After a thrilling team win against the Brooklyn Nets, the Los Angeles Lakers fell back down to earth in their loss against the New York Knicks on Monday night.
The Lakers shot a shade under 44% from the field, but the primary reason why they lost was due to turnovers. Los Angeles coughed up the ball 25 times, an exorbitant amount that resulted in 29 points for New York.
Dennis Schroder led the Lakers in turnovers with five and after the game, he explained his decision-making process.
“Every game I try to, whatever I’m thinking, I try to go with it,” Schroder said. “Whatever I think is open, I try to go with it. Sometimes it’s not working out but at the end of the day, we’re just playing basketball and playing off of instinct. Sometimes they’re playing great defense, have a hand on the ball or whatever, there was a couple of those.
“Nothing has changed for me, I try to create for others still, probably even more while they’re out because we need to have some people stepping up and shooting wide open threes, and I try to look for them. I think the last couple of games, we’ve been sharing the ball very well. Sometimes you get nights where you don’t make it, which you can’t control, but some nights like last game, we’re gonna make them and win the game. But I think what we can control is second-chance points, rebound the ball and our turnovers and that’s what it comes down to.”
With LeBron James and Anthony Davis out, Schroder has been asked to run more of the offense to mixed results. Like the guard mentioned, some nights he is excellent at distributing the basketball but on others, he makes questionable choices that end up hurting the Lakers.
Schroder is at his best when he is asked to score rather than playmake, but hopefully he takes better care of the basketball in their next game against the Charlotte Hornets.
Schroder explains struggles in second half against Knicks
The Knicks are one of the best defensive teams in the league and Schroder explained how they were able to force him into turnovers in the second half. “The difference was we got stops in the first quarter and I got the outlet high, guy came and set the drag screen and then everything is like kind of open for me to attack” explained Schroder.
“I think in the second half we didn’t have that, and first off, they blitzed me and double-teamed me so there was nowhere to go. So I made the right play every time, tried to pass it ahead, tried to create a four-on-three. But like I said, we all got to do better.”
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