Los Angeles Lakers: Isaiah Thomas criticizing ability to close games
The Los Angeles Lakers have had some issues closing out games and newly acquired Isaiah Thomas recently commented about them.
Isaiah Thomas has shown flashes of his Celtics days while playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, but he definitely hasn’t come close to fully playing that way.
He’s averaging 16.1 PPG in 10 games with the Lakers, 28.9 in 2016-17 with Boston, and 14.7 with Cleveland during this year. His 16.7 PPG off the bench for the Lakers has been good as he tries to replace Jordan Clarkson’s bench output.
However, it remains to be seen if he individually has improved the Lakers as a whole. The team has been 6-4 since Isaiah arrived, but that’s probably more due to Lonzo Ball coming back and Julius Randle playing out of his mind.
Isaiah’s Comments After Game Against Magic
With his impact on this Lakers team in question, Isaiah’s comments following the Lakers’ win against the Magic come at an interesting time. Isaiah had this to say following the game.
"“We don’t know how to win yet. We have a young group, we’re not executing the way we need to down the stretch. These guys, half of them are 20 years old. They don’t know how to win an NBA basketball game.”"
Lonzo Ball and Luke Walton also commented on the Lakers play towards the end of the Magic game and also the Trail Blazers game, Lonzo said they became “relaxed” and Walton said the players were playing “as if we had won the game”.
Isaiah’s criticism was fair, as the Lakers blew a lead in the Blazers game. They didn’t score in the final two minutes of the Magic game, aside from Brook Lopez’s game winning free throws with 0.6 seconds left. Isaiah is one of the few veterans on the team, and has played meaningful NBA games before, so it would usually be fair to criticize his young teammates. The fact of the matter is, that the Trail Blazers loss is somewhat on him. Also, he’s had troubling criticism of teammates in his few games with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Bad Play at End of Trail Blazers Game
In the final possession of the Trail Blazers game, Isaiah missed a dead ball foul shot that would have made it only a two-point Trail Blazers lead with the ball coming back to the Lakers. Isaiah has shot 95% from the free throw line so far with the Lakers, but he missed the crucial shot. After that, Isaiah got stripped on a potential game tying 3-pointer.
There was definitely other reasons the Lakers lost the Trail Blazers game. The defense that had been good all game, collapsed in the 4th quarter. After only giving up 15 points in the 3rd quarter, they gave up 35 in the 4th. The Trail Blazers were led by Damian Lillard, who turned the 4th into “Dame Time” yet again with 19 points in the quarter. So the game wasn’t completely Isaiah’s fault. He may have only shot 5-for-21 from the field during the game and made multiple mistakes in the final possession, but it was a team effort in losing the game.
Concerning Criticism from Isaiah
That may not be the point here regarding his post game comments after the Magic game. The point is that Lonzo Ball and Luke Walton each took blame individually for the struggles down the stretch. Isaiah on the other hand was playing the blame game when he has definitely been shaky in the last two games while not being perfect down the stretch. This is concerning, as Isaiah’s Cavs run was plagued towards the end with Isaiah criticizing his teammates left and right. Some of the times he criticized the defense, which has always been a glaring weakness for the small point guard.
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His post game comments were a cause of concern when he was traded to the Lakers. Hopefully he won’t continue to throw his teammates under the bus. Team chemistry will be important for the rest of the season. At times it’ll be fair for Isaiah to criticize his young teammates. It won’t be fair when he is also part of the source of the criticism.