LA Lakers Frank Vogel
Photo: Bleacher Report

The Los Angeles Lakers are now on a four-game losing streak after getting defeated by the Eastern Conference leaders the Philadelphia 76ers (101-109). The reigning NBA champions lost the third quarter by 18 points and despite winning the final period by 10 points, it wasn’t enough to save the game.

After the game, the Lakers head coach Frank Vogel talked about what went wrong for his team. “Each of the last three or four games we’ve had one really bad quarter,” he pointed at reoccurring pattern in LA’s recent games. “We’re hoping to prevent that and play 48-minute night. The third quarter we just… credit the defense they’re great at forcing turnovers. We made few poor decisions but they made some good defensive plays during that stretch as well and got going in transition.

“And then obviously the double-team is trying to take the ball out of Tobias’ hands mostly. We got crossed up on a few of those and gave up threes as well. Just a tough stretch for us during that quarter. We got to continue to try to put together 48 minutes.”

Despite the loss, the Lakers retained the fourth place in the Western Conference with 28 wins and 17 losses. They are trailed by the Denver Nuggets and the Portland Trail Blazers. Both of them have a 26-18 record.