Once the Luka Doncic trade was completed before last month’s deadline, things came together almost instantly for the purple and gold, as they went on a winning streak that positioned them in the Western Conference’s playoff zone. Now, that success seems to have disappeared as quickly as it arrived.
After Monday’s 118-106 loss to the Magic, the Lakers dropped to a 3-7 in their past 10 outings. With only 11 games remaining in the regular season, the top-six seed in their conference seems far from guaranteed. “I think we just got a little bit satisfied,” Luka Doncic said. “We can’t afford that right now.”
The Los Angeles club stand fourth in the West, but they are only three games over No. 7 Clippers, who have the first play-in tournament spot. Now the purple and gold are set to continue their road trip and will play Indiana this Wednesday, and later on this week in Chicago and Memphis.
The press asked the Slovenian who could stop this negative trend and organise the team to perform on both ends of the floor, he took responsibility. However, he knows that now that LeBron James is healthy, he can count on is co-star to lead the charge.
“I think me and Bron, think we should be the guys to do that,” the All-Star guard said. “That’s on me. Obviously, I’ve got to do better, I’ve got to talk more. I talked in the first half, then just kind of [let my] voice down and I shouldn’t do that.”
With three weeks left in the regular-season calendar, the pressure is on Los Angeles, who hope to find some momentum before games begin to matter even more and more. “We need the adversity,” Dorian Finney-Smith said.
The guard then added: “Especially being a new team, we get to learn a lot about each other during tough times. You usually don’t see things when you’re winning. So we got the chance to grow. We’re going to use this opportunity to grow.”
