The Los Angeles Lakers had an opportunity to end their home stand on a high note, but came up just short in an extremely tight game against the Orlando Magic. Both teams went back and forth down the stretch, but the Magic were able to get the final bucket on an offensive rebound putback and LeBron James’ 3-pointer to win the game for the Lakers was offline.
The Lakers started off strong and led throughout most of the game, with the biggest lead being 12 points which they reached early in the second half. But the Magic were able to claw back into it and when discussing where it went wrong, LeBron just felt that the Lakers weren’t able to get stops when they needed it down the stretch.
“I don’t know,” James said after the loss. “There were a lot of plays, obviously a lot of bang-bang plays to finish that game off. We made shots. We couldn’t get that two-possession [lead]. We go up three, come down hit a three, we go up three again, they come down, get an and-one, we go up two and they take the lead. It was just like we couldn’t get a stop, a key stop. It cost us all way until the end.”
The final possession for the Lakers was also a bit confusing as Luka Doncic had an open look on the designed play, but hesitated and passed it to LeBron, who was forced into a very difficult shot.
“I thought we had a good opportunity. Luka came off clean,” James noted. “I think he felt off balance, but we executed. We didn’t get the shot that we wanted. We did execute it and it doesn’t go down.”
As far as what exactly happened on that last play, James was unsure as to why Doncic passed on his open shot believing he possibly felt off balance.
“We executed. Like I said, I’m not sure,” LeBron said. “Obviously you’ll have to ask Luka what he saw on that. But I thought he had a good look and it felt like he kind of just lost his balance, didn’t have a rhythm with the ball, whatever the case may be. And it kind of allowed them to get back in front of him. And I was kind of off-balance when he gave it to me. I thought he had a great look. That’s my POV.”
The Lakers had the game in their hands, but failures to execute on both ends of the court in the final minute ultimately did them in and that final possession will be one that is replayed in their heads.
Lakers’ Luka Doncic explains final possession vs. Magic
As LeBron James said, only Luka Doncic would know exactly what happened on that final possession for the Lakers against the Magic and the superstar explained why he passed on the shot and what went wrong in the loss.
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