In one of the most highly-anticipated Christmas Day games in NBA history, the Los Angeles Lakers unfortunately fell short to the Los Angeles Clippers at the Staples Center.
Despite a 15-point lead in the first half, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and company fouled a lot which impacted their ability to play their true game in the second half.
As James reaggravated his groin injury early in the game and could miss time, Davis felt they ‘gave that one away.’
“With eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, we weren’t attacking. We were shooting a lot of jump shots,” Davis said after the team’s 111-106 loss to the Clippers on Christmas.
“[The Clippers] wanted it more. We had a lot of mistakes down the end of the game — mental mistakes on both ends of the floor. We fouled a lot in the fourth quarter and put them on the line. Really in the second half, they made shots, but we still got some stops. We gave that one away.”
Davis went into detail about their late-game execution and how they ultimately did not maximize being in the penalty.
“We missed shots… we were rushing a lot of shots… We had some good, wide-open looks,” the 26-year-old assessed.
“Kuz had one and KCP had one in the end and we just missed them. I think they were just a little bit rushed, but we all had shots like that. We weren’t too aggressive, especially being in the penalty with eight minutes left. That’s a time where we have to be ultra-aggressive and get to the line.”
As Davis felt the Lakers had lost their defensive edge after their 128-104 loss to the Denver Nuggets, the team’s defense in the first half was solid, but they need to maintain it for longer stretches without fouling moving forward.
“We were talking. We were communicating,” the 2019-20 NBA Defensive Player of the Year leading candidate said.
“We were in all our coverages and towards the end, we messed up on two coverages and [the Clippers] made us pay. We were fouling and they were getting to the line early in the third quarter and were able to cut that lead, so it kind of gets us away from how we play — which is fast.”