Maybe any other month of the NBA season, any other moment, and a night like Friday could be written off as an unavoidable occurrence.
When you have 82 games on the schedule — or in the case of the Lakers and the Indiana Pacers, 83 games thanks to the in-season tournament — there are going to be nights when your legs are too heavy, your brain is too foggy and the rims are too tight.
It happens on nights like this for teams, the third game in four nights, the travel miles and the on-court minutes piling up.