The Los Angeles Lakers are in trouble in the Western Conference Finals.
They have fallen into a 2-0 hole in the series after losing both road games to the Denver Nuggets.
Being the number one seed, the Nuggets were expected to protect their home court.
Now the Lakers must do the same or this series will be over quickly.
One player that has been terrible through the first two games is Lakers point guard D'Angelo Russell.
Russell is a -41 through two games which is awful.
Colin Cowherd says Russell has been a "disaster" and he is not a winning player.
One glaring issue for Russell is that he is not engaged defensively.
The Nuggets have been able to expose him and find ways to score at will.
Also, if Russell is not going to make shots on offense he will be giving the Lakers nothing.
That is exactly what we have seen through the first two games.
Russell is shooting 7-19 from the field and 1-8 from three in the series.
It seems like Lakers head coach Darvin Ham is realizing that Russell cannot be on the floor.
In Game 1, Russell played 33 minutes, then in Game 2, it dropped to 26 minutes.
Heading home for Games 3-4 the Lakers hope that Russell will be able to play much better.
An old playoff adage is that role players play much better at home.
The Lakers need that from Russell or this series could be over quickly.