The Los Angeles Lakers had a lot to smile about heading into their game against the Indiana Pacers. They had won 5 of their last 6 to go from 2-10 to 7-11 on the season as they climbed up the standings.
Russell Westbrook was thriving off the bench, Anthony Davis was looking like his 2020 self, and LeBron James excelled in his second game back from injury as the Lakers were trending upwards. All signs pointed to yet another win when they took a 101-84 lead with under 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t to be. The Pacers stormed back to stun the Lakers as they closed out the game on a 32-14 run to win 116-115.
LeBron James Explains Why They Lost Against The Indiana Pacers
It was just the second time ever that a team with LeBron on it had blown a 17+ point lead in the fourth quarter. It was an embarrassing loss, and their fans were fuming after the game. What would have infuriated them even more was Indiana’s game-winning buzzer-beater, as the Pacers were able to get two wide-open looks, and they cashed in on the second one. LeBron was asked what went down in that final sequence and he said they messed up the coverage.
(starts at 1:33 mark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NfPqefSnxg
“We messed up a coverage to start and that’s how Myles Turner was able to get the open three, so we had already messed up the coverage to start. So, that’s why we are in scramble mode after that even with them getting an offensive rebound. We should have come up with the offensive rebound but it was a skud, I mean it hit off the front of the rim and flew back all the way to the three-point line, so we were already in scramble mode. We had two on the ball at that time, I think DS (Dennis Schroder) and AR (Austin Reaves) was on the ball, and AD (Anthony Davis) had 2, I was playing 2, and (Tyrese) Haliburton found a shooter on (the) weak side.”
It is crazy that they messed up right from the start. You expect better execution than that considering LeBron, Davis, and Westbrook were all on the court. They got it horribly wrong and Andrew Nembhard made them pay for it at the buzzer.
The Lakers are not in a position right now where they afford to make mental mistakes like this. There is no excuse for blowing such a big lead and it is another reminder that teams in the NBA can’t afford to keep their foot off the gas as no lead is ever safe when there is a fair bit of time remaining on the clock.
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