Lakers rookie Kyle Kuzma says team quit
The Los Angeles Lakers' season is very quickly becoming a lost cause, and on a night when the Lakers' young core could make a pitch to Paul George to come in the offseason, the Lakers "gave up" in an ugly 37-point loss at home.
It's been a very, very bad month for the Lakers. The team has now lost eight consecutive games and 16 of their last 19, and has fallen from a few games out of playoff position in the Western Conference to last, boasting the second-worst record in the NBA.
The Lakers' brutal schedule is partly to blame for their implosion. Wednesday's loss was the team's 10th game in the last 17 days, and nine of their opponents in that stretch are either title contenders (Golden State, Houston), playoff-bound (Minnesota, Oklahoma City, Portland) or in the playoff hunt (Clippers). Starting point guard Lonzo Ball has also been out for the last six games with a shoulder injury.
Still, breakout rookie Kyle Kuzma called Wednesday's performance against the Thunder "embarrassing."
Via ESPN:
"We gave up. 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.
They took a little lead, and we just went to being selfish on the floor. We didn't compete on defense. They killed us. … To lose by [nearly] 40, it is pretty embarrassing to be out there."
The Lakers were never going to be very good in 2018, but this is a team trying to lure the likes of George and LeBron James for next season. A last-place club might not be good enough for superstars with title aspirations.
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