Once again, the Los Angeles Lakers had a weak third quarter and eventually lost to the Boston Celtics. It was their third straight loss as the purple and gold had their record turn negative with 8 wins and 9 defeats.
Lakers legend James Worthy shared his thoughts on the game, stressing third quarter struggles for the visitors. “It was ugly,” he said on Spectrum SportsNet. “I had a cigar all ready to light to up. I had a bet with Cedric Maxwell, he’s back there smoking his cigar right now.
“This was not a good performance. The Milwaukee performance we thought they’re moving in the right direction. To come into Boston and lay an egg like they did tonight was kind of bad to get beat up like they did. A team that was kind of struggling themselves. You always know a struggling team is dangerous.
“And the Lakers struggling themselves to be outrebounded the way they were, to be beat up in the paint the way they were the amount of layups that the Celtics were able to get by just moving and playing good solid basketball which is kind of embarrassing for the Lakers to have that kind of performance.
“There’s somewhat of a little virus in there. You feel good some days, you play a good game against Milwaukee. Next day the virus sets in ‘Oh I’m little sick’ not physically sick but… Third quarter woes again… The same old mistakes are not being corrected. That’s a problem.
“I want to give them the benefit of a doubt. LeBron came back tonight. But you cannot have performances like this over and over, and over. Now I’m thinking ‘Wow, what’s wrong with the team? What’s going on with the communication? What’s happening in the locker room? Not that there’s anything negative going on there but is there communication there. What’s happening from the transfer from the chalk board to the players to the floor? Why isn’t it happening?’ I know it takes time but that kind of basketball you don’t like to see… lack of effort, lack of determination.”
