The Los Angeles Lakers have been struggling to gain momentum this season as they started slowly and then picked up pace but now have again fallen off the cliff. The Purple and Gold army are currently 13th in the Western Conference and have not found the form which they needed to be a contender for the NBA Championship.
It has been a tough season for the Lakers especially with Anthony Davis out injured,they have had plenty of issues on the defensive side of things. Davis himself has criticized the Lakers’ defense in recent times in his absence. Davis clearly highlights how the Lakers defense has been a major area of weakness for the Purple and Gold army.
The Lakers have lost five of the last eight games and have struggled majorly in conceding easy points and it had happened mostly due to Anthony Davis’ unavailability as he remains on the sidelines. However Davis while updating on his injury return shared, ”I think our main [struggle] is defensively. We took a huge dip defensively. I think maybe three games in a row we gave up like 130 which is not us. It’s not the team we’ve been. Even when I was in the lineup we took some dips, but that’s my biggest thing right now.”
Anthony Davis is a leader in this Lakers team along with LeBron James therefore he opened up on how he points out the flaws after matches and analyzes errors that have been made in a particular game. He also believes that his presence gives the other guys a lot of confidence in defence which they don’t have right now. Overall he feels that the defense has not been up to the mark for the Lakers whereas he has been satisfied with the scoring.
“Obviously being the anchor of the defense and guys thinking like, ‘Okay, AD in on the back line,’ which allows us to do different schemes defensively when I’m on the floor. Just been trying to give these guys my insight on the defensive end, looking at clips, grabbing the iPad and showing guys when they come out, things like that. The offense though, we’ve been scoring,” Davis added.
“We just haven’t been defending and that’s where our struggles have been. Transition, rebounding, everything on the defensive end,” Davis concluded.
Lastly Davis also shared his injury status and also claimed that he is feeling much better than before and the pain has subsided. Hence he will be bacon court sooner than many people think. Anthony Davis was injury free throughout the season until this happened. Davis was at his best this season as he was playing with some exceptional fluency and willpower before getting sidelined.
