Ball is missing shots, but he makes the cut

Bemused at the attention paid his new look, Lonzo Ball smiled.

“It’s just a haircut, man,” Ball said.

There was no deeper meaning to the style, but because it happened a day after the worst game of Ball’s fledgling NBA career, it caused a stir.

Perhaps more relevant to his quest to forget his recent struggles was what happened Wednesday night just after the Lakers lost to the Philadelphia 76ers. Ball made only one of nine shots and admitted the poor shooting affected other parts of his game. So after the game he and his manager, Darren Moore, headed back to UCLA Health Training Center, where the Lakers train, and stayed for two hours working.

“I just had a bad game, got it off my mind, just shoot it out, took a shower and went to sleep,” Ball said.

Ball’s shooting Wednesday night was not an anomaly. He has shot 30% from the field and 23% from threepoint range. He has said the struggles were mental and that he has been working on his balance with coaches Miles Simon and Brian Shaw.

“Obviously everybody has bad shooting days, but this one has been pretty long,” Ball said. “I feel like I will get out of it, man. It is still early in the season, we have a long season to go, just keep working.”

Making the call

Lakers coach Luke Walton likes to empower his player to call plays during games.

“You look at championship teams and the players take a lot of responsibility for the way they play for what’s going on,” Walton said.

Some days it goes better than others. A few weeks ago, he saw a play called from the floor. At first he assumed Ball had called it. Soon, it became clear that Kyle Kuzma was the culprit.

“It was definitely Kyle calling it, because it was for him to get a three-point shot,” Walton said. “So depending on how they call plays and what they’re calling, you give them more freedom or you take some of that away. But … any time Zo or Tyler [Ennis ]orJC[ Jordan Clarkson], one of the point guards wants to call something, I give them the freedom to at least try and see how it goes.”

Did Kuzma make the right call that day?

“No, it’s not the right call,” Walton said. “At certain times that play is good for us, but it’s a one-pass play into a three-point shot and we’re the worst threepoint shooting team in the NBA. It’s good experience for him to at least think about what we should run and where the team can get a shot, but in that case it did not work.”

If Kuzma had his way, he’d be doing it a lot more.

“He be calling plays for himself a lot,” Ball said. “I just don’t be running them.”

Etc.

Larry Nance Jr. was officially cleared for practice Friday, 15 days after breaking his left hand against the Portland Trail Blazers. Walton said Nance will need to be fully healed before he returns to play. … Kuzma has been starting in Nance’s place. Walton said the Lakers will evaluate that starting position once Nance is ready to play again.