Although the Los Angeles Lakers fell behind by 10 points in the second quarter of their regular-season opener to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday, they responded. They outscored Golden State 19-10 over the last 4:59 of the period to come to within one point at halftime, and it looked like they were in business.
But the Lakers came out flat in the third quarter on both ends of the floor. They couldn’t generate easy or good looks offensively, and on the other end, they allowed Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield to flex their muscles. Los Angeles was outscored 35-25 in the third period and fell behind by as many as 17 points, and it ended up with a 119-109 loss.
Third quarters have been a weakness for L.A. for quite some time. Coach JJ Redick addressed this problem in his postgame press conference and said his men simply weren’t ready to play after halftime.
“The trend I see is that we continue to be a terrible third-quarter team to start. That was last year, that was the preseason. Gotta rethink some things, and it’s a two-way thing with the guys. What do they need at halftime to make sure they’re ready to play? They’re not ready to play to start the third quarter.”
Last season, the Lakers ranked 27th in third-quarter scoring with 26.7 points per game, and although they were eighth in third-quarter points given up, they were a minus-1.5 in that period throughout the season, which ranked 23rd.
On the other hand, Golden State has historically come out with lots of intensity and purpose in the third quarters of games for the past decade. Last season, it was seventh in third-quarter plus-minus, and it was tied for sixth in third-quarter scoring.
