MY ACCOUNT
Anthony Davis has warned the Los Angeles Lakers they will not be NBA title contenders this season if they do not improve on their “embarrassing” form.
The Lakers lost 107-83 at home to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday to fall to 7-6 on the year, despite playing 10 of their first 13 games at Staples Center.
Only once previous have the Lakers won the title after making a 7-6 start, improving to 57-25 in 2007-08 to take the top seed in the West.
Even with LeBron James closing on a return from injury, such a turnaround looks unlikely this year as things stand. Three of their seven wins have come only after overtime – a league high.
Davis, who led the team with 22 points against the Timberwolves, is certainly concerned.
“We’ve got to decide who we want to be,” he said. “A championship team? That’s not us right now. We’re not winning a championship the way we’re playing.
“We’ve got to be better, and we’ve got to care more for our wins at home, wins in general. That was embarrassing.”
LA have been especially poor in the third quarters of games, a theme that continued against Minnesota.
The Lakers scored just 12 points and allowed 40 for a differential of -28, their second-worst in any single quarter since at least 2002-03 (-31 in the second quarter against the Los Angeles Clippers in 2013-14).
The team are a combined -83 in third quarters this season, the worst record of any team in any single quarter in 2021-22.
“We sucked,” Davis said. “No defense, can’t score. That’s not just this third quarter, it’s every third quarter we’ve played this season.
“We come out slow, lackadaisical offensively and defensively. We’ve got to get it together. Why? I can’t tell you. But we’ve got to do a better job.”
