On Thursday, the Lakers' six-game win streak came to an end in heartbreaking fashion, as they lost 119-118 to the Magic. They had a two-point lead with 20 seconds left on the clock when Anthony Davis got the opportunity to ice the game with two free throws. However, he missed both before Franz Wagner hit a three-pointer to give his team the lead. The Lakers superstar had another chance to win the game but air-balled his buzzer-beater, ending the Lakers' perfect start at home.
Davis took the brunt of the blame for the loss but LeBron James came to his teammate's defense and claimed that the team didn't do enough over the 48 minutes to win. He insisted that they should've iced the game earlier, and said that an entire game cannot boil down to two shots at the charity stripe. He said,
"We put ourselves in a position to win, and we just didn't come through. It's a 48-minute game, you can't just point to the free throws. Obviously, we wanna try to close out the game, we had our chances, we missed them and you move on, but what we did in the third quarter, got outscored 29-21, we came out, lost the lead, and they took the lead in the 3rd. You cant just point to one thing."
However, not everyone agreed with James' point of view.
Lakers' head coach JJ Redick claimed that the loss yesterday night came down to the missed free throws in the fourth quarter. The Lakers converted only three of their nine free throws in the final period, and the rookie head coach believes those miscues were the reason for the loss. He said,
"There's certain losses that you can point to a lack of will and competitiveness and physicality, the Phoenix game and this game, it comes down to late game and it can swing on a couple plays, and frankly it swung on our missed free throws tonight."
Davis agreed with Redick and took responsibility for the loss. He claimed that him missing three of his four free throw attempts in the final minute cost the Lakers the victory.
"We lost the game, I missed 3 free throws down the stretch, they come down hit the three, take the lead. So my free throws are very important very crucial, and missed 'em."
Despite not seeing eye-to-eye on the reason for the loss, James, Redick, and Davis all agreed on the course of action for the Lakers: Put this game behind them, and prepare for the next one.
With the Nuggets visiting on Saturday, the Lakers face their sternest test yet. Denver has knocked LA out of the playoffs for two years running, and thus, has a huge psychological advantage. The Lakers are 1-12 against the Nuggets in their last 13 games but have faith that they can beat Nikola Jokic and Co. and bounce back from the loss to the Magic.
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