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USA Today via Reuters

USA Today via Reuters

With every matchup, Utah Jazz is proving why they deserve to be the most feared this season. If having the top position in the West with a 26-6 score wasn’t enough, they just defeated the reigning champions. The Lakers have now slipped from the second position to the third, behind the Clippers. What’s a bigger cause for concern is that for how long will they be able to sustain themselves by just depending on LeBron James?

The Lakers are suffering in AD and Schroder’s absence

The Lakers were highly criticized for this loss against Utah Jazz. In fact, the NBA Twitter world took the opportunity, too, to poke fun at the purple and gold for losing their fourth consecutive game so far. And James Worthy also wanted to drop his views on the game.

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He said, “It would be nice to say that the Jazz are really good. And we could just go home. That’s pretty much what it was.” He further explained what went wrong for the Lakers. “The Lakers are struggling a bit right now.

“They are missing their big engine in the middle, AD. That’s bad enough. Then you’re missing Schroder. That really sets them back because you can’t run your offense or your defense without two major components. You can try, you can fill here and there but they have not been able to sustain that.”

USA Today via Reuters

The Utah Jazz are clearly the better team

Worthy went on to compliment the Jazz and said, “They’ve been dependent on LeBron quite a bit. Going into Utah without AD Schroder, you know that’s going to be a tough game. Utah proved that their record is not a fluke. They’re pretty good.”

There is no way the Lakers could have ended their losing streak against a team like Jazz. No wonder this game wasn’t even a close call but ended with a 114-89 score. It looks like as long as AD and Dennis Schroder don’t return to the lineup, the Lakers should be prepared for the worst.

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While everyone thought the Nets are the only team the Lakers should worry about, will they be able to even cross the conference finals with the Jazz ready to battle them?

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Read also- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope Reveals Why Lakers Need Anthony Davis