Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis said that “everybody” shoots well against the team.
“Everybody, no matter what their numbers are, shoots well against us,” Davis said. “If a guy is shooting 10 percent, he’s gonna shoot 40 against us. Just knowing that. There hasn’t been a time where the numbers have told the truth to us when we’ve played guys.
“So we gotta play everybody like they’re Steph [Curry] when they play us because these guys — not just this team — everybody has shot the ball well against us.”
The Lakers’ short winning streak of two games came to an end against the Phoenix Suns on Thursday. Before falling to the Suns, Los Angeles had picked up victories over the Los Angeles Clippers and Toronto Raptors.
The Suns put together an impressive scoring performance from a collective standpoint against Los Angeles, as the team dropped 127 points on the Lakers while shooting 49.5 percent from the field and 35.9 percent from behind the 3-point line.
Bradley Beal and Devin Booker were the Suns’ two leading scorers. The former finished with a team-high 37 points while shooting 14-of-21 from the field and 8-of-10 from 3-point range, and the latter scored 31 points to go along with five rebounds, five assists and three steals in 34 minutes of playing time.
Conversely, no player managed to score more than 19 points for the Lakers. D’Angelo Russell scored that many while shooting 7-of-14 from the floor, and he also dished out six assists across 27 minutes off the Los Angeles bench.
With the loss, the Lakers are now back below the .500 mark at 19-20.
Davis and the Lakers will take on one of the hottest teams in the Western Conference in the Utah Jazz on the road on Saturday. After getting off to a forgettable start to the 2023-24 regular season, Utah has won eight of its last 10 games and is on a three-game winning streak, with all of those three wins coming against great competition.
The Jazz beat the Philadelphia 76ers on Jan. 6, Milwaukee Bucks on Jan. 8 and Denver Nuggets on Jan. 10.
Following their matchup against the Jazz, the Lakers will face off against another formidable opponent in the Oklahoma City Thunder on Jan. 15. The Thunder — who are led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren — are winners of their last three games, and they’re fresh off a 62-point victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday.
