The Los Angeles Lakers came into the 2019-20 NBA season with the goal of never losing back to back games.
And while this seemed outlandish to many due to the uncontrollable factors of an 82-game regular season, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Lakers had been successful through 28 games with a 24-4 record.
However, this came to an end with a 111-104 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks just two days after a 105-102 loss to the Indiana Pacers. While the two-game losing streak did come at the end of a grueling five-game road trip with Davis coming off an injury and Kyle Kuzma out of the lineup, the Lakers still lost two straight.
Despite this, Davis still maintains their goal and mindset for the season did not change and they still want to avoid losing back-to-back games whenever possible, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
“We’re resilient. We’re going to find ways to win,” big man Anthony Davis said after he played the entire second half on a sore right ankle in an attempt to bring L.A. back from a 21-point deficit. “We’re going to keep battling. That’s our mindset all year. Even though we did lose two in a row, our mindset is still, let’s not lose two in a row. Let’s not drop another after we lose one, learn from the first one and do what we can to make sure the next one we come out with a victory.”
James also spoke about the team’s mindset after the loss to the Bucks, saying the team has to be committed to focus and be laser-sharp in their process:
“You want to make goals along the process, along the way, along the marathon,” LeBron James said. “And for us to play exceptional basketball for the majority of this part of the season, it’s commitment of focus, it’s a commitment of what we’re trying to do: Continue to get better and just be laser sharp for a majority of the process so far. So we’re just going to try to continue that.”
James and Davis have done a wonderful job leading this team so far and it will be up to them to keep everyone focused on the task at hand after the back-to-back losses.
It seems the two All-Star players are taking the right approach in looking at things one game at a time. This should help everyone on the roster to keep a level head even if losses start to come their way more frequently.