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One of the main reasons for the loss against the New Orleans Pelicans on New Year’s Eve was the team’s inability to guard the three-point line, with veteran guard C.J. McCollum torching the Lakers from deep. McCollum finished with only 22 points but hit six threes during the game to help New Orleans get the best of Los Angeles.
Along with McCollum shooting over 50% from beyond the arc, the Pelicans as a team were scorching hot from distance, finishing the game at exactly 50%, hitting 17-of-35 from beyond the three-point line. The Lakers won’t win many games, giving up that many threes and Davis is fully aware of that fact, as he expressed his frustration after the game via Spectrum SportsNet.
Anthony Davis speaks on the Lakers’ defensive struggles on the arc and the importance of getting wins at home next month. pic.twitter.com/Lqvpyusf37— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) January 1, 2024
“They were killing us on the glass,” Davis said. “And then Rui [Hachimura] goes out. I just said that’s going to be our biggest downfall this year. Not being able to stay healthy, especially coming off a back-to-back. You’re already missing Cam [Reddish], DLo. Obviously, Gabe [Vincent] is out for an extended period of time, but then Rui goes down. Now, our rotation is smaller. You lose another body as far as scoring, but yeah, I mean, defensively, we gave up a lot of threes. They had 10 in the first half. Obviously, there are some guys that we wanted to shoot, and they made them. There’s nothing you can do about it.
“I think our effort to start and our attentiveness was very low. Just from the point of C.J. [McCollum], a lot of his threes were buttnaked. That’s tough to deal with.”
Along with being frustrated with how the Lakers have played defensively, Davis believes that the team’s Achilles heel this season has been its inability to stay healthy, with Rui Hachimura being the latest to go down with an injury that could keep him out for some time.
As if Hachimura going down in this game with a calf strain wasn’t bad enough for the Lakers, the team also had to play without Cam Reddish and D’Angelo Russell, which hurt the squad on both ends of the floor.
Only time will tell if this Lakers team can bounce back and get healthy to make an inspired run, with the second half of the season being right around the corner.
