After a 120-124 defeat to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Lakers now have a record of 2 wins to 5 defeats. Naturally, nobody is satisfied with the new LeBron James team.
“Of course there’s a bit of frustration,” Head Coach Luke Walton admitted after the narrow bankruptcy against the Wolves. “I don’t know what the level of frustration is, but it won’t be a pleasant flight home.”
The Lakers have lost all three games in the new season that were decided with a difference of five points or less. “No one will feel sorry for us. It’s up to us to figure out how to win the tight games,” Walton continued. “And we will, I promise you.”
After the Lakers were able to sign LeBron James in the summer, the expectations for the 2018/19 season were correspondingly high. However, the King had already demanded patience with the newly formed team before the start of the new season.
But: “We must become better. We talk about patience, but the same things can’t always happen. If you do the same things over and over again and expect a different result, it’s crazy,” says LeBron. “So we have to get better and not make the same mistakes over and over again.”
Against Minnesota the team around James allowed 20 offensive rebounds, moreover the Lakers committed clearly more fouls (24:14 LAL), so that the hosts had a blatant advantage at the free-throw line (30:15).
“It’s always the same story,” Walton also said. “We need to get better at the little things and that includes the eye for detail and following the gameplan. Our plan for today was to keep them away from the line and the defensive rebounding. They hurt us badly on both counts.”
Next up for LAL is a home game in the night from Wednesday to Thursday against the Dallas Mavericks. Should the negative run of the Lakers last even longer, it could quickly become uncomfortable in Hollywood. “You probably don’t want to be around me when my patience runs out,” James warned. “I mean that.”
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