The addition of Dorian Finney-Smith was a move expected to get the Los Angeles Lakers moving in the right direction towards contention. But after suffering their third consecutive loss, there remains a ton of questions surrounding the Lakers and where they stand in this tough Western Conference.
Against the San Antonio Spurs on Monday night, the Lakers defense completely collapsed in the second half and Finney-Smith credited the Spurs for making adjustments and taking advantage of getting Anthony Davis switched out on the perimeter.
“They made adjustments,” Finney-Smith said after the loss. “They saw we were switching so it seemed like once we got AD on the perimeter, they started attacking the basket and it worked out well.”
The Lakers forward also pointed to veteran point guard Chris Paul for directing everything for the Spurs and creating mismatches for the Spurs to take advantage of.
“CP is a Hall of Fame point guard so he just started manipulating the game,” Finney-Smith added. “He started trying to put different matchups on bigger guys and it either caused us to overreact and they got a corner 3 or even if they missed a shot, they were getting the offensive rebound. We gotta come out better in the second half fighting a little bit more.”
Finney-Smith has previously spoken about the need for practice time to help him get more acclimated with the Lakers and still feels they are improving and is better learning the coaches style. Against the Spurs, the Lakers were blown out and Finney-Smith put the blame on the players as he felt the coaches gave them the right plan to win.
“But as far as practice, it was a chance for us to practice,” Finney-Smith said. “First time I’ve practiced with guys so we definitely got better. We didn’t execute the game plan like we were supposed to. But the coaches, they gave us the right answers to the test. We just ain’t use the study guide.”
Dorian Finney-Smith stresses importance of Lakers staying together
The Lakers had some good momentum going, but now after three straight losses it feels like things are in danger of getting out of control. But Dorian Finney-Smith isn’t losing confidence in this team and stressed the importance of the Lakers sticking together through this rough patch.
“We gotta stay together. It’s a long season, man. It’s a real long season,” Finney-Smith said. “All it takes is one good win to turn this thing around and that’s usually how it goes. First of all, we gotta be better defensively. Shots are gonna go in, if we’re putting in work as a team they’re gonna fall. So all we gotta do is focus on that end of the ball. I feel like these last couple games, we kind of took steps back defensively since I’ve been here. We gotta fix it.”
The Lakers won’t have much time to fret as they are right back on the court on Wednesday against a Miami Heat team that gave them an embarrassing 41-point loss just a month ago. Hopefully they will be able to come together and get things back on track.
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