The Los Angeles Lakers are struggling badly at the moment. Their horrendous losing streak has now reached nine games following a 108-94 defeat to the Charlotte Hornets. Of their nine defeats, six have been by double-digits.

Lakers head coach Luke Walton believes the key to his team bouncing back is to overcome the mental battle they’re currently going through.

Per Ryan Ward of ClutchPoints:

Luke Walton: “As far as getting back to where we were, its mentally fighting through the fatigue and the losing that we have going on right now.”

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The mental aspect of Los Angeles' uphill climb is a tough one to overcome for a team like the Lakers, which has so many young players. Those youngsters just haven’t had the experience needed to recover from adversity as quickly, and that’s been clear for everyone to see. Kyle Kuzma noted how they “gave up” in their game against the Oklahoma City Thunder as they’ve slowly been sapped of hope during their losing skid.

But given his team’s general lack of experience, it’ll be up to Luke Walton to keep his players engaged mentally. There’s still a lot of talent on the roster, which makes all the losses they’ve been incurring unacceptable.

The Lakers' next two home games against the Atlanta Hawks and the Sacramento Kings will be crucial. If they still can’t beat either of those teams, who are right there with the Lakers at the bottom of the league standings, it’ll be another catastrophic blow as far as the mental battle is concerned.