When the Lakers return to Los Angeles, the expectation is that they will be able to benefit from the time they spend there. Their coach pleaded with his squad to stop making excuses for the past month, many of which were reasonable. He emphasized that the excuses needed to stop. That it was necessary for the squad to play in a manner that was “consciously competitive consistently,” which was a mouthful that Darvin Ham later downplayed through editing.

His words before the game on Wednesday were, “Flat-out playing hard.”

The fact that the Lakers will be playing at home for the first few games of January, where they will remain for the majority of the month, meant that effort was not a problem.

Execution, however?

They got a very small percentage of that right.

With a loss to Miami by a score of 110-96, the Los Angeles Lakers dropped their ninth game in their previous 12 games. They handed the ball over 22 times and made only four of their thirty three-point shots.

The last time this team has finished with a record lower than.500 was on November 10th.

The Lakers were a sloppy disaster in their first of 11 games that will take place in Los Angeles between now and January 27. They gave up a terrible amount of the ball while allowing the Heat to play in front of them on a night when they were not even close to being at their best.

The Lakers, despite their carelessness, were within two points of the game early in the fourth quarter before being thoroughly trampled through the final bell.

A squad that was in the midst of a terrible slump was mirrored in the body language of the Lakers for the entirety of the game. During a possession that was wasted against the Heat’s zone, LeBron James merely looked to the bench and shrugged his shoulders. The possession ended with a forced three-point shot that he failed to make.

Considering that the trade deadline for the National Basketball Association is just a little over a month away, it was the kind of game that should have the Los Angeles Lakers asking significant concerns about their future route ahead.

Prior to the game, Ham stated that he and the team had a self-examination after the team finished the month of December with a record of 3-8 and came to the conclusion “that there is more than enough in the room.”

And despite the fact that the Lakers did not have all of their players available — Rui Hachimura and D’Angelo Russell are both dealing with calf and tailbone ailments, respectively — they were not missing the kind of player that their rival, the Heat, was.In spite of the fact that Miami played without Jimmy Butler for the nineteenth time this season, they were able to get at least seven points from each of the seven players they used on Wednesday.

Austin Reaves and Cam Reddish were both promoted to the starting lineup by the Los Angeles Lakers, while Jared Vanderbilt was sent to the bench. This was another attempt by the Lakers to get things back on track. In place of Reddish, Hachimura began for the Los Angeles Lakers in their game against New Orleans.

The Lakers have been striving for some form of stability, a quest that has been derailed by injuries and an ongoing hunt for five Lakers who are capable of playing regularly with favorable outcomes. The trade comes at a time when the Lakers have been making this quest.

Jalen Hood-Schifino, a third-year player, played five minutes in the first half of that excursion. However, he was unsuccessful in all four of his field goal attempts. On the other side of the court, Jaime Jaquez Jr., a rookie playing for Miami and a former great player at UCLA, played a team-high 39 minutes and scored 16 points, including a baseline jumper over James.

When the Lakers return to action on Friday, they will face Memphis.