The Los Angeles Lakers’ most recent outing didn’t go as planned, as the Atlanta Hawks handed Luka Doncic and company just their third loss through ten games this season in an uncharacteristically bad 122-102 loss on Saturday. 

Doncic led the Lakers with 22 points, making 7-of-17 attempts from the field while also dishing out five assists and hauling in five rebounds. The Lakers also received a significant contribution from fourth-year forward Jake LaRavia, who scored 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting in addition to recording five rebounds. Still, it wasn’t enough to overcome a lackluster effort overall. 

Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) on X Final

LaRavia has only started a handful of games in his NBA career, making his fifth start of the season and 11th of his career overall in Saturday’s loss. The Lakers fell behind by double digits early in the game with LaRavia and the starters on the floor, which the 24-year-old stressed was something that simply couldn’t happen.

“I mean it's always up to that first group to come out and kind of set the tone, and I just don't think we really did that today. We kind of came out and got punched in our mouth and didn't really have an answer for it. They just outplayed us at the end of the day."

“We struggled defensively. We had some turnovers that were, you know, not very good, and they were scoring off the turnovers, which obviously doesn't help. At the end of the day, it's just, it's really just up to that first group that starts to come out and set the tone, and we just got to do a better job of that.”

Glass Half Full

While Saturday’s loss certainly wasn’t the result the Lakers were looking for, they have little reason to be discouraged after a 7-3 start to the season that has been smoother through 10 games than many around the team would have imagined before the year began. 

Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) on X Jake Laravia (13 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals) shares his thoughts on the importance of setting the tone and preventing slow starts in the future.

LaRavia also made it clear that you shouldn’t be judging the Lakers based on what happened on Saturday as opposed to their whole body of work this season. With LeBron James ramping up his rehab and likely approaching a return, the Lakers seem to be in reasonably good shape to extend their hot start.

“This isn't the identity of this team,” LaRavia said. ‘This game was an outlier of the first ten games that we've played, and yeah, (we) just (try) to not let it break us. We're just gonna come right back the next game and be ready to play.”

They return to action on Monday when they face off against the Charlotte Hornets at 7:00 p.m. EST.