Watching Dillon Brooks prancing around Crypto.com Arena as he torched the Lakers wasn’t the best way to end LA’s homestand. The loss was bad, and it felt even worse considering it was the first time the Lakers played a team with a winning record since their victory against the Bucks back on Nov. 15.
Despite the poor play, the Lakers aren’t panicking just yet.
“You go with what’s been working and, obviously, we have an opportunity to change pitches and switch pitches, but we go with what’s working,” LeBron James said postgame. “Obviously, we didn’t play our brand of basketball, the way we wanted to play. It’s just one game. We don’t get too crazy about it.”
With nearly a quarter of the season done, the Lakers’ brand of basketball seems to be elite offense mixed with a blend of bend, but don’t break defense. Against the Suns, the offense struggled, and the defense was bad. They gave up 125 points in their loss against the Suns, which was the second-most points they’ve allowed this year.
“One of those games,” Austin Reaves said. “We played bad. They play harder than us, That can’t happen.”
Overall effort hasn’t been an issue with the Lakers. Sure, they’ve let go of the rope a bit during games where they were up by double figures, but in general, they’ve stayed sharp. After the first quarter against Phoenix, though, they disappeared and never came back.
Perhaps, instead of dwelling on what went wrong, it’s best to move on and focus on what’s next.
“I think you more so just flush this one,” Reaves said. “Like I said, we just didn’t play good. We didn’t play hard. You know that and you don’t let it affect you going forward. But you remember, kind of just what the feel, what the energy is like and you do the opposite of that.”
With tougher games slated for this month, now is not the time for LA to panic. They’ve had more success than failure this year, and it’s time for positivity, not dwelling on past mishaps.
“We’re not putting our heads down,” Deandre Ayton said. “We’re not deflated at all. Obviously, this is Laker basketball and we want to win every game and the way we lost tonight was not a good example. Guys are just saying this is one game. Finally played 20 games, we won 15 out of the 20 and I think that’s really good. That’s pretty good and we got a really good road trip to really test out some good teams like the one we played tonight. We had a little setback and a little shot to the chin, but it’s not going to knock us down.”
Luka Dončić also took the blame for the Lakers’ play against the Suns, so it’s clear the team is taking ownership of this loss without dwelling on it.
They played poorly, they know it, let’s move on and ball up top.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.