The Los Angeles Lakers saw their seven-game win streak snapped on Monday with an awful performance in a 17-point loss to the Phoenix Suns. It was one of the Lakers’ worst performances in what has otherwise been an extremely strong start to the regular season.
The Lakers are 15-5 and have the second-best record in the Western Conference as new additions Deandre Ayton, Marcus Smart and Jake LaRavia have done an excellent job of fitting around the Lakers’ star trio of Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and LeBron James. And despite this loss, Ayton was still encouraged when asked to evaluate the first quarter of the season.
“We’re not putting our heads down or we’re not deflated at all,” Ayton said. “Obviously this is Laker basketball, we want to win every game. The way we lost tonight was not a good example. Guys are just saying this is one game, finally played 20 games and we won 15 out of the 20 and that’s really good. That’s pretty good. We got a really good road trip to test us against some good teams like the one we played tonight. So we had a little setback and a little shot to the chin, but it’s not gonna knock us down.”
The Lakers don’t have time to fret over the loss as they are set to embark on a three-game East coast road trip, which includes games against the red-hot Toronto Raptors and the hated Boston Celtics. And Ayton feels defense will be key to their success.
“Taking care of the ball and our defense,” Ayton responded when asked what the Lakers need to do to get off to a good start on the road. “I feel like we’re a team that once we start on defense, that’s what creates our offense. It’s hard to stop us when we get rolling down hill.”
The Lakers’ last road trip saw them go 3-2, and those two losses were awful performances. And Ayton believes this trip is a chance for this team to redeem themselves.
“Our last road trip where we had OKC, Atlanta, those losses. It’s a good road trip to redeem ourselves a little bit,” Ayton noted. “We’re playing against some tough teams that are really good and I just think those games in those amount of days will really test our stamina and our mental stamina as well.”
A back-to-back against the Raptors and Celtics followed by matchup against the explosive Tyrese Maxey and the Philadelphia 76ers will certainly test where the Lakers are at. And if they aren’t locked in, they will come home to a lot of questions about just how good this Lakers team really is.
Deandre Ayton feels Suns wanted win more than the Lakers
In terms of what went wrong against the Suns that led to the embarrassing loss they suffered, Deandre Ayton felt it was simply a matter of the Suns wanting the victory more than the Lakers did.
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