The Los Angeles Lakers closed the regular season with a 131-107 win over the Utah Jazz on Sunday at crypto.com Arena, sealing a fourth-place finish in the Western Conference. Deandre Ayton delivered 22 points and 10 assists in the win and emphasized the team’s approach heading into the postseason.
Ayton pointed to the team’s resilience amid roster instability, saying, “We’ve been playing this next man up mentality. You know, guys being in and out of the season and we’ve been fighting through the adversity and I think we have a good plan of how we’ll approach this during the playoffs.” He also stressed the importance of collective availability moving forward.
On the impact of missing Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, Ayton added, “Most definitely badly. Those are two guys that was basically half and half of the whole team.” He also noted how the group has adjusted its identity, saying, “I think we’re picking up our level of intensity when it comes to effort. Our effort level is making up for a lot of our mistakes and we’re taking pride on the defensive end as well to create rhythm on the offensive end.”
Ayton also explained his individual approach in the matchup against Utah, focusing on physical dominance and possession control. “I really just wanted to be on the boards, knowing that they didn’t have no rim protection and really just close out possessions, not give them second chances and just have our guys run and change momentum, get the crowd into it a little bit and try to bring some drawing momentum and some fun and closing us out the right way,” he said.
Reflecting on the regular season, Ayton kept his assessment straightforward, stating, “I think it went well. Unfortunately we had a lot of bad injuries but I felt like the way we approached it and just let adversity settle in, you see the outcome. We didn’t do too bad.”
Looking ahead to the matchup with the Rockets, he referenced prior meetings between the teams, stating, “I say those were intense games. They gave us playoff atmosphere with the fans and the crowd but just different concepts and strategies on how they attacked us and I felt like it was a defensive game for us in the second effort type of game where we have to turn up the level of intensity quite a bit playing against their type of versatility.”
