For the second consecutive game, the Los Angeles Lakers were absolutely dominated in the third quarter and saw a close contezt turn into a blowout as they fell to the Phoenix Suns in their third group stage game of the Emirates NBA Cup. Austin Reaves had previously spoken about the Lakers still being in good spirits after back-to-back losses, but now with a third straight a bit more frustration may be seeping in.
In talking after the loss, Reaves said there was a lot that the Lakers must clean up on both ends of the court to be better overall, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Once again I just thought we were bad in the third quarter. There’s a lot to watch and clean up: shot selection, taking care of the ball, obviously the defensive end, have to be more aggressive, more physical. But I think, honestly there’s a little bit of everything you can do to be better.”
Reaves would continue on, saying that any time the Lakers lose is frustrating, but the team must go back to the drawing board and believes that is exactly what they’ll do:
“I mean, any time you lose it’s frustrating, but just not playing good is frustrating. You have to go back to the drawing board and figure out what it is to change or what you need to do to be better and that’s what we’ll do.”
Third quarter issues are nothing new to the Lakers as it plagued the team most of last season as well. Transition defense also continues to be a big problem as the Suns had 19 fastbreak points, many of them coming off Lakers turnovers. While they only turned the ball over 12 times, Phoenix turned that into 19 points.
Despite that, the Lakers have still gotten off to a solid start to the season overall at 10-7 with a new, first-time head coach still implementing his systems. Prior to the season, the Lakers spoke about the process being more important than results early on, but even Reaves admitted it is hard to think like that in the midst of the recent performances they have been putting on:
“In the moment, as you’re competing it’s nearly impossible to think about the big picture when you’re getting your ass kicked. But when it’s all over, you sit down, you think about it. We’re 10-7 right now, we’re still in a good spot so it’s not like we’re in a bad spot. I think there’s probably three losses that we have that have been bad. This one and the last one I think. Detroit we didn’t play good either. But when you’re in the moment it sucks because who wants to even think about the big picture in the moment, you’re thinking about trying to win a game at that moment.”
These are competitors who are looking to win every time they step on the court and it is difficult to accept losses, especially in the way the Lakers have looked. But Reaves and the rest of the Lakers remain committed to what this team is building and will continue to put the work in to improve individually and as a unit.
Austin Reaves says Lakers trying to be more physical defensively
One area where Austin Reaves believes the Lakers can improve on defense is with their level of physicality. Reaves noted that the Lakers don’t have the best defensive personnel even with Anthony Davis covering up their mistakes so the team as a whole needs to be more physical.
“I think if you watch basketball for a long time, the teams that are ‘physical defensive teams’ might get away with a little more just because every possession you can’t call a foul,” Reaves said. “So we’re trying to get to that where we’re physical every possession and we have to make the refs call fouls.
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