The Los Angeles Lakers ended their five-game road trip with a familiar result as they fell to the Dallas Mavericks, 90-82.
The Lakers went 1-4 on the trip, but were within striking distance down the stretch in three of those four losses with only the Miami Heat blowing them out.
Despite now sitting at 1-8, head coach Byron Scott was encouraged by the progress the Lakers made during the trip according to Lakers Nation reporter Serena Winters:
Byron Scott on the 5-game road trip: "Despite the 1-4, I think we made some big time progress, so I'm happy about that." (on @TWCSportsNet)
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) November 14, 2015
Scott wasn’t the only person who saw progress with the team as rookie D’Angelo Russell also felt the team made progress in the loss to the Mavericks via Winters:
D'Angelo Russell: "I feel like with this game we made major progress." (on @TWCSportsNet)
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) November 14, 2015
The results for the Lakers haven’t changed yet, but it is definitely a positive sign that they were competitive throughout the majority of the road trip. With many of the Lakers top players being very young. it was always going to take some time for everything to come together.
While that hasn’t happened just yet, there have been flashes of what is to come for the Lakers. Once those flashes become more consistent, these losses will start turning into wins and the Lakers are hoping that time comes sooner rather than later.