After a disappointing loss to a short-handed Toronto Raptors, the Los Angeles Lakers aren’t overreacting.
Despite being big favorites at home on Sunday against the Toronto Raptors, the Los Angeles Lakers suffered their second loss of the season. The loss snapped an impressive seven-game winning streak, as the Lakers were looking like one of the best teams in basketball.
Even though the Lakers did lose to the Raptors, they aren’t hitting the panic button. Sure, this loss wasn’t a good one, but over the course of an 82 game season, and early in the year, bad losses are going to happen.
After the game, LeBron James took on the leadership role when speaking to reporters. Here’s what he had to say via Christian Rivas of Silver Screen and Roll.
"“Win or lose or draw, when you win games there’s room for improvement, when you lose games there’s room for improvement. So we’ll definitely look at the film tomorrow and see ways we can improve. Especially with it being early in the season, so that’s always good,” James told reporters on Sunday night."
James certainly said all of the right things here, as the Lakers can grow from this loss. Sometimes with a long winning streak, a team can become complacent. In some of the wins, we did see the Lakers not fully engaged on the defensive end of the court. This allowed teams like the Grizzlies and Bulls to hang around for longer than we expected. However, when the Lakers did turn it on, they handled their business.
Even though the Raptors were without Kyle Lowry, this is a team that does still have some talented players. The Lakers weren’t able to just hit that switch and stop them from scoring for an extended period of time.
This loss to the Raptors looks like it will be a good lesson for the Lakers. They will be back in action on Tuesday against a surprising Phoenix Suns team. After taking the Raptors a bit more lightly than they should have, expect the Lakers to be laser-focused against Phoenix.
There are some injury concerns for the Lakers heading into the game, as Troy Daniels has recently went for an MRI. However, Anthony Davis is expected to play once again with the shoulder issue. Hopefully, the Lakers will be able to get a new winning streak started against the Suns.