Los Angeles Lakers’ veteran LeBron James shared his disappointment after his team suffered a 118-97 loss against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night. Before this match, the Lakers had won eight out of their last 11 matches but they could not carry the same form against the previous season’s runners-up.
With this loss, the Lakers slipped to number six in the Western Conference standings. The Lakers have strengthened their roster by adding players like Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton for D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second-round picks.
“I mean, it sucks, obviously, especially knowing where we were and how well we’ve been playing,” LeBron James said after the Lakers dropped to No. 6 in the Western Conference standings.
“Obviously, they killed us with any iso stuff,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said after his team allowed the Mavs to shoot 52.3% from the field and nearly as well from 3, going 18-for-38 (47.4%).
On the other hand, James (18 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists), gave credit to Mavs coach Jason Kidd — a former Lakers assistant coach — for his “great strategy” against the Lakers’ defense.
“I felt like they just put people in pick-and-roll who they wanted in pick-and-roll and they tried to exploit matchups,” James said. “And when we got into rotations, we didn’t make enough second efforts.”
Austin Reaves admitted he wasn’t up to the mark in the first half and took the blame on his shoulders.
“The first half was god-awful,” said Reaves, who finished with a plus/minus of minus-25 in 32 minutes. “The second half I thought was better. But I can’t allow that. I was just really, really bad on both sides of the ball tonight.
Finney-Smith urged his teammates to pull up their socks and get behind in defense to get the job done for the team.
“We got to do a better job of talking behind guys, giving them confidence so defenders can crawl up in ball handlers and force them to the rim,” Finney-Smith said. “And we got AD down there, so we got to use it.”
The Lakers will next take on the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday.
