After yet another loss, the Los Angeles Lakers continue to search for answers in trying to stop this slide and turn things around. Anthony Davis had yet another strong performance as did LeBron James and Austin Reaves, but it just hasn’t been enough.
As is always the case, many will look towards the leaders of the team, in this case Davis and James, for the answers. For his part, Davis continued with the same message he had after the previous loss in the the Lakers have to look within themselves, and focus on the little things to get going.
“Got to find it within yourself first and then find it with the team,” Davis said after the Lakers’ 14-point loss to the Grizzlies. “Like I said last game, it’s always the little things that kind of get you going. Dive on the floor or a blocked shot, hustle back on defense, something that kind of gets you going and brings the team energy and brings yourself energy. That’s what guys got to do.”
And just as important in Davis’ eyes is that the Lakers must not begin to fracture, but stick together through this rough period.
“Stay confident, we got to stay together,” Davis added. “Obviously it’s been a tough stretch for us but we still have a lot of basketball left. But we’re trending in the wrong direction right now. And the last thing we need, especially when guys are out, is to separate and fall apart. So we got to stay together, for sure, and figure it out.
“We can’t be in our feelings. We can’t be complaining or whatever. We can’t take anything personal. We have to look individually, myself, everyone in the locker room, the coaching staff, look at ourselves in the mirror and just figure out what we can do individually better to help the team be better.”
It’s very easy for players to begin pointing fingers at others for what’s going wrong, especially those who maybe aren’t playing as much as they would like. But these are the times where it is even more important to come together because if the Lakers begin to go at each other, they will dig themselves in a deeper hole.
It will be on the leaders of the team to make sure that doesn’t happen and Davis believes it’s important for himself and LeBron to continue to encourage the rest of the team.
“Just keep encouraging our guys, keep telling guys to shoot,” Davis responded when asked what he can do as a leader of this team. “Talking to our guys, helping them out, lead by example and going out and competing, playing hard. Just hoping the troops follow.
“We talked about it and it’s tough, obviously wearing this uniform, you get a lot of flack, and guys are watching you, you’re under a microscope as a team. You have a couple bad games, you lose a couple in a row, you can’t lose your confidence. You can’t be on social media and all these things listening to whatever people are saying. We’ve got to stay together in this locker room, the guys in the locker room, the guys on the coaching staff, we all stay together and find our way out of it.”
Davis also made sure to point out that the Lakers can’t rely on anyone else but themselves.
“There’s no help coming. There’s no cavalry. We’ve got to do it with the guys we’ve got and remain together. I think that’s the biggest thing.”
It will be up to the players in the locker room to right the ship and Davis knows he and LeBron have to lead the way.
Anthony Davis believes Lakers can learn from last year to turn season around
As rough as this season is going at the moment for the Lakers, it is easy to forget that last year’s team was in an even bigger hole. While this is obviously a different year and a different team, Davis still believes there are lessons to be learned from what the Lakers accomplished a season ago.
“Last year obviously was a bigger hole for us as far as record,” Davis said. “We went to the Western Conference Finals after that but we can’t bring up last year. Different team. But what I can say is to just play. We just competed. And we got to do the same thing now.”
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