The Los Angeles Lakers saw their five-game winning streak snapped on Friday night when they couldn’t keep up with the high pace of the Indiana Pacers.
The Lakers were playing their third game in four nights and looked like it as they scored a season-low 90 points, shooting 5-for-30 from 3-point range and committing 16 turnovers.
Five of those turnovers were at the hands of Austin Reaves, who took responsibility when discussing the loss postgame, as seen on Spectrum SportsNet:
“We just got to be better. I got to be better. I had five turnovers, that’s uncalled for. Everybody goes through back-to-backs, quick turnarounds, so we just got to be better as a team, I got to be better individually. Flush it and move on.”
The Lakers trailed for much of the game but went on a run to start the fourth quarter to get back in it. That run came to a screeching halt when Reaves committed back-to-back turnovers, however, which he again acknowledged after the game:
“You got to find it somewhere, but like you said, Bron said, I just don’t think we found it at any point. Coming out of the fourth quarter, we made a quick little run that if any time was the time then right there was the time that we were gonna pick it up and run with the momentum and energy that we had. And then I had two bonehead plays, back-to-back turnovers. One led to I think a layup or free throws for them and the other one, I just threw out of bounds. So I think if I’m better in those situations, then maybe that momentum continues to grow and then we catch that rhythm. But yeah, sometimes it’s hard to find and you got to figure out ways to find it.”
Despite it being the Lakers’ third game in four games though, Reaves was not willing to use fatigue as an excuse for him and his teammates:
“I think if you’re mentally strong, yeah you’re tired and you know you’re tired, but we’ve played in a million games where you’re tired and competing as hard as you can. So I don’t really think it plays that much of a factor, you just got to keep your mental strong.”
Reaves has been playing extremely well as of late and still found a way to contribute with 16 points, 13 rebounds and six assists despite his five costly turnovers.
The Lakers have another game coming up on Sunday, so hopefully he and everyone else can get some much-needed rest in between to be ready to go.
LeBron James points to poor shooting and turnovers in Lakers loss to Pacers
LeBron James had a similar stance to Reaves after the Lakers’ loss to the Pacers, looking at the team’s poor 3-point shooting and careless turnovers as the main reason.
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