The Los Angeles Lakers had one of their biggest games of the season on Thursday night against the Golden State Warriors. The two teams have surged since the trade deadline and are very close in the Western Conference Standings.
The Warriors quickly took control of the game in the second quarter and never looked back. The Lakers made it a close game at the end but the lead was too much to overcome.
The loss certainly wasn’t on LeBron James or Austin Reaves. The former scored 33 points while the latter scored 31. Superstar Luka Doncic decided to play one of the worst games of his Lakers tenure against the Warriors.
He went 6-for-17 from the field and scored just 19 points, which is well below the 26.8 points a game he’s averaged since joining the Lakers. Doncic knows that his performance left a lot to be desired and is holding himself accountable.
After the game, he took the blame for Los Angeles’ loss, which dropped them to No. 4 in the Western Conference standings.
“That performance from me was unacceptable,” Doncic said in his postgame media availability, via ESPN. “When I play like that, that makes [it] harder [for the team] to win, so just got to figure that out.”
Doncic Addresses Elbow Injury
Doncic has been banged up for much of the season and following the Warriors loss, his left elbow was wrapped in kinesiology tape and iced. According to the guard, it’s not a big deal.
“It’s fine,” Doncic said. “That’s my left [arm], so it’s fine. I was shooting with the right. It [just] looked like [the] left.”
Doncic is no stranger to playing through injury. The Lakers need to make sure he’s healthy for the playoffs but they’re also just 1.5 games out of being in the play-in tournament. They can’t afford to lose many more games.
LeBron James & JJ Redick Talk Loss
A win on Thursday would’ve been huge for the Lakers as they would’ve had a solid lead over the Warriors for at least the No. 4 seed. Now the margin for error is much thinner.
A big reason why the Lakers lost was because the offense went cold. Head coach JJ Redick thinks that had more to do with Los Angeles than it had to do with what the Warriors were doing.
“It was not what they were doing,” Redick said of the Warriors’ defense. “It was what we were doing. And we showed them at halftime. The spacing alignments [were incorrect] and having the wrong guy in the dunker spot, the wrong guy in the corner.”
The good news for the Lakers is that James had his best game since returning from injury. He says he’s feeling a lot better.
“That was the best I’ve felt since before the injury, for sure,” James said. “I just tried to press, get downhill. My rhythm, as far as my jump shot, felt pretty good today. I have been shooting it from the free throw line extremely well as of late. But that was probably the best physically I’ve felt so hopefully I can build off of that.”
The Lakers have six games remaining to cement their seeding.
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