The Los Angeles Lakers won both their games at home before they hit the road. Starting off their four-game road trip at Orlando, LeBron James and co. suffered a shocking loss. Having defeated the Magic merely a few days ago, Paolo Banchero and co. got their revenge, handing the Lakers a 19-point loss.
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The Magic’s young duo of Banchero and Franz Wagner got the better of the LeBron James-Anthony Davis pairing. A much more one-sided affair than most thought it would be, ended with 3 lead changes and 3 ties. Ultimately, the Florida side clinched a 120-101 victory.
Following their 3rd loss of the 2023-2024 season, LBJ was extremely candid in his assessment during the postgame conference. First, ‘the King’ disclosed not wanting to conserve energy while on the floor. Later, Bron, who recorded merely 5 assists, lauded himself for his incredible court vision.
“I’m really not one to conserve energy when I’m on the floor to be honest. I mean, if I’m on the floor, I’m just trying to make plays… Just trying to read the game the right way. I do have the ability to see the whole floor. I was born and was given very unique ability to see the floor and I just try to use that as an advantage,” LeBron said.
The four-time Champion was also critical of his team’s rebounding failures. Addressing the issue, James said that going up against the Miami Heat, the Houston Rockets, and the Phoenix Suns, who were all great rebounding teams, would be some tough matchups for the Purple & Gold.
“Certain teams crash more than other teams. Orlando’s one of them who sends multiple guys to the glass. But we just gotta do a better job, no matter what. I think Miami is gonna play extremely hard too. We know what that type of game is gonna be on Monday. Houston is young and athletic and those guys are possibly gonna send a lot of guys to the glass as well. We play Phoenix on Friday, Josh Okogie alone is a guy who crashes,” James admitted.
LeBron James and co. lost the rebound battle
Darvin Ham’s boys have always struggled with their rebounding. Averaging 46 rebounds per game, the team has seen a slight improvement from last year (45.7 rebounds per game). However, this minute difference doesn’t seem to have any adverse effect.
Allowing the Orlando Magic 11 more rebounds (with 9 of them being on the offensive side) was a huge reason behind the loss. These additional rebounds allowed the Magic to record 21 more second-chance points than the Lakers. Keep in mind that the Lakers lost the contest by 19 points.
Anthony Davis, who has been the team’s best rebounder, also spoke about the importance of crashing the board. After grabbing 13 out of his team’s 40 rebounds, the Brow expressed his dissatisfaction with his teammate’s performance at the glass.
Fortunately, the Miami Heat are only averaging 43 rebounds per game. With no player taller than 6ft 9” in their starting lineup, the California side should find it much more comfortable to dominate the rebounding stats on Monday night.
