After Wednesday’s loss to the Heat, there were likely a lot of upset Lakers fans.
Among the definitive unhappy ones was Lakers legend Magic Johnson, who said he was “embarrassed” for the team after the 134-93 loss to the Heat.
“I’m embarrassed for the Lakers. They were down 32 points to the Miami Heat 105-72 at the end of the third quarter,” Johnson wrote on X during the game.
The loss was the Lakers’ sixth in their last eight games, and the last two have come by a combined 70 points.
Los Angeles (12-10) allowed 24 3-pointers — the third most allowed by the Lakers in franchise history — and Anthony Davis put up just eight points on a dismal 3 of 14 shooting.
As a team, the Lakers shot 43 percent from the field and 22.7 percent from 3-point range.
“Has to be some ownership. And I think when a group is not performing well, which happens, and it happens to bad teams, it happens to good teams, it happens to great teams. You can splinter, and it’s easy to not want the ownership, particularly when it’s embarrassing,” head coach JJ Redick said to reporters Wednesday.
“I’m embarrassed; we’re all embarrassed. It’s not a game that I thought we had the right fight, the right professionalism. Not sure what was lost in translation. There has to be some ownership on the court and I’ll take all the ownership in the world. This is my team and I lead it and I’m embarrassed. But I can’t physically get us organized.
“I can’t physically be into the basketball. I can’t physically talk and call out reds and physically call out coverages. It’s not…I’m not, and by the way, I’m not blaming players. It’s not. I own this, but going to need some ownership on the court as well. …There’s not a sense from me that we’re together right now. And that’s what we say in the huddle. Doesn’t feel that way. Doesn’t feel that way. And, again, we’re in a tough stretch. And we’re all trying to find it.”
The Lakers will try to curb their current losing stretch with a win in the final game of their current road trip when they head to Atlanta to face the Hawks.
