The Los Angeles Lakers were thoroughly embarrassed on Thursday night as the San Antonio Spurs dominated them from the beginning on their way to a 40-point win. After withstanding a slow start and getting to within four points, things went downhill for the Lakers with Luke Walton believing his team just gave up.
Veteran guard Lou Williams has been on his share of rebuilding teams and he understands the process that must take place for a team to grow.
Williams acknowledged that sometimes the Lakers are just going to get dominated, but it’s the effort that can’t afford to slip, and he believes it did via Mark Medina of the LA Daily News:
Lou Williams does a good job sifting through what should be reasonably expected even for a young team pic.twitter.com/1p9JfdLDba
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) January 13, 2017
Williams understands that a young team is going to have its ups and downs and losses like Thursday’s are going to happen. He’s probably even correct that regardless of how hard the Lakers played, they would have lost to the Spurs as their offense was simply unstoppable.
The most important part of what Williams said is that the effort simply can not fall for the Lakers. The team has gotten away from competing every night like they did at the beginning of the season. The first few games of 2017 saw the Lakers get back to that, but the last two showings took a step back again.
Of course, this is usually how progression goes; there are high periods and low periods, and it takes some time for a team to get over that hump. The good thing for the Lakers is that they have vets like Williams, Luol Deng, Timofey Mozgov, and Nick Young who can show the young players the way. Despite the recent struggles, the Lakers are still on the right path, especially if can heed Williams’ words.