The Los Angeles Lakers suffered their third straight defeat on Friday night, falling to the Philadelphia 76ers 133-122 in overtime.
Although it was a disappointing loss, it was a game that the Lakers shouldn’t have even been in as they trailed by 16 with a little over three minutes to play and then by nine with 27 seconds left.
The Lakers continued to battle though, forcing some turnovers and knocking down some shots to make it close. They then had a chance to win it in regulation when Anthony Davis went to the line trailing by one with three seconds left. After knocking down his first 12 free throw attempts, Davis could only make one of two this time, sending the game to overtime.
L.A. was outscored 13-2 in the overtime period as Davis’ missed free throw proved costly. After the game though, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham talked about why he wasn’t mad at this loss, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“We survived some unfortunate calls by the officials. I’m not one to blame them, some of those foul calls were just unfortunate. And us turning the ball over at some different segments of the game, but we can get better from this. I told the team that as disappointed as I am that we didn’t get the win, I still can have a good meal and sleep like a baby tonight because of the way we competed. We did not quit, we did not give up. There was a point in the game where we could’ve just folded our tent, but we kept scratching away, kept digging deep, kept making plays, one stop after another and put ourselves in a position to win the game. And unfortunately we missed some free throws, missed some layups, had some 3s go in and out. But again, our guys fought, they competed, they were together and I’m not upset or distraught, just disappointed because we fought our way back into it and had a chance right there to win it. Couldn’t quite seal the deal, but my hats off to Philly. Embiid is a hell of a basketball player, James [Harden], Melton, they really have some unbelievable talent on that side of the ball. So kudos to them, kudos to them.”
Ham went on to explain what went wrong for the Lakers in overtime and he didn’t think effort was the issue:
“We got the shots we wanted, it was just unfortunate. We missed some layups and again, some 3s rimmed in and out and that’s all you can ask. Put yourself in a position to make plays and we just couldn’t make enough.”
While the Lakers are clearly making progress since the beginning of the season, there are no moral victories in the NBA. If the Lakers want to have a chance to make the playoffs then they will need to start closing some of these games out.
After three straight losses on the road trip, the Lakers sit at 10-15, which is 13th in the Western Conference.
Davis ‘shocked’ by missed free throw
As one of the best free throw shooters in the league at 83.1%, Davis is the exact guy the Lakers want at the line with the game on the line. He came up short this time though, which left the big man ‘shocked’ in his postgame press conference.
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