On Wednesday night, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Phoenix Suns 117-107, but it wasn’t pretty.
L.A. was dominant in the first half to the tune of a 74-41 halftime lead, but looked complacent in the second half.
Afterward, Anthony Davis admonished the entire team for getting away from what was working so well early.
“You can lose games like that, which is the worst feeling in the world,” the forward said.
“You gotta be able to play the same way the entire four quarters. If we’re going to continue to play like that then we’re going to lose games like that.
“We don’t want to come in and blow a 36-point lead. … When we get leads like that we gotta make sure we continue to play the right way.”
The Lakers took that huge lead in the first half by playing aggressive, harassing defense. It led to plenty of fast-break and early offense opportunities, which helped them rack up 21 first-half assists.
“We started playing a lot of one-on-one, we completely stopped playing defense,” said Davis.
“They were getting a lot of offensive rebounds, attacking the basket. Nobody was getting open shots.”
At 27-7 and riding a three-game winning streak, the Lakers have little reason to feel bad about themselves.
After a tough December schedule, they will have things fairly easy for the next couple of weeks. Only one of their next six games will be against an opponent that has a winning record.
After that, they will embark on a five-game road trip, which will include contests against the Houston Rockets, Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers.
