The Los Angeles Lakers lost yet another important game, this time, to the Toronto Raptors. In the second game of a back-to-back, the Lakers desperately needed to bounce back from the poor outing they had against the Phoenix Suns. But they were held off by the Toronto Raptors, thanks to an incredibly weak performance from the Lakers in the first half.
Carmelo Anthony spoke after the game in a press interaction. LeBron James had refused to speak to the press, so Melo was one of the players tasked with speaking to the media. He noted that the Lakers need to be better in the first half and that they can’t dig themselves a hole. He also noted that the Lakers need to show more desire, and doesn’t think there is too much wrong with the technical side of their game.
"We can't be digging ourselves holes." @carmeloanthony on the #Lakers early deficit and the upcoming road trip. pic.twitter.com/2ZliOiB9ed
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) March 15, 2022
“If you take away the first quarter, we won the game. We can’t be digging ourselves holes or whatever. We’ve been digging ourselves holes this whole to start the game off with. We did it Phoenix, we did it again today. We find ourselves in those positions often this season.”
“I don’t think it’s any X’s and O’s that could fix it. It’s just a will power that you got to have. You just got to want it coming out from the beginning of the game. You got to want it, you got to go get it. You got to take it a lot of times when you’re going through situations like this, a little adversity, by any means you got to go get it. Nobody’s going to give it to you, you got to go take it.”
The Los Angeles Lakers were trailing by 18 points to end the first half. It was a shockingly bad outing for them in the 1st quarter. While the second quarter was better, the Lakers’ performance left a lot to be desired. They came back quite well in the second half, but the damage was done, and the Lakers lost by 11 points.
Lakers fans were furious with their performance, with many calling for the whole team to be dismantled next season. Fans were not the only ones frustrated with the performance, as LeBron James visibly showed his frustration towards his teammates in the first half as they failed to pick up a rebound.
