LeBron James had to leave the court early in the second quarter of the game against the Atlanta Hawks due an ankle injury. The Lakers star played 11 up until that point of the game and had 10 points.
It was a close game at that point but the reigning NBA champions scored just 12 points in the entire third quarter, losing it by 10 points. They managed to narrow the gap in the final period, though it wasn’t enough to get a win.
Frank Vogel, the head coach of the Lakers, talked about how his team performed in the second half in absence of LeBron. “I think the way we played at Sacramento and scored 120-some points shows that we have enough offensive firepower and we have a defensive mentality with our group,” he said.
“To me we have enough to win. I think it was just a little bit tough for our guys to adjust on the fly as opposed to that Sac game knowing for 24 hours that he wasn’t going to be in there what the rotation is going to look like and what not.
“We just came out of that third quarter super cold. It took as a while to get going. Played well in the fourth but just wasn’t enough.”
