In a surprising turn of events, the Brooklyn Nets (17-24) dominated the Los Angeles Lakers (21-22) with a 130-112 victory on Friday night, breaking the Nets’ four-game losing streak and marking only their fourth win in 18 games.
Despite holding a halftime lead of 68-62, the Lakers experienced a complete collapse in the second half against the Nets.
Anthony Davis showcased a strong double-double performance with 26 points and 12 rebounds, while LeBron James contributed 24 points and 10 rebounds. D’Angelo Russell added 20 points to the Lakers’ efforts.
The Lakers, now 7-13 since their NBA In-Season Tournament victory in early December, faced a disappointing loss against the Nets.
James Worthy, a Lakers legend with three NBA championships, expressed his perspective on the game, emphasizing that the Lakers disrespected the Nets, leading to the key factors contributing to the loss.
“We talked pregame about a danger of a game like this, about Ben Simmons being out, which I didn’t really think made a big difference anyway. But we said that these guys are professional athletes and you have to respect them,” Worthy stated on Spectrum SportsNet.
“And I think the Lakers did for a portion of the game. And then at some point they just stopped to play defense and Brooklyn started to play defense, and they gave up a lot of threes which they started to hit. You can’t count on a team that’s trending in the wrong direction not bouncing back, especially in L.A., they want to beat the Lakers. Disappointing loss.”
Worthy expressed his disappointment, highlighting the Lakers’ defensive lapses, lack of respect for the opponent, and the overall embarrassing nature of the defeat.
“I just thought they were going to come home and take care of business,” he continued. “This one loss it just makes everything that they’ve done the last week just kind of disappear because they needed to win this game and they needed to trend in the right direction.
“Brooklyn shot 53% from the field, 41% from three. There were a lot of open threes. They outplayed the Lakers. They outplayed them. The Lakers disrespected them, they didn’t take them seriously and they got their asses handed to them and it was embarrassing.”
