The Los Angeles Lakers suffered their worst loss in franchise history on Sunday night, falling to the Dallas Mavericks 122-73. Luke Walton’s squad had season lows in both points at the half and points in a game as their losing streak to Dallas reached 13 games, including three this year.
The Lakers have now lost 22 of their last 28 games and there are concerns growing about whether all of the losing is really affecting the culture Walton is trying to build. Walton, however, isn’t worried about it.
According to Lakers Nation reporter Serena Winters (via Spectrum SportsNet), Walton isn’t concerned about the culture of the Lakers:
Luke Walton is asked whether he’s concerned about the culture of this Lakers team (on @SpectrumSN): pic.twitter.com/BxFUcWIK3e
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) January 22, 2017
The concerns many have are normal. For the Lakers’ young core, losing has been a normal thing and when that happens, some can become indifferent to it and just accept the fact that they’re going to lose. Walton doesn’t believe that is the case for his team, however.
The Lakers players have continually spoken about needing to get better and not being satisfied with the current state of the team. The young players like D’Angelo Russell, Brandon Ingram, and Julius Randle are all known to put in plenty of extra work in trying to speed up their development and help the team win.
Walton has done a great job at instilling confidence in his young team and making them believe in themselves. His positivity is a necessity for these players who could very easily get down thanks to all of the losses. This season was always going to be a difficult one at this stage of the rebuild, but Walton still believes the Lakers are on the right path. Hopefully he is right.