They will get better – James Worthy hopes for a better LA Lakers performance despite absence of LeBron James and Anthony Davis

The LA Lakers were under the cosh when they lost the services of their talisman Anthony Davis, who suffered an Achilles Tendon injury last month. The Lakers suffered another huge blow as their legendary player LeBron James suffered an ankle sprain in his right leg while playing against Atlanta Hawks.

Lakers went on to lose their second consecutive match against second-placed Phoenix Suns as they went down by 111-94. The absence of LeBron James and Anthony Davis was palpable as the Lakers failed to challenge the Suns.

Montrezl Harrell top scored with 23 points and 10 rebounds but his efforts went in vain as the Lakers lost. However, the Lakers legend James Worthy is hopeful that the team will get better in the coming matches despite the absence of LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Worthy said, “For a team that’s used to having AD create for them to get open shots, LeBron to collapse the defense to get open shots, they’re having to do a brand new offense now. Something they haven’t been doing is create a lot of shots for themselves. Phoenix didn’t have to double team anybody, so everybody stayed at home.”

Worthy added Lakers will need to start in an aggressive manner. Worthy feels the team will need to adjust for the next game and they will bounce stronger.

Worthy said, “There were some cases where you saw Caruso get to the lane, Matthews get to the lane. You got to start being a little more aggressive and taking those little floaters when you get them, instead of trying to make that extra pass. But this was an adjustment game. They’ll adjust for the next game.”

Worthy believes the Lakers were good in the first quarter. The former legend feels the Suns were brilliant on the offense and thus the Lakers had to make some defensive moves and were put under pressure by the opposition.

Worthy added, “They’ll get better. I thought the first quarter was amazing. No turnovers, so they’re trending in the right way. But Phoenix is a well-disciplined team, and they weren’t going to allow the Lakers to do what they wanted to do, not with CP3. The way they ran their offense was very well run, so they made the Lakers make some defensive moves. They got them some really high percentage shots.” 

The LA Lakers will next face New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday.