Los Angeles Lakers Get Bad News After 4 Days Off Before Facing Minnesota On Road

Under rookie coach J.J. Reddick, life has been a struggle for the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2024-2025 season. They sit at 13-11 with the 8th seed in the NBA’s Western Conference, a play-in spot, after losing seven of their last 10 games. The sudden decline came just as Reddick and the Lakers appeared to have turned their fortunes around. They rode a six-game winning streak to an inspiring 10-4 start this season.

And then the bottom fell out. Following a 41-point spanking at the hands of the Miami Heat on Dec. 4, Reddick appeared at a loss for what to say or do, saying it was “not a game I thought we had the right fight, the right professionalism. I’m no sure what was lost in translation.”

Reddick said that he was “embarrassed,” but took “all the ownership in world” for his team’s poor performance.

The Lakers showed some signs of life on Sunday, December 8, registering a 107-98 win at home over the struggling Portland Trail Blazers, a team that came into the game with just three road wins in 13 tries.

Bad News Around Lakers’ Most Iconic Star Continues

On Thursday, December 12, the Lakers got more bad news just 24 hours before they were set to return to action following a much-needed four-day break. Lebron James, who in October said that he planned to play in all 82 regular season games for the Lakers this season, was ruled out of Friday’s crucial showdown with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The absence will be the second straight game James has missed after playing in the first 23 Lakers games of the season and averaging 35 minutes played while scoring 23 points with eight rebounds and 9.1 assists.

It was unclear whether the 39-year-old James will even accompany the Lakers on their one-off trip to Minnesota. The team has a quick turnaround and must face the Memphis Grizzlies back in Los Angeles on Sunday.

The reason given for James’ need to sit out once again was “foot soreness,” the same injury that according to the team kept him out of the Portland game. James, however, also skipped team practice on Wednesday. At the time, Reddick said that the reason was that James was “gassed” and as a result would be “taking some time.”

Lakers Collapsing in 3rd Quarters

But while a James-less Lakers were able to get past the 13th-place Trail Blazers, a team unlikely to qualify even for the play-in tournament in 2025, the Timberwolves present a steeper hill to climb. Though they actually sit a half-game behind the Lakers in the standings at 12-11, the Timberwolves had won four straight including a win over the Lakers, two victories over the Los Angeles Clippers and another win over the Golden State Warriors before dropping the second leg of a two-game set against Golden State on Sunday.

The win over the Lakers was also a home game for Minnesota who are 7-4 at Target Center in Minneapolis.

Following the blowout loss in Miami, James appeared discouraged. He said that he was also “definitely embarrassed” and agreed with everything Reddick had said.

The Miami loss was the Lakers fourth blowout — 25 points or more — defeat in the previous 12 days. Those losses were all marked by third-quarter collapses, with the Lakers losing those quarters by an average of 14.75 points.

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