Anthony Davis says Lakers ‘don’t know what we’re doing’ at times after Game 2 loss
This deep into the season, it's beyond concerning that Anthony Davis feels the Lakers are lost for moments during their series against the Nuggets.
The Lakers found a new and more painful way to lose to the Nuggets on Monday, blowing a 20-point lead and falling behind 0-2 in the series.
After the game, the Lakers were visibly frustrated in their post-game press conferences with Darvin Ham saying things are 'getting real tricky' when discussing the officiating during this series.
While certain calls were questionable at best, when reflecting on ways to improve, one must always look from within and Anthony Davis did that during his media availability.
"Just have to focus on Game 3," Davis said. "We've shown we're more than capable. We have stretches where we just don't know what we're doing on both ends of the floor and those are the ones that have cost us. We have two days to get it right and come ready to win Game 3 on Thursday."
Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but a team not knowing what it is doing at times during a playoff series is concerning. It could only mean one of two things: either the coaching staff is lost or bad at explaining what they want to do, or the team's players are not executing the gameplan.
Fans will undoubtedly read this as a condemnation of Lakers head coach Darvin Ham. They've been frustrated with his lineup decisions since the season began, including benching D'Angelo Russell and sticking with Taurean Prince over Rui Hachimura in the starting lineup for far too long.
However, Davis may not be sending a shot at Ham and just mentioning the mental lapses the team has. He acknowledges the team’s capability, so perhaps the wording is a bit strong but just another example of how perfect Los Angeles has to be to beat Denver.
Regardless, confusion and lack of execution this late into the season is not a recipe for success, which is why the Lakers are down 0-2 and have lost ten in a row and counting against the Nuggets.
It's not all grim in Laker land; there's a slim possibility we can see Christian Wood and Jarred Vanderbilt return for Game 3, which should help tremendously with their size and defensive versatility.
Can they clean up these errors and find a path to victory with the boost of returning players? They’ll have to if they don’t want to be down 0-3 and looking at another sweep versus the Nuggets.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.