Will the Lakers ever identify their identity?

The Lakers’ loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night was more than just the latest gut punch in the team’s attempt of making a turnaround, but also offered up a mean case of deja vu. Although not all losses look the same, the Lakers’ defeats tend to stay strictly on script, with their latest being just the most recent example.

The first half of the contest put the team in a double-digit hole with the type of lackadaisical effort that has mostly become the norm of late. A spirited second-half run was then cut down via a combination of aimless offense as well as an inability to reel off consecutive stops on defense when the team needed both the most.

Beyond the injuries and other contributing factors, this formula has consistently burned the Lakers, and ultimately has stunted their chances of making progress in the right direction. If the team has any hopes of making a late-season run, correcting these issues will have to be paramount. This brings us to today’s episode.

On the latest edition of Talk-O-Tuesday, our hosts Alex Padilla and Alex Regla recapped the Lakers’ loss to the Mavericks, which included one of the most fun and energetic quarters to date, only to be quickly followed by a deflating fourth quarter.

The duo also shared their frustration over Austin Reaves’ minutes, the new starting lineup, as well as touching on Frank Vogel’s comments about the team’s newest signees, D.J. Augustin and Wenyen Gabriel, and how they may fit into the rotation going forward.

You can listen to the full episode below, and to make sure you never miss a show, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.

And for a short-form recap pod, check out Lakers Lowdown, in which Anthony Irwin recaps the previous day’s news and gets you ready for the day ahead in LakerLand, every weekday morning on the Silver Screen & Roll Podcast feed.