LeBron James Discusses Lakers' Defensive Struggles In Loss To Mavericks
Yesterday at 12:39 PM
LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers had a prime opportunity to get back on track on Tuesday night, taking on a Dallas Mavericks team that was in the second night of a back-to-back and missing both Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.
Instead though, the Lakers allowed the Mavericks to get momentum at the end of the first half and they carried that all the way to a 118-97 victory.
After the game, James discussed what went wrong for the Lakers defensively as they allowed 63 points in the second half and the Mavericks to shoot 52.3% from the field overall, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“They had a great game plan versus our defense and obviously they watched to see how we play. They had a great game plan, put us in a lot of pick-and-rolls, spread us out, a lot of times it was five-out when Lively wasn’t in the game. They had multiple ball-handlers that broke us down and either got to the rim or sprayed it out and they played the drive-and-kick game and hit a lot of 3s. It started with the end of the second quarter, we had a horrible finish to the second quarter after we were up 50-44. Let Klay hit three in a row and they ended up going into the half up five and extended it from there.”
LeBron further elaborated on what the Mavericks were doing that gave the Lakers issues:
“I felt like they put people in pick-and-roll, who they wanted in pick-and-rolls and they tried to exploit matchups. When we got to rotations, we didn’t make enough second efforts.”
On the other end of the floor, the Lakers missed a lot of easy shots, particularly around the rim, which James admitted was frustrating and bled into their defense:
“Yeah, when the ball is popping and the ball is going in, obviously you’re able to play defense with a set defense. If it’s not, they get out and run or if we turn the ball over, which we didn’t do too much of that, but offense can help defense just as much as defense can help offense. Just not a good night for us. Not very good offensively, we didn’t shoot the ball well, missed a lot of shots at the rim and they countered that.”
While it was a disappointing loss, James and the Lakers need to make sure it doesn’t snowball and they get back on track as quickly as possible given how close the standings are in the Western Conference.
LeBron James wants Lakers to be more ‘gritty’
Even before the Lakers’ loss to the Mavericks, LeBron James talked about how the team needs to be more gritty.
"I want to be a great team. But it takes some things that maybe get uncomfortable out there that we gotta do a little bit more of,” James said. “Do a little bit more, be a little bit more gritty, make more plays, not have so many breakdowns. We're not much of a breakdown team but sometimes we don't have a lot of room for error as well.”
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? It’s the best way to watch player interviews, exclusive coverage from events, participate in live shows, and more!
