The Lakers keep making this worse

Heading into a Sunday afternoon tilt against the last-place Knicks, the Lakers were six games under .500 and with better odds to win the draft lottery than make the playoffs.

If it thought things couldn’t feel more hopeless, Los Angeles sure didn’t play like it in New York.

Here’s all you need to know: LeBron James put up 33 points, eight assists and six rebounds in a 124-123 loss. With the ball in his hands as time expired, James went at Mario Hezonja and failed spectacularly.

This is probably rock bottom for the 2018-19 Lakers.

Hezonja finished with 17 points on eight field goals with eight rebounds, two steals and one game-sealing block. After missing 12 games with a leg injury.

James and the Lakers have both played much better — not to mention more meaningful — games at Madison Square Garden, so it’s only right to take the good with the bad.

The only positives for the Lakers this weekend are that Brandon Ingram is expected back at full strength for the start of next season and Sunday’s loss brought them a little closer to winning the Zion Williamson Sweepstakes.

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Blake Schuster is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at blakeschuster@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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