Getty Anthony Davis, Lakers
When you shoot, as an NBA team, 34.4% from the field, 28.1% from the 3-point line and commit 19 turnovers, as the Lakers did in their 15-point loss to the Blazers on Saturday night, anyone in the vicinity is bound to feel a little queasy in the belly. So just about every Lakers fan watching could feel Anthony Davis‘ pain as he was yanked from the loss with a stomach bug after just seven minutes on the court.
Lakers coach Frank Vogel did not hold back in describing what, exactly, went wrong with Davis, who entered the day as a question mark for L.A. because of thumb he injured in the team’s loss on Thursday. We got a full accounting on Davis’ vomit count from the coach.
“He was battling the thumb, trying to figure out if that was gonna inhibit him from playing,” Vogel said. “Then he woke up this afternoon with a bit of a stomach bug, came back in this afternoon and said the thumb felt pretty good, probably good enough to play. Then he went and threw up in the back. Still wanted to give it a go, but by the time tipoff came, he had already thrown up four times. And, you know, he just wanted to try to see if getting out on the floor would change it, but wasn’t able to go.”
Vogel Was Disappointed in Lakers Defense
Considering how lifeless the Lakers were from the get-go, it is unlikely that a healthy Davis would have made all that much of a difference. In his seven minutes, he had two points, three rebounds and was 1-for-5 shooting. The Lakers trailed, 21-10, when he departed with just under five minutes to go in the first quarter. L.A. never had a lead in the game.
There were plenty of rough numbers for the Lakers beyond the terrible shooting and the turnovers. Though the final score was not all that bad, this was a game in which the Lakers trailed by 34 points and the defense could not contain Portland star Damian Lillard, who had been badly struggling coming into the game.
Anthony Davis (stomach illness) will not return tonight.
Lillard had averaging 16.0 points on 30.0% shooting in his previous four games. But the Lakers’ lax defense provided him some comfort—he had 25 points on 9-for-19 shooting, one of his best games of the season.
Vogel said the Lakers D was just not playing hard enough.
“We’re struggling to contain quick, deep-shooting guards with this year’s personnel and the way we like to bring double teams,” he noted. “We pulled back on it some and those guys took advantage of it. Before we pulled back on it, we weren’t tough enough with our low man in our rotations and we weren’t containing with our guards in the trap well enough. Neither one was happening, and we pulled back into our base coverage and that’s risky against shooters like Dame and C.J. (McCollum). They got going a little bit. At that point, we were down and we just tried to junk the game up.”
Russell Westbrook Struggles Badly
The good news for the Lakers is that they can take Sunday off and lick their wounds. The team is playing without LeBron James, who is out with an abdominal strain and will miss at least a week—perhaps more. The injury is causing a bit of an identity crisis within the team, which was supposed to have been reconstructed with an eye of being able to withstand days off from James.
Westbrick at it again lol
But with a performance from Russell Westbrook like we saw on Saturday, when he was 1-for-13 shooting with six turnovers, the Lakers don’t stand much of a chance. Still, Vogel was not about to lay blame on Westbrook alone for the weak showing.
“He’s shown flashes of being great for us,” Vogel said. “We all didn’t have a good night. The whole team didn’t have a good night. We have got to find ways as a coaching staff to help him and put him into position to succeed, and it’s on all of us to make sure that happens, make sure he is comfortable, feels good about the environment around him. That’s what we’re working towards.”