The Los Angeles Lakers were 4-2 through six games, scoring 118.5 points a night and conceding 113.3. Over the seven games since — Nov. 1 at home against the Toronto Raptors through Nov. 11 at the Milwaukee Bucks — they have won every one, scoring 125.3 and conceding 115.0, and they now sit at 11-2. Luka Dončić averaging 40.7 points across the six of those he played is the part everybody already has, right down to the night he scored 53 against the Portland Trail Blazers. Here is what the box scores add.
The Lakers Own the Quarters That Begin After a Break
Sort the streak by when each quarter starts. In first and third quarters — the two that follow a break — the Lakers have outscored their opponents 437-347 across the seven games. That is a margin of 90 points, or 12.9 a night.
In second and fourth quarters, the ones that begin with the game already in motion, they have been outscored 458-440. One consequence is that they have not trailed entering a fourth quarter once during the streak: their leads after three periods have run 22, 18, 13, 12, 7, 5 and 21 points.
The fourth quarter is where this gets uncomfortable. The Lakers have been outscored 237-211 in final periods over the seven games and lost the quarter outright in four of them. On Nov. 1 they led Toronto 104-82 after three and lost the fourth 43-27, winning by six; at Milwaukee they led by 21 after three and lost the fourth 39-29.
That habit is not new. Across the preceding six games they were outscored by 34 in fourth quarters, 5.7 a night, which is worse than the 3.7 they have conceded during the streak, and the same slippage turns up in the stretches Dončić spends on the bench. Why the first and third quarters have gone the other way is not something a box score can settle; scripted openings and halftime adjustments are reasonable guesses rather than demonstrated ones. The split itself is not a guess.
Walker Kessler Has Been Making Nearly Two of Every Three Shots
Walker Kessler has taken 69 shots across the seven games and made 44 of them. That is 63.8 percent, and it has come alongside 15.0 points and 12.4 rebounds a game. He went 6-for-6 against Toronto, 8-for-12 for 21 points at the Atlanta Hawks, and pulled down 16 rebounds at the Detroit Pistons.
The qualifiers are the foul line and the ball. Kessler is 17-of-23 from the line over the span, 73.9 percent, well below what his own team has shot. He turned the ball over four times at Detroit and four more at Atlanta, and his quietest night was the most recent one: 10 points on 5-of-10 at Milwaukee, with no free-throw attempts at all.
They Are Making Their Free Throws and Their Opponents Are Not
The Lakers have made 172 of 210 free throws during the streak, 81.9 percent. Their opponents have made 150 of 201, 74.6 percent. That is 22 extra points from the line across seven games whose combined margin was 72, and three of the seven wins came by six points or fewer.
What makes it an edge rather than a counting artifact is that it has almost nothing to do with getting there. The Lakers have attempted nine more free throws than their opponents over the whole span, 1.3 a game, so the gap sits entirely in what happens after the whistle. Across the preceding six games the two sides shot 78.5 and 76.8 percent, a difference worth roughly two points a night.
The caveat is that two players are carrying it. Dončić is 61-of-71 and Austin Reaves 38-of-40, which is 99-of-111 between them, or 89.2 percent. Everyone else on the roster has shot 73-of-99 over the same seven games, 73.7 percent — worse than the opposition’s rate. The team number, in other words, is mostly those two.
The Side Eye
The Lakers are idle until Sunday, when they visit the Phoenix Suns, then host the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday and the Utah Jazz on Wednesday. Seven games is a short window, and all of the above has been true of that window rather than established about the team.
Watch the first and third quarters. If the Lakers keep winning them by a dozen a night through Phoenix, Charlotte and Utah, the shape is real and the fourth quarters are a cost they can absorb. If those margins drift back toward even, the fourth quarters stop being survivable, and the first final period that actually costs them a game is the one that ends this.
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