For the Los Angeles Lakers lately, it hasn’t been a matter of losing, but more so the lack of fight and effort that has been evident in these defeats. Against the Atlanta Hawks, however, that wasn’t the case as Anthony Davis and LeBron James led a spirited effort, but it still didn’t end in a Lakers victory.
Davis finished with 38 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and two blocks while LeBron posted a 39-point triple-double, but the Lakers fell in overtime by two points. Trae Young hit the game-winning 3-pointer after a Lakers’ defensive miscommunication left him wide open and he made them pay.
Afterwards, Davis spoke about what the Lakers need to do to turn things around. The big man feels they must continue to trust each other, while noting they can live with the results as long as they are playing the right way, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Just gotta continue to trust each other, have each other’s back, making the right plays. If we continue to play the right way on both ends of the floor, we can live with the results. It’s the plays that create those margins when we don’t do the right things. When we’re into that switching group and we’re switching 1-through-5 and we mess those up, them the ones that frustrate us. But if we do it right, we switch and they make a tough shot or make a tough play, you live with those and you live with the separation in the margins and the difference in the margins. But we gotta continue to just build on tonight on both ends of the floor and just get ready for Sunday.”
Davis would continue on, saying he believes the Lakers will be fine as long as they keep the mentality they showed in Atlanta:
“If we continue to bring this mentality that we had tonight, we’ll be fine. We was on a six-game win streak, now we’ve lost seven of our last nine so we just gotta continue not getting too high, not getting too low. Obviously this is a tough stretch for us, but we get to play Sunday, have a couple days off, actually get to practice, clean up some things and then get ready for a team that just kicked our ass in Minnesota. So we get to go back up there and see if we want it or not. It’s gonna be a test for us, so we gotta get ready.”
With four recent losses by at least 25 points, it looked like the Lakers just didn’t care. But even in a loss, Davis felt they took a step back towards where they wanna be:
“I don’t wanna say we’re close, but I think we got back into the right direction of the team we want to be.”
That mentality and fight, along with some better health, would go a long way towards the Lakers getting back on track. But as Davis said, Friday night was a step in the right direction and hopefully they can build on it and begin turning things around.
Anthony Davis: Lakers must fix defensive miscommunications
While Anthony Davis saw plenty of positives on Friday night, the main thing he feels the Lakers have to fix is their consistent miscommunications on defense.
Davis said the Lakers gave up far too many open 3-pointers because of it and allowed Trae Young to get going. He would add that he feels they must be more physical with the players setting the screens as he feels that will help them clean things up as well.
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? It’s the best way to watch player interviews, exclusive coverage from events, participate in live shows, and more!