in the air,” said James. “It’s literally a crapshoot every single time you take a test at this point on who is negative and who is positive. You just gotta see who is available and go from there.”
Lakers Beefing Up Roster with 10-Day Contracts
Five key members of the Lakers rotation are currently out in Austin Reaves, Malik Monk, Avery Bradley, Kent Bazemore and Trevor Ariza, who are all in the league’s health and safety protocols. On top of that, Anthony Davis and Kendrick Nunn are also out with injuries.
Because the Lakers are so shorthanded, they’ve opted to sign veterans to 10-day hardship deals to keep the boat afloat. First was Isaiah Thomas and the most recent new Lakers are Darren Collison and Stanley Johnson.
Collison has appeared in 708 career games (518 starts) for Indiana, Sacramento, LA Clippers, Dallas and New Orleans, averaging 12.5 points (.471 FG%, .394 3FG%), 2.7 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.2 steals in 29.4 minutes.
Johnson has appeared in 371 career games (77 starts) for the Raptors, Pelicans and Pistons, averaging 6.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 19.7 minutes. He most recently played six games for the South Bay Lakers, averaging 15.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.7 steals in 30.6 minutes per game.