The Los Angeles Lakers were coming off a major high after LeBron James and Anthony Davis led them to the inaugural In-Season Tournament Championship. The team had a chance to build off that momentum as they traveled to face the Dallas Mavericks, but ultimately came up short.
After a slow start, the offense was clicking with LeBron and Davis again leading the way, but the defense was unable to stop the scorching 3-point shooting of the Mavericks in a 127-125 loss. Getting back on the regular season grind following the high of the In-Season Tournament wasn’t easy, but LeBron feels they handled that just fine.
After the game, James admitted that it takes a lot of focus to get back on the regular season, but believes he and Davis handled it just fine, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“It’s a lot of focus. You’re so high on the semifinals and the finals of the In-Season Tournament and then have to get back to the regular season. It takes a mental focus and a mental approach and I think AD and I handled it well.”
It wasn’t just Davis and LeBron who were fine as the team got 22 points and eight assists from Austin Reaves off the bench and another 15 points on 5-of-6 from deep from Taurean Prince. But the Lakers’ slow start forced them to have to fight back most of the night.
Even still, LeBron offered no excuses for the Lakers’ performance and praised the team for giving themselves a chance to win late:
“I’m not making no excuses. Obviously the In-Season Tournament was what it was in Vegas, we took care of business there. And we came here and the first quarter wasn’t to our liking but we still made a game of it and gave ourselves a chance to win.”
It has been a theme for the Lakers for much of this season to fall behind early and then battle back by the fourth quarter. The In-Season Tournament showed what this team is capable of when they are clicking and now that is the expectation for them going forward.
LeBron James wanted to win In-Season Tournament for Lakers’ rookies
One of the big reasons many players took the In-Season Tournament serious was the cash payout as each player on the winning team would get $500,000. While LeBron James makes far more than that regularly, the same can’t be said for the team’s rookies and two-way players.
But helping those guys out was LeBron’s motivation as they revealed in a recent interview. Two-way players Alex Fudge and D’Moi Hodge as well as second-round pick Maxwell Lewis all spoke about James telling them he was going to win this tournament for them. And the Lakers superstar made good on his promise.
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