Getty The Lakers lost to the Clippers by one point.
Lack of energy and effort have plagued the Los Angeles Lakers this season. Despite having LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook, the purple and gold are in ninth place in the Western Conference standings and have the 27th-worst defense in the league.
The Lakers’ February 3rd loss to the Los Angeles Clippers was a microcosm of their season. They played sluggishly for three quarters before playing inspired basketball in the fourth quarter. Led by Westbrook, Davis and Malik Monk, the Lakers outscored the Clippers 28-17 in the final period and had a one-point lead with 12.0 seconds left in regulation.
Unfortunately for the LakeShow, Clippers point guard Reggie Jackson hit a layup with 4.0 seconds remaining and Davis missed a floater at the buzzer. LAC defeated LAL by a final score of 111-110 and Monk had several things to say during his postgame media session.
Monk: ‘It’s Always Hard for Us to Fight Back’
If the Lakers had played the way they did in the fourth quarter the entire game, they probably would have beat the Clippers. However, they played with poor effort and didn’t execute on either end of the floor through the first three quarters and Monk is tired of seeing the same trend happen over and over again.
“We just got to stay together,” Monk said after the game, via Matt Peralta of Lakers Nation.com. “We can’t get down like we did in the third. We can’t let the game slip away like that for us. It’s always hard for us to fight back. We all just put all our energy out there trying to do that. We got to keep the game under control.
“We’re trying to figure the same thing out. We talk about it every day. Every time we’re together we talk about why’s that happens. We don’t know. I’m tired of saying it. We got to figure this sh*t out.”
Monk finished with 21 points, seven rebounds and seven assists against the Clippers while shooting 8-of-19 from the field, 3-of-8 from beyond the arc and 2-of-4 from the free-throw line. He scored seven points in the fourth quarter, playing a significant role in the Lakers’ comeback.
There are no moral victories in the NBA. The Lakers would be in the play-in tournament if the season ended today and they have to be considered one of the most disappointing teams in the league considering the talent they possess.
Monk, who is in his first year with the Lakers, insists that the team is sticking together through the adversity, although he did admit “individuals” get down sometimes.
Monk: ‘I Think It’s Individuals That Just Get down Sometimes’
Besides Davis and Dwight Howard getting into a mini scuffle on the bench during the second game of the season against the Phoenix Suns, the Lakers haven’t had any fights behind the scenes, which is good.
However, Monk told reporters following the Clippers-Lakers game that the whole squad’s body language can turn negative occasionally if one player gets down.
“I wouldn’t say it’s affecting us, I’d say it’s individual things,” Monk said. “But as a team, we’re together. We talk all the time. We never get down. We never separate from each other. I think it’s individuals that just get down sometimes and we all fall into it. The whole team. We all fall into it if you are not getting playing time or anything like that. We all kind of fall victim to it, but we shake back because everybody knows what’s going on.”
Monk and the Lakers will look to get back in the win column on February 5 when they take on another struggling team, the New York Knicks.