Lakers point inward in attempt to snap 3-game skid

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Dejection and frustration masked Austin Reaves‘ demeanor as he slumped in the Mortgage Matchup Center visitors locker room Thursday night. Reaves couldn’t muster merely a smirk – his open 3-pointer to tie the game Thursday, and potentially send the Lakers to overtime with the Suns, didn’t drop.

The loss, as the 27-year-old Lakers guard called it, put his frustration level at “very high.”

Reaves folded his arms close to his chest, leaning into the locker’s wall as a third consecutive defeat – this time in 113-110 fashion to the Phoenix Suns after Royce O’Neale sunk 3-pointer with less than a second remaining – hung over what is going to ultimately be a playoff-bound squad.

As Jake LaRavia put it, the Lakers “should have and could have” won all three of their last three games. At the very least, the Lakers (34-24) played their way out of winning the trio of losses.

And they all know it.

“We can’t let our frustrations get the best of us and start pointing fingers or anything like that,” said LaRavia, who has started a career-high 33 games, before moving back to the bench as the Lakers turned a corner health-wise. “So we just got to stay together as a group and get back on the right track.”

If there are dog days in the NBA regular season, then the Lakers are going through the ringer of the depths of end-of-winter basketball. The Lakers have played back-to-back games in which they’ve owned chances to win or tie the game at the buzzer; games that include coach JJ Redick, in both instances, whipping up after-timeout plays to get his team in a position to execute.

Against Orlando, Deandre Ayton‘s hammer screen provided Luka Doncic an open look from the left-wing – from where he shoots the most away from the paint, making 35.5% of his attempts from the zone – but didn’t take the shot, instead passing to LeBron James, who misfired an awkward fadeaway 3-pointer.

Against Phoenix, Marcus Smart sent a cross-court inbound pass to Reaves, who weaved from one end of the floor to the other as Doncic and James’ off-ball movement, the latter setting a pseudo screen, left him alone in the corner. Reaves got his look, one he makes 44.4% of the time (8 for 18) from the right-hand corner, but his shot rimmed out.

“We talked about this as staff – our losses are louder than other teams because we’re the Lakers and because of the way we lose,” Redick said Thursday night.

That doesn’t excuse the fact that the Lakers led by as many as 13 points in both games, conceding swings that turned the Lakers from potentially separating themselves at the top of the Western Conference logjam into sixth place and with Play-In Tournament teams creeping below. They’ll play one of those teams, the Golden State Warriors (31-28), on Saturday evening in San Francisco.

“You can’t get too high, too low – that’s when the snowball effect happens,” Smart said. “We’re still in good shape. You know, we’re blessed to be in good shape right now, and we just got to keep playing. We got to continue to trust and we can’t allow games like this to deter us from trust in each other and trust the way that we play.”

Adversity, Redick said, is something he doesn’t want his team to avoid. But he knows how the Lakers are losing as of late is flexing the opposite of what Oklahoma City and San Antonio flex as the Western Conference’s comfortably best teams. Redick emphasized that the Lakers need to play a full 48 minutes; referencing holding Boston to 40 points with 4:48 remaining in the in the first half Sunday, before allowing 18 points across the final stretch of the second quarter and ultimately losing 111-89.

“It’s a problem that we’ve had all season,” Redick said. “It’s the valuing of each play in each possession and if you stack enough good possessions, you win. If you stack enough bad possessions, you lose.”

As of late, the bad possessions are rearing their ugly head. And the good – such as James, Doncic and Reaves posting their highest plus-minus on the floor together at 16-plus in 25 minutes – appears fewer and farther between when the losses pile up and the playoffs loom.

LAKERS AT GOLDEN STATE

When: 5:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Chase Center, San Francisco

TV/Radio: ABC (Ch. 7)/ESPN LA 710, 980 KFWB