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The shooting numbers were not pretty for the Los Angeles Lakers in their 100-93 Game 1 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night, particularly for starters Danny Green and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
Caldwell-Pope and Green combined for 11 points in the contest, shooting a combined 2-13 on 3-pointers. As a team, the Lakers shot 15.6 percent from beyond the arc and 35.1 percent for the game.
Lakers fans let both KCP and Green hear it after the game on social media, the most notable among them being Snoop Dogg. The rapper took to Instagram to deliver a meme of Green that showed his jersey that says “HOW MANY MORE” with a small caption below it saying “F—— threes am I going to miss.” While it drew a few laughs, it was later deleted by Snoop Dogg, likely because it was insensitive to the social justice message on Green’s jersey.
Snoop certainly wasn’t the only Lakers fan who voiced his frustration on social media.
Danny Green Takes Responsibility for Bad Night
Green didn’t hide from the fact that he shot horrendously in the loss. As a two-time NBA champion, Green knows what it takes to get it done and that was not what happened on Tuesday night.
“Defense wasn’t the issue,” Green said. “Offensively we’ve got to get back to ourselves, find our rhythm, push the pace, make our open shots. We’e getting a couple open ones, could probably get some more, but making open shots — myself included especially — I’ve got to do a better job staying out of foul trouble so I can keep a rhythm.”
The Lakers were title favorites in the bubble, but ran into a Portland team that was one in the hottest in the bubble and have been playing meaningful basketball since the restart began.
“We’re not making any excuses here. It’s hard every night, regardless of who you’re playing. Any given night, you can lose to anybody, no matter what seed you are, no matter how good you are. If a team is playing and they’re shooting the ball well and you’re not, they have a better chance of winning that ball game.
“We just have to dig down and find it. We’re not worried about anybody but ourselves. They handled their business, but we need to figure out what we need to do to not less us go down another game.”
Lakers Still Very Confident They Can Turn Things Around
The Blazers were a popular pick to upset the Lakers in the first round, and they looked the part in Game 1. But despite the setback, LA is confident they can turn things around going forward.
“It’s one game,” Lakers Coach Frank Vogel said. “We’re very confident in our group still. The time was used the right way but there’s no simulation like what they’ve been in and now we’re in the playoff environment. I was pleased with our competitive spirit. We didn’t make shots. You know what I mean? I think we can shoot the ball better than we saw tonight.”
One Lakers player who had no problem putting up numbers was LeBron James. While he never found his full rhythm scoring the ball, James put up a monster line of 23 points, 17 rebounds and 16 assists.
“He would’ve had over 20 assists if we knocked down threes at the rate we’re capable and at the rate that we will,” Vogel said.
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