Lakers News: Anthony Davis Accepts Blame For Second Straight LA Loss, This Time To Mavericks
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Your Los Angeles Lakers dropped a very winnable game to the Dallas Mavericks yesterday when star center Anthony Davis failed to close out fast enough on Mavs big man Maxi Kleber, a 36% three-point shooter this year on 3.0 attempts, in the waning seconds of regulation. Kyrie Irving dished out of a trap in the corner to Kleber at the top of the arc, who promptly drained a three for a buzzer-beating W, 111-110.
Davis, who also shouldered the blame for his team's recent loss to the New York Knicks, put this defeat (LA's second consecutive loss) squarely on his shoulders, too.
"I already came in and told [my teammates] the last play was my fault," Davis conceded. "It's tough all the way across the board."
The Mavericks leapt up to the sixth seed in the Western Conference (i.e. clear of the play-in tournament bracket, for now). Conversely, the Lakers fell to the West's tenth seed with a 34-37 record. They also gave the Mavericks the tiebreaker in their head-to-head matchup this season (Dallas has gone 3-1 in such games), meaning that they would need a better record to lap the Mavs in the standings.
"I mean, AD is our leader," reserve point guard Wenyen Gabriel reflected, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. "He's our best player right now, and that just shows that taking accountability as being the best player. That's something that's important for the continuity as a team and having trust in each other, and obviously we trust AD. That was just a moment. It's obviously not just on AD, but him taking accountability for that is something that is important instead of pointing fingers in terms of chemistry going forward."
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