… it was a startling power outage for a number of reasons, as illustrated by Ohm Youngmisuk and ESPN Stats & Info:

— It was the first time Ball failed to score in 44 combined games at UCLA and with the Lakers.

— It was the first time this season that a starting NBA point guard played at least 25 minutes yet failed to score.

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— It was the first time this season that a first-round 2017 draft pick played at least 15 minutes yet failed to score.

— The last top five pick to play at least 28 minutes in a rookie-season game and fail to score was Dikembe Mutombo in 1992.

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“I thought he was a little too passive tonight,” Lakers Coach Luke Walton said afterward. “The hardest thing for young players is the consistency when you just play so many games. He’s so unselfish. We want him to be more aggressive with attacking the defenses. I feel like tonight was one of those nights where he was more passive with it than looking to really attack them.”

Said Ball, “I definitely could have been more aggressive.”

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Ball scored 29 points on 12-of-27 shooting (he made 4 of 9 three-point attempts) against the Suns in his second career game on Oct. 20. In the other seven, he’s averaging 6.6 points on 27.4 percent shooting, making only 6 of 27 three-pointers. And while his assist and rebound numbers are okay — he’s averaging nearly seven per game in both categories — the offense just isn’t there yet.

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