“Have you seen the Pacers’ record since the final? » This is whatreplied LeBron James to a journalist who asked him about the Lakers' bad run: 1 victory for 3 defeats. Indeed, the Pacers digest their great adventure in the NBA tournament just as badly with a victory in five matches. Last night, the Pacers conceded 151 points against the Clippers!
“There is a champion hangover, but I don’t think that’s it” assures Darvin Ham. “We fought well against Dallas. We won against San Antonio, then we let the second game against them slip away. And tonight it was another fight. So I don't think it's a hangover from the NBA tournament. »
Injuries, fatigue…
What may be worrying is that the returns of Anthony Davis, Cam Reddish and D'Angelo Russell had no effect on this bad patch, and the Lakers coach reduced his rotation to nine players.
“It’s difficult because during the whole month of December we were on the move”notes Anthony Davis. “There's not much we can do about it… It's the calendar. We just have to take care of our physical condition and get some guys back for the next two matches. But it’s definitely a mental challenge.”
If we take a look at the Lakers' schedule, we see that they had not played at home since December 5, with two meetings in Las Vegas, followed by three away matches (Dallas and San Antonio) .
A complicated period far from Los Angeles
Certainly it's not ideal, but the fact remains that since their victory against the Pacers, the Lakers have only won one game, and it was against the Spurs who have had 18 defeats in a row. This is not reassuring, and the rest promises to be tense with three trips to teams in good shape: Chicago, Minnesota and OKC.
“We will have to insist during this period,” continues the Lakers coach. “You just have to get through this period, and it's usually like that in December and January. So everything will be fine. We will get through this. We're going to watch the video before preparing for this three-match road trip. »
