The Lakers lose against Magic despite 56 points from LeBron, Dononic | News basketball

The chances of Lakers Lakers to guarantee a place in the first two playoffs of the Western Conference took another hit with a defeat in Orlando.

The Los Angeles Lakers have undergone another setback in their push in the NBA qualifiers, falling 118-106 at the Orlando Magic, which won their first home victory since February.

Despite 32 points by Luka Doncic and 24 by LeBron James, the Lakers abandoned their third consecutive match on Monday and 43-28 are now tied with the Grizzlies of Memphis in the Battle for the fourth place in the West Conference.

Franz Wagner scored 32 points and Paolo Banchero added 30 for the Magic, which survived the 34-18 Lakers in the third quarter to take control of the competition.

The defeat follows the defeat of the Lakers against the Bulls of Chicago in the first James match after having missed seven games with a groin injury.

The Lakers had hoped that James, Donic and a newly healthy RUI Hachimura would feed a strong trace in the west. Oklahoma City Thunder is assured of the seeded, but the Denver Nuggets, Lakers and Grizzlies are all two and a half games from Houston Rockets.

But the Lakers coach, JJ Redick, said that his players were missing from the defensive intensity they showed in a sequence of eight consecutive victories which had briefly pushed them to the second row.

“We can come back to it,” said Redick, adding that changes in alignment reinforced by injury can be wreaking havoc.

“We look tired,” he said. “I don’t know what contributes to that … We could not support our level of intensity with which we started the game.”

The Lakers reduced a deficit of 17 points in the fourth quarter to seven with 5:39 to play, but the magic – eighth of the Eastern Conference – quickly withdrew.

Redick said Lakers can also use training time to be reinstated from recently returned players.

“We have to come back to the current and the pace,” he said. “It is not only (the return players) who return to the flow, but it is the group and the functioning of the group.”