Top Lakers rookie rips team after it 'flat-out gave up' in latest loss
Everything you really need to know about the Los Angeles Lakers’ season is that they’re getting strong rookie leadership and a play for team unity — from the guy they drafted 27th overall rather than the guy they picked second from the circus sideshow family.
Kyle Kuzma, not Lonzo Ball, has taken the responsibility on his shoulders for LA’s 3-14 record since it started the year 8-12. The Lakers are now the worst team in the Western Conference and stand just half a game clear of Atlanta, which has the worst record in the entire league.
On Wednesday night, the Lakers got clobbered 133-96 by the Oklahoma City Thunder, who had four players — Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Carmelo Anthony and rookie Terrance Ferguson — score at least 20 points. The 24 Ferguson put up, all in the second half, brought his season total for points scored to 53.
That’s right, a guy who had been averaging 1.3 points per game dropped 24 on LA.
Kuzma pulled no punches in his assessment of his team’s performance.
“We just flat-out gave up. We gave up,” he said. “You could see, they got basket after basket, we had no resistance on them on the defensive end and offensive end. When things got tough, we tried to do it individually, and you can’t do that in this league. To lose by [nearly] 40, it is pretty embarrassing to be out there.”
“They took a little lead, and we just went to being selfish on the floor. We didn’t compete on defense. They killed us, flat-out.”
Oklahoma City shot 60.2 percent from the field in the game. The Thunder hit 46.7 percent of their 3-pointers. And, in a display of just what kind of discipline they have compared with the hapless last-place scrubs they smacked on the Lakers’ home floor, they turned the ball over only nine times compared with LA’s 17.
Kuzma was the lone bright spot for the Lakers. He led the team with 18 points, hit half his shots (7-of-14) and also knocked down half of his 3-pointers (3-of-6.)
The Lakers have been decimated by injuries to Ball, Brook Lopez and Brandon Ingram, and they’ve been without Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for any games outside the state of California thanks to KCP’s work-release program, where he’s allowed to play only in-state while completing an intensive 25-day program to clear his probation after he pleaded guilty to allowing another person to operate his motor vehicle while under the influence, a misdemeanor.
But still, lack of talent is one thing. Lack of any kind of team chemistry or unity is a whole different can of worms, and the can is open and worms are everywhere.
Coach Luke Walton says he saw players “pouting” on the bench in LA’s loss to Portland right before Christmas. The team held a meeting where players had a “heart-to-heart,” although after that Festivus game against the Blazers, it was more like an Airing of Grievances.
The Lakers have lost their last six games by a combined 103 points, and Walton said, “It felt a little bit like we gave in or we felt sorry for ourselves a little bit, which isn’t who we are as a group. I am going to have to check the tape to see why we completely stopped competing out there.”
Look on the bright side, Lakers fans. The NBA’s new rules to limit the effect of record on draft lottery odds don’t kick in until 2019. You can tank to your hearts’ delight, get that No. 1 overall pick, draft Trae Young, trade Lonzo and his dad to Shanghai for a plate of kung pao chicken and the merch LiAngelo stole from that shop, and execute a proper franchise rebuild next year.
In fact, you should probably just put Kuzma, Julius Randle and half of the Laker Girls on the injured list and get started on going 11-71.
Kuzma seemed more disappointed than anything, like his team had disgraced the uniform.
Said the rookie, “Except for the past two games [Wednesday night’s game plus an 18-point loss to Minnesota], we have been competing and fighting in games. Today was five steps back. [It is] something that we need to address, whatever, correct. Something has to change for sure.
“That is not being a Laker. I have only been a Laker for a couple of months, but that’s not it.”
And indeed, for a franchise that has put out Hall of Famers Jerry West, Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant as the faces of a city’s basketball scene for a total of 47 of the Lakers’ 58 seasons in Los Angeles, there are plenty of examples available for what being a Laker is.
Paul George, who has been rumored to be LA-bound since the waning days of his tenure with the Pacers, had nice things to say about the young core they’re building on a team that his guys just thrashed.
“The best thing is they have young guys that are potentially going to be big names in this league,” George said. “They just got to continue to keep working.”
Walton kept his head up and looked for the bright side of things.
“I think injuries have a little bit to do with it,” he said. “This is something we will fix. We are not going to start getting blown out now. We are not going to start feeling sorry for ourselves. We are going to get back in the gym, go to work, show film. I believe in the character of our team. We will fix it.”
And if they don’t, there’s always tanking for Trae Young and hoping that all those rumors about Paul George and LeBron James are true.
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