In his career, LeBron James has built a career on beating the Toronto Raptors on the biggest stages. That's why ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers matchup against the Raptors, James arrived wearing a Ghostface mask, the killer's headwear from the Scream movie franchise, per Overtime.
After starting the season on a 3-0 run, the Lakers are 3-2, having lost back-to-back road games against the Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers.
Lakers looking to get back on track during road swing
Los Angeles is in the middle of a road trip with Friday's game against the Raptors. The fourth and fifth matchups while away come against the Detroit Pistons and Memphis Grizzlies.
After the Lakers hot start, head coach JJ Redick quickly acknowledged the team needing to learn from its mistakes in their loss to the Cavs.
“I think we kind of got punched in the mouth a little bit,” Redick said. “When you play good teams, you cannot afford a lot of mistakes. We made a lot of mistakes. Simple stuff sometimes like low-man rotations, not executing our switches early. They did a lot of things that forced us into those mistakes, but when you play a good basketball team, you cannot make those mistakes.
“We got down early and could not recover. Frankly, you get down early with turnovers… They had 17 more scoring opportunities, generated 13 more threes, and beat us at +33 in the three-point battle. It was the lowest crash rate of the season. We had the highest LIMBO rating of the season. That's not a winnable game. If you turn the ball over 20-plus times, you're not winning those games. That's just math.”
Even Los Angeles' young players can learn a lot from their less-heralded veterans. Lakers point guard D'Angelo Russell recently spoke to ClutchPoints' DJ Siddiqi for an exclusive interview. Russell discussed being the only player to play with LeBron, Kobe Bryant and Steph Curry and how James carries himself as a person and a teammate.
“I get to actually watch him and be around him,” says Russell of his relationship with James. “For me to be around him and see the way he talks to people, the way he carries himself, the way he compliments, the way he rewards, the way he talks to his teammates and he treats his teammates. All those are things that I could pick up on and I think that's really the biggest thing I learned. Such a professional.”
The Lakers hope to have power forward Jarred Vanderbilt back within a week or two. There also remains no clear timeline for center Christian Koloko to get back on the court.
Follow Us
Subscribe
