Lakers player grades: L.A. loses big to the Rockets on Christmas Day

Could it be that the strong start the Los Angeles Lakers had this season was a bit of a fluke?

They came into their Christmas Day matchup against the Houston Rockets having lost five of their previous nine games, and they badly needed a win against a quality opponent to stop the bleeding. But this game wouldn’t be the one in which the Lakers got back on track.

They fell behind 37-23 near the end of the first quarter, partly due to six turnovers, and it only got worse from there. Los Angeles was down 63-53 at halftime, and that deficit grew to as many as 24 points in the third quarter and 25 in the final period en route to a 119-96 defeat.

The Lakers’ biggest weakness in this game was rebounding — they got beat on the boards 48-25 and gave up 17 offensive rebounds and 24 second-chance points. Only two of their players had five rebounds, and no one had more than five boards for them. Turnovers were also a problem — their 16 turnovers led to 23 Rockets points, and while the Rockets committed 16 turnovers themselves, Los Angeles scored just 11 points off those Houston mistakes.

L.A. now has a 19-10 record and has dropped to fifth place in the Western Conference. It has now lost three games in a row, and all three of those losses have come by at least 15 points. The Rockets are just behind L.A. in sixth place with an 18-10 mark.

Rui Hachimura: F

If the Lakers needed more offensive production from one man in this game, that one man was Hachimura. He went scoreless and missed all six of his shot attempts in 28 minutes. He finished with two rebounds, one assist and one steal.

Deandre Ayton: D

Ayton made five of his six shot attempts to score 12 points, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Normally a strong and active rebounder, he had only two rebounds in 36 minutes, and his rim protection simply wasn’t there in this game.

Austin Reaves: Incomplete

Reaves had nine points in the first quarter, but he was relatively quiet in the second quarter. He wasn’t on the court to start the third quarter, and he was ruled out for the rest of the game due to left calf soreness. He had recently missed time because of a left calf strain.

In 15 minutes, he scored 12 points on 5-of-8 field-goal shooting and had one rebound, one assist and one block.

LeBron James: C-minus/C

James didn’t assert himself much in this game. He had 12 points through three quarters, and early in the fourth quarter, he momentarily started to assert himself by taking the ball to the basket. But that added aggressiveness didn’t spark any type of Lakers rally.

He ended up playing 32 minutes and finished with 18 points on 7-of-13 from the field, five assists, two rebounds, two steals and one block.

Luka Doncic: B

Doncic was fairly efficient in this game. He shot 9-of-17 overall and 3-of-8 from 3-point range, although he made only four of his seven free throw attempts, and he scored 25 points. He also dished off seven assists and had five rebounds, two blocks and one steal.

However, Doncic had trouble with ball security in this game. He committed six turnovers, with five of them coming in the first quarter. He came into this game averaging 4.2 turnovers per game, and that is something he needs to improve as soon as possible.

Jarred Vanderbilt: B

Vanderbilt had eight points in the second quarter, including two 3-pointers, as he tried to spark a Lakers comeback. He hit another trey in the fourth quarter and ended up scoring 11 points on 4-of-6 overall shooting. He also got five rebounds, two assists and one steal, and he spent a good amount of time guarding Kevin Durant.

However, Vanderbilt wasn’t able to slow down Durant that much — the future Hall of Famer scored 25 points on 8-of-14 shooting and added eight assists.

Jake LaRavia: D

LaRavia was quiet in this game. He attempted five shots and made two of them, and he finished with five points, four rebounds, one assist and one block in 23 minutes.

Marcus Smart: D-plus/C-minus

Smart didn’t have his usual impact in this game. He scored six points on 3-of-8 shooting and missed all three of his 3-point attempts, and he had two rebounds, one assist and one steal in 29 minutes.

Maxi Kleber, Dalton Knecht, Adou Thiero, Bronny James: Incomplete

Kleber played six minutes and went 1-of-4 from the field, giving him two points, along with one assist, one steal and one block.

Knecht, Thiero and the younger James each played during the final 3:09 of this contest. Each of them scored one basket, and the younger James’ basket was a 3-pointer. Thiero also added two rebounds.

This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers player grades: L.A. loses big to the Rockets on Christmas Day