The Lakers' struggles beyond injuries: what's really going on the team?

The Los Angeles Lakers have indeed been shorthanded for most of the first eight games this season, in the last two contests they have been without 40% of their rotation which has had two painful losses, the last one on Wednesday night against the Houston Rockets.

After the loss, coach Darvin Ham spoke about how he is feeling confident about turning the season around once his team is healthy, while LeBron James spoke about how the group is lacking cohesiveness because of the absences.

The problems for the Lakers aren't as simple as just having their players back, after eight games, the team has become the worst in the league in 75+ years in the first quarter, and it has to do with their shooting and rebound issues.

The Lakers are dead last in 3p% at 29.6%. The reason? Their 3 highest-volume shooters, Austin Reaves, D'Angelo Russell, and LeBron James, are at 28%, 32%, and 31%. Those 3 account for over half of the team's 3PA per game on average. DLo & Reaves were both 40% from 3 last season.

The team is seriously struggling with rebounds this campaign

Not only the group hasn't been able to solve their 3-point shooting, but have added another problem to their list as they are also dead last in OReb%. Teams that miss a lot of shots can mitigate their wayward marksmanship by getting lots of attempts via ORebs, the Lakers are worried about transition defense so they are focused on getting back instead.