Coming into the 2024-25 NBA season, the Los Angeles Lakers have dominated the spotlight due to the debut of Bronny James and head coach JJ Redick. But after a hot start to the season, the Lakers have come back to life with three losses in their last four games, which star forward Anthony Davis is none too happy about.
Of the Lakers’ three losses on their first road trip of the season, their worst arguably came on Monday night to the Detroit Pistons. That’s a team that won a league-worst 14 games last year and made history by tying the NBA record for the longest losing streak in league history with 28 consecutive losses.
Talent for talent, this was a game that Lakers’ fans certainly expected to win. Especially when you get a combined 57 points from Davis and LeBron James, as they did on Monday night.
After the game, Davis spoke with ESPN’s Dave McMenamin in the locker room. And he offered some incredibly critical comments about the team’s lack of consistency early on this season.
Anthony Davis with some blunt criticism for the Lakers after they fall to 1-3 on this road trip: “We’re just two different teams right now … We can’t continue to do this if we expect to do anything this season” pic.twitter.com/V14ekX6ExZ
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) November 5, 2024
“We’re just two different teams right now,” said Davis. “One game, we’re this team that showcases to be one of the better teams in the league. Then the next, we’re this team who… I don’t even know who we are. So, we’ve just got to be better.
“It’s on the starters to start the game, obviously. But we’ve just got to be better as players to come out and execute the gameplan and do what we’re supposed to do on both ends of the floor. Some halves we get it. Some halves we don’t. Some quarters we do it. Some quarters we don’t. So we’ve got to put a whole 48 [minutes] together. We can’t continue to do this if we expect to do anything this season.”
With all of the publicity around the Bronny-LeBron storyline in Los Angeles (some of which has been negative from media pundits), perhaps the locker room isn’t quite as united due to the surrounding noise around this year’s team about whether or not Bronny is deserving of the brief playing time he has received.
Or, perhaps there are still some growing pains in JJ Redick’s first year in Los Angeles after departing from ESPN this past summer.
Regardless, Davis clearly feels like this team needs to grow quickly in order to right the ship for the remainder of the season.