Up by as many as 12 points, the Los Angeles Lakers lost 106-96 to the Denver Nuggets Tuesday night, unable to contain Ty Lawson down the stretch, who finished with 32 points and 16 assists.
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Lakers rookie Jordan Clarkson had the tough matchup on Lawson and when it was clear he was giving Lawson too much space, Lakers head coach Byron Scott subbed in Jeremy Lin with just 1:11 left in the game.
After the game, Scott’s assessment was that his team lacked confidence with the game on the line, that they were playing “not to lose,” when they needed “to play to win.” Lin suggested the Lakers were playing too much one-on-one down the stretch.
What ends up happening is we just play a lot of one-on-one down the stretch and I think that’s something that is tough to win games on.”
For Lin personally, he didn’t feel that confidence was an issue at the end of games, but he did think it was the pressure of the defense. Lin said the main thing for the team was that what was working for them the first three quarters, no longer works down the stretch when the opponent turns up the defense.
[divide]Is Confidence The Issue? Byron Scott Would Say So