Fans who only look at the win column may think the Los Angeles Lakers are enjoying a brilliant start to the season.
They sit fourth in a tough Western Conference with a 9-4 record. Anthony Davis is doing a marvelous job in leading the Purple and Gold with his scoring and rebounding. LeBron James may be putting up fewer numbers, but the fact that he’s averaging a near triple-double at 39 is amazing. Dalton Knecht is having a terrific rookie season.
However, fans who closely followed the team’s games would also know that JJ Redick’s team still has a lot to do before they become convincing contenders. The team’s latest match against the New Orleans Pelicans is a testament to how inefficient the entire roster is.
The team barely beat a Pelicans squad that didn’t have Zion Williamson by just five points. Aside from Davis, James, and Knecht, no one else on the Los Angeles roster made meaningful contributions to the team’s scoring.
AD let everyone know what he thought about the team’s current state to set the record straight on what die-hard fans should expect out of the squad.
Anthony Davis talks about frustration with the Lakers’ efforts against the Pelicans
Davis addressed questions about the team’s lack of effort during his team’s 104-99 escape against the franchise that drafted him first overall in 2012. His message essentially told fans to calm down and trust the program Redick is building at Crypto.com Arena.
Per Basketball Forever’s Duncan McColl:
“I wouldn’t say it’s frustrating,” Davis said. “Just because we understand where we are, I mean this is the second night of a back-to-back. Everybody goes through it. And like I said, they were making some shots early on. We had some good looks early on and just missed them. AR shot one off the side of the backboard wide open, like that never happens. So we had great looks, missed some bunnies around the rim.
“We weren’t too discouraged. We actually had some pretty good defensive quarters, and we did ultimately hold them to 99 points, so our defensive rating I’m pretty sure was good this game. It was offensively where we were struggling, we knew that team was gonna play hard and they weren’t going to give up no matter who they were playing. And who was playing for them. So we just had to stay with it, stay connected, stay together and ultimately executed down the stretch.”
Davis had a fantastic game, finishing the game with 31 points, 14 boards, one assist, two steals, and one block. LeBron backed him up with 21 points, seven boards, five dimes, and one steal. Dalton Knecht added 27 points, seven rebounds, two assists, and two steals in almost 38 minutes of play.
Outside of the three, Austin Reaves’ 10 points was the most any other Laker player put up in the game. Max Christie only had two, D’Angelo Russell had seven off the bench, and Christian Koloko‘s six rounded off the scoring for the Lakers.
The season is long, so Redick has time to fix imperfections in the team’s game plan. Davis and the rest of Laker Nation hope the rookie head coach will have everything sorted by the time the playoffs come around.
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