Los Angeles Lakers: 5 biggest disappointments from 2017-18 NBA season

2. Disastrous December

The Lakers entered the month of December with an 8-13 record, and just two games out of eighth place in the Western Conference standings. While they started the season slowly by ranking 28th in offensive rating over their first 21 games, it was on the defensive end where they held things together, posting an excellent defensive rating of 102.2, good for eighth in the league.

However, the month of December was by far the worst overall stretch of the season for the Lakers  in 2017-18. Overall, they compiled a 3-11 record, including losing all six home games for the month. Granted, nine of the 14 games were against eventual playoff teams. Having said that, the Lakers nonetheless were still able to compile incredibly impressive road wins against the Houston Rockets and Philadelphia 76ers.

The most noticeable dip for the team over the course of the month was on the defensive end, where they ranked 27th with a 109.7 defensive rating. Of their 11 losses for the month, four were by 15 points or greater, their largest being a 118-95 home loss to the Houston Rockets.

The Lakers’ struggles culminated in a 121-106 loss to their crosstown rivals, the Los Angeles Clippers. After this performance, head coach Luke Walton pointed out the lack of activity at the defensive end of the floor:

"“….we have to get back to taking pride in being a defensive team first….We didn’t have the right type of effort to start that game….That’s not who we are as an organization.”"

As a young team fighting to establish itself in a strong Western Conference, hitting the ground running from start to finish is clearly a priority for Walton and his team. Unfortunately for the Lakers, this proved not to be the case for the majority of December.