Lakers' latest loss: `More frustrating than concerning'
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Today: wide-open 3s. Just things like that we’ve been able to control the past couple of games and we just didn’t do in the third quarter.”
After impressive victories over the Thunder and Mavericks, Friday could’ve been the Lakers’ third consecutive win — a winning streak they haven’t experienced since winning the NBA Inseason Tournament last month. The Lakers (21-22) have yet to win three consecutive regular-season games that weren’t tied into the tournament and are 14-22 in nontournament games.
But Friday turned into yet another step back. It still remains just one game at the end of the day, but the yo-yoing between quality performances and disappointing ones has left the Lakers at the edge of the play-in standings in the Western Conference.
“Kind of been like a constant thing for us, but like I said, when you get two, you’re trying to find a rhythm and you have two great games on both sides of the floor,” Davis said. “And then you kind of just revert back in the second half of this game and practically play no defense against these guys.
“Guys are getting wide-open shots, wide-open layups, wideopen dunks, we’re fouling, wasn’t rebounding. Everything on the defensive end we just didn’t do. And allowed them guys to get into rhythm and now you’re playing with confidence and the rims are a lot bigger for those guys.”
Is it concerning that the Lakers haven’t consistently strung together strong performances? To Davis, it’s more frustrating than concerning that the positive carryover hasn’t been there.
“Concern is when you know that you’re not a good team and you can’t do it,” he said. “Frustration comes from the point where we know what we can do. We’ve shown it and we’re not doing it. So it’s more frustrating than concerning for me.”
Regardless of what the team’s feeling and the circumstances they’re dealing with, Ham knows the Lakers need to be better.
“We’ll watch this game and make it more about our principles and, again, the type of team we want to be,” Ham said. “It’s over for the excuses, man. We gotta play basketball.”