The Lakers got here away with their fifth straight win in opposition to the Pelicans on Saturday, however issues seemed a bit shaky within the first half.
It ought to have been a simple get, given how decimated with harm NOLA was, however the Lakers trailed by ten on the half as a result of their lack of hustle in protection.
However Anthony Davis, who ended the night time with 31 factors, 14 rebounds, two steals and a block, wasn’t perturbed.
“I wouldn’t say it’s irritating,” Davis mentioned. “Simply because we perceive the place we’re, I imply that is the second night time of a back-to-back. Everyone goes by way of it. And like I mentioned, they have been making some pictures early on. We had some attractiveness early on and simply missed them. AR shot one off the facet of the backboard broad open, like that by no means occurs. So we had nice appears to be like, missed some bunnies across the rim.
“We weren’t too discouraged. We really had some fairly good defensive quarters, and we did finally maintain them to 99 factors, so our defensive ranking I’m fairly positive was good this sport. It was offensively the place we have been struggling, we knew that workforce was gonna play exhausting and so they weren’t going to surrender regardless of who they have been taking part in. And who was taking part in for them. So we simply had to stick with it, keep linked, keep collectively and finally executed down the stretch.”
The Lakers finally restricted the Pels shot choice within the second stanza, and Lakers coach JJ Redick defined his mindset and what he mentioned to his troops on the break.
“Actually, our protection was good, no less than our first shot protection within the first half,” Redick mentioned. “I believe they shot 36% on their first shot, it was the 12 offensive rebounds that killed us. Made it very clear they have been going to crash at a extremely excessive fee. And the sport was going to come back down as to if or not they may get extra possessions than us. Our guys, I assumed within the third quarter, defensively had a extremely good mindset. We have been capable of accumulate some offensive rebounds, they ended with six, I believe within the second half. However, there wasn’t actually an adjustment defensively. It was simply get the f—ing ball, you understand? That was all it was.”
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