Lakers can’t complete comeback, lose shootout with Nets

The Los Angeles Lakers tried to get into a shootout with the Brooklyn Nets Tuesday at Barclays Center and despite a spirited effort in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, they lost 115-110.

Going into Tuesday night’s game, the Nets were ranked fourth in the league in 3-point makes (12.2) and they showed the Lakers why. As a team, the Nets shot 41.2 percent from behind the arc.

The three-guard tandem of Joe Harris, D’Angelo Russell and Spender Dinwiddie made life especially hard for the Lakers on the the perimeter, shooting a combined 9-20 from the 3-point line.

The Lakers were less successful from outside, shooting 32.5 percent as a team. Josh Hart, Lance Stephenson and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope shot a combined 3-13 from the 3-point territory, including zero makes in four attempts from Caldwell-Pope.

Defensively, they put up little resistance as well. Some of that had to do with the fact that the Lakers were without JaVale McGe for the second consecutive game, but McGee wouldn’t have fixed the problems they had guarding the perimeter.

On several possessions, Jared Dudley blew by his defender for an easy layup at the rim. It’s never a good sign when Jared Dudley looks like the fourth-best player on the opposing team.

On the bright side, LeBron James, Kyle Kuzma and Lonzo Ball provided solid minutes for the Lakers offensively. Ball finished with a season-high 23 points while shooting 9-16 from the field and 5-9 from behind the arc. James and Kuzma finished with 36 and 22 points respectively.

The Lakers will head back home after a week on the road. Their next game will be on Friday, when they host Julius Randle and the New Orleans Pelicans in what will be Randle’s first game back at Staples Center. We’ll see you then.

For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Christian on Twitter at @RadRivas.