The Los Angeles Lakers got a wake up call after blowing a 19-point lead and losing to the Golden State Warriors, snapping their five-game winning streak.
It was a disappointing result as the Lakers were in control for most of the night before late-game lapses on both ends cost them. Dennis Schroder led the team in scoring with 25 points, while Anthony Davis had a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds to along with seven assists.
Los Angeles went into the third with a 16-point lead and looked like they were on their way to another blowout win, but Golden State was able to catch fire from 3 to keep it close. The Lakers’ woes continued in the fourth as the offense failed to score a field goal for seven minutes while defensively they had no answer for the Stephen Curry-Draymond Green pick-and-roll.
Head coach Frank Vogel did not mince words when asked what went wrong. “We got outplayed in the second half,” he said. “Simplest way to put it. We didn’t defend at the rate we did the last few games or in the first half.
“They downsized with the second unit and gave us some problems. Offensively, we got hesitant, tried to overpass a few times and we didn’t have a great offensive fourth quarter to try to close things out.”
Things changed after James Wiseman drew his fifth foul in the third quarter, forcing Warriors head coach Steve Kerr to opt for a smaller lineup that turned the tide on both ends. Meanwhile, the Lakers settled for too many jumpers and in the end it cost them.
Nights like this are expected over the course of the regular season, so Los Angeles has no reason to panic. Their upcoming schedule only gets much more difficult and their road trip will kick off against a formidable Milwaukee Bucks team.
Vogel hopes Lakers learn from being complacent
As defending champions, regular season malaise is normal but Vogel is hopeful his team learned a valuable lesson in their loss. “It’s a 48-minute game,” Vogel said. “Our guys understand that. Sometimes if you do it and don’t take a loss, you don’t learn a lesson.
“Hopefully our guys will learn that lesson from this game. It wasn’t all complacency. Credit the Warriors. We didn’t handle what we felt were some bad calls, we let it distract our focus some. Offensively, we’ve been really passing the ball well and trusting the pass.
“There were a few possessions that we had great possessions, where the guy didn’t take the shot. He was thinking one more. Those are good problems. We’ll go to the tape and correct it.”
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