The Los Angeles Lakers fell to 19-21 in this 2023-24 season after a 132-125 loss to the Utah Jazz on Saturday night. After the game, star big man Anthony Davis took responsibility for what was a second straight defeat.
“It was on me. I didn’t do my job tonight.”
Anthony Davis: “It was on me. I didn’t do my job tonight.”
— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) January 14, 2024
With LeBron James out for this one due to an ankle injury, the Lakers needed Davis to take over on offense, but he wasn’t able to. The 30-year-old had 15 points, 15 rebounds, 11 assists, 1 steal, and 4 blocks on the night, but shot just 5-21 from the field, and was 0-1 from beyond the arc.
He was facing double teams for much of the night as the Jazz didn’t have to worry about LeBron, but you’d still expect better from Davis. The only way for the Lakers to win games when James is out is if their star big man dominates on the offensive end and he certainly didn’t do that here.
The Lakers also lost the rebounding battle 52-40 in this one, with the Jazz hauling in 13 offensive rebounds. It led to 20 second-chance points and that combined with Utah going 36-39 from the free-throw line really doomed L.A. in this one.
As for the positives, D’Angelo Russell ended up having arguably his best game of the season, finishing with 39 points, 3 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 steal, and 2 blocks. He might not be a Laker for much longer but is still certainly giving his all.
Anthony Davis Had Previously Blamed Self-Inflicted Wounds For The Lakers’ Struggles
After the Lakers lost four games in a row from the end of December to early January, they bounced back by winning two on the trot. After the second win, Davis pointed to self-inflicted wounds being the reason for the Lakers’ struggles.
“Everything is self-inflicted. Our turnovers, poor execution, our lack of attention to detail, is what got us in the situation of losing four straight,” said Davis. “We were able to flip the script and get all those categories back up and we were able to get two wins. We’ve proven that we can do it throughout the course of the season but it’s hard to live with the result when it’s a lot of self-inflicted wounds. When we make a team beat us and not beat ourselves, then you got to live with the result.”
Well, they flipped the script in wins against the Los Angeles Clippers and the Toronto Raptors but returned to their bad habits against Utah here. The Jazz got 23 points off turnovers and L.A. also allowed 27 fastbreak points. The Lakers have to stop shooting themselves in the foot if they are to actually turn things around.
The Lakers Defense Has Been Woeful Recently
A lot of the focus has gone on the offensive struggles for the Lakers this season and rightly so, but their defense is struggling now as well. In four of the last five games, L.A. has seen their opponents cross the 125-point mark, and you’re not going to win too many games when you allow that many.
That’s especially the case when you have issues when it comes to the offensive end. The Lakers have an offensive rating of 112.2 this season, which ranks 23rd in the league. Their defense was what had led to them having success earlier in this campaign, and the Lakers have to step it up on that end.
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