Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis was visibly frustrated after the loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder Thursday, which marked the second straight game against the Thunder where L.A. blew a strong double-digit lead and lost.
Just last week, the Lakers developed a 26-point lead but lost it in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. This time, L.A. caught fire from deep in the second quarter but fell apart at the five-minute mark of the fourth quarter and lost, 107-104.
Davis, who had a strong start to the game as he made his first seven shots in the opening period, discussed after the loss how the Lakers need to do a better job with managing their leads.
“I think our biggest thing is just keeping leads, and that has kind of been our M.O. since I been here,” Davis said. “We have no problem building leads, 10, 20, 30-point leads, it’s how you play with them. And we’ve struggled to do that, a lot last year and even this year.”
Davis continued about how it has become a trend against recent opponents like the Cleveland Cavaliers and Houston Rockets besides the Thunder.
“Especially with this team, I think we were up 19 and they come back again and win the game, and kind of the same thing up there. Even against Cleveland, Houston, we had the same thing. We won those games, but we got to do a better job of still being able to score the basketball and continue to get stops,” Davis said. “We know teams are going to make runs, it’s a game of runs, but we got to do a better job of playing with the lead and continuing to play the right way.”
Davis, who dropped 29 points, 18 rebounds and five assists, also hurt his thumb near the end of the second quarter when he jumped for the ball with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Davis ended up hitting his thumb against Shai’s thigh, and his thumb bent backward. He said it swelled bad and blood was in his fingernail, so he had to get it taped.
As for his status against the Portland Trail Blazers Saturday, he said it depends on how it feels.
[listicle id=51533]
[mm-video type=video id=01fk4r5nxt2tva7gf892 playlist_id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01fk4r5nxt2tva7gf892/01fk4r5nxt2tva7gf892-d84c2c86dfac8a7074ad147f0b993c26.jpg]