The Lakers lost for the second time in a row as they fell at home against the Cavaliers (114-100). Nine games into the season, the Purple and Gold have only won twice.
It was a game of two different halves versus Cleveland. At half time the Lakers held a 6-point lead, but collapsed in the second half, losing it by 20 points. Lakers head coach Darvin Ham described the way his team played in the second half as spirit leaving the building.
“It’s unfortunate that some plays didn’t go our way, some turnovers. Our spirit seemed to have left the building,” he said after the game. “That’s one of the parts of establishing and re-establishing a winning culture is, like, being able to maintain competitive spirit.
“I thought what we saw in the first half is how we want to play. We were right there toe to toe with them, actually had the lead going to the half time. Second half, again, shots don’t go down, a few turnovers happens and we kind of dropped our heads a little bit and they just kept revving it up, revving it up, revving it up.
“They’re an extremely talented ball club with extremely talented players very ball-skilled players, their smalls and their bigs and their wings. They’re not going to feel sorry for us, so there’s no need to feel sorry for ourselves.
“We have to plow through good, bad and indifferent. We have to continue to fight and that can’t change. Continue to be competitive, that can’t change no matter what’s going on in the game.
“We have to do a better job of keeping our focus and not getting sowed down because those mental lapses, as you saw, can turn into half of quarter worth of disappointment or an entire quarter worth of disappointment, or an entire half worth of disappointment.
“Again, we’re in a period of discovery about ourselves. Nine games in it sucks to be 2-7, but we just got to keep learning, keep working and keep trying to find a way.”
