Getty The Lakers had a terrible third-quarter performance in a loss to Minnesota last Friday
Of all the problems that have dogged the Lakers here in the early part of the NBA season, whether it is the injuries or the shooting or the lack of chemistry the team has shown, the one that should be the most worrisome is the one that keeps costing them, game after game: the third quarter.
The Lakers are a terrible third-quarter team. They are a minus-89 in the third, worst in the NBA. When it comes to advanced stats, their offensive rating in the third is 97.9 and their defensive rating is 120.6, putting their net rating in the third quarter at minus-22.6. That is 29th, with the only team worse being the lowly Rockets.
In fact, the other three teams at the bottom of the third-quarter stats—Houston, New Orleans and Detroit—have a combined record of 6-36. It’s almost a miracle that the Lakers can be as bad as they are in the third quarter and still be over .500.
For one Lakers great and analyst, James Worthy, the problems in the third quarter are no small matter. After the Lakers were again demolished in the third quarter on Monday against the Bulls, 37-25, Worthy declared the Lakers’ issue, “a virus.”
Worthy: ‘You Cannot Take a Break’
Worthy, of course, is a Hall of Famer, a seven-time All-Star and a three-time NBA champ with the Lakers. He does pregame and postgame commentary for Lakers games on Spectrum Sports. While many put the struggled the Lakers have in the third quarter on the coaching staff coming out of halftime, Worthy said it is up to the players to make a change:
That’s a little bit of a virus. You cannot take a break, reboot, refresh yourself. Coach gives you a third-quarter game plan and you are not able to have the energy—it seems they have more energy at the beginning of the game than they do in the third. We all know that the first and the third are vital, especially the third. If you have a lead, you want to enhance it. If you need to get some buckets and grab some defense, you do that.
That’s been an issue with the Lakers all year long and something they’re going to have to address. It’s not all about the coaches, it’s about the players, sometimes meeting in that huddle before they go on the floor and go, ‘Hey guys, look, this is what we have to do.’ Haven’t gotten there yet.
Frank Vogel at a Loss on Third-Quarter Woes
Worthy should probably offer that advice to the Lakers, because they don’t seem to have any answers for how bad the team has been in those situations. The third-quarter low point this season came not against Chicago, but last Friday against the Timberwolves, when the Lakers were embarrassed in the third by a 40-12 margin.
After the game, coach Frank Vogel could only shrug.
“We’re talking about it and challenging our guys to be better,” Vogel said. “I don’t know what it was. We get control early in the game, we play well and then just aren’t executing the plan.”
It has become a virus for the Lakers. They’ll need a cure, quickly.