The Los Angeles Lakers suffered their sixth loss of the season on Friday to their bitter and arch rivals, the Boston Celtics.
The Lakers were lackluster, as they have been in all six of their losses thus far, and, on top of that, they were shorthanded, without three players, including two of their superstars, LeBron James and Luka Doncic.
Los Angeles was extremely shorthanded on Friday, but there is a chance they could be a healthy squad for their match on Sunday against the Philadelphia 76ers. Lakers head coach JJ Redick shared after the loss on Friday that he hopes the entire team will be available.
The Lakers have been fully healthy for only about three of their 22 games thus far this season. They have had a mix of James, Doncic and Austin Reaves miss games, as well as a mix of their depth pieces like Deandre Ayton, Marcus Smart and Gabe Vincent, to name a few. Smart missed Friday’s game with his ongoing back issue, but according to Redick, there is a chance he could be back in the rotation.
The Lakers have had a great start to the season thus far, tallying a 16-6 record, which is good for the third seed in the loaded Western Conference. LA will look to start another winning streak after their seven-game winning streak was snapped on Monday against the Phoenix Suns.
This will be the first meeting against the 76ers this season. Last season, the two teams split the season series, with each team winning its home game. The 76ers will look to keep their three-game winning streak alive. The 76ers have gone 7-6 in front of their home fans and have a 4-3 record in one-possession games. As for the Lakers, they have a 9-3 record away from home and average 118.6 points per game and have outscored their opponents by 2.1 points per game.
The 76ers are making 13.5 three-pointers per game this season—just 0.9 fewer than the 14.4 per game that the Lakers allow. Meanwhile, the Lakers are averaging 11.8 made threes per game, 1.1 fewer than the 12.9 per game the 76ers give up.
Los Angeles has won three of their last five games.
