Lakers find skill and smile

Equally distant from 3rd place, held by the Rockets, and 7th, which belongs to the Suns, the Lakers can no longer afford to lose games within reach, under penalty of being in play-in zone.

Three consecutive defeats cast doubt on LeBron James and his team, but against the Warriorscertainly very weakened, the Lakers regained control with 48 minutes of good basketball, the result of a successful start: +17 at the end of the first quarter.

“We’re getting back to finding that consistency to play the right way on both ends of the floor and do what we need to do and execute at a high level. We’ve seen that in sequences, but we haven’t done that for a full game yet.” underscores JJ Redick. “It’s come at times over our last four games. This is obviously our most complete game since the All-Star break.”

“Our mentality was right”

Luka Dončić with 26 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds in just 29 minutes was Luka Dončić before he celebrated his 27th birthday. Alongside him, LeBron James added 22 points, 9 assists and 7 rebounds in 28 minutes while scoring 1,000. career 3-point shot. Austin Reeves (18 points), Luke Kennard (16 points) and Jake LaRavia (15 points off the bench) responded.

“We just needed a win … to get us back in the right direction, and I think we did that tonight.”, LeBron James summed it up. “It’s been a while since we’ve played a full 48-minute match with a sustained effort. I think we came in with the right frame of mind. We’re coming off three losses, including two at home, and the match against Phoenix was tough. We came in with the right mentality, we knew the mission and we got the job done.”

If the Lakers were very clean offensively (53% shooting, 46% with 3 points, 9 turnovers, 29 passes…), LeBron James insists on the mental aspect. “In the end, above all, I think our mentality was right. The numbers speak for themselves. We can talk about statistics, but mentally we knew what was waiting for us. We knew how we lost the last three matches, and we didn’t like it.”