As losses mount, Lakers struggle to explain – Orange County Register

Magic Johnson no longer has a say on how the Lakers are running, but he still has an opinion.

After the Lakers’ 37-point loss at the hands of the Denver Nuggets, the former Laker legend – who a slightly less heralded career as an executive – has blown his team to five million followers.

“After being blown away by Nuggets 133-96, we as @Lakers fans can accept being underwhelmed but we deserve more than a lack of effort and no sense of level. pressing,” Johnson wrote. “@JeanieBuss owner, you deserve better.”

Russell Westbrook, who is barely old enough to live through the end of Johnson’s Showtime era, was careful when asked about Johnson’s actions – neither offering confirmation nor attempting to counterattack.

“Magic is entitled to his opinion,” he said. “And he’s not here every day. He’s not around us every day. He’s not aware of what’s going on inside of us and tries to figure things out. But I have no response to that.”

Unfortunately, it fits. The Lakers didn’t have much of a response Saturday night after a third straight loss.

The most notable absentee is LeBron James: The 37-year-old left the field without speaking to the media. But even the Lakers who discussed the defeat were not surprised.

Westbrook points to it as a matter of effort. Dwight Howard says Westbrook was right – but also disappointed that it continued to be an issue for more than half a season.

“It’s too bad we want to win every night and how consistent are we going to be? And we haven’t really been consistent all year with that,” he said. “So we have to figure out how to change that, somehow, somehow, it has to change or we’re going to go on to have two games where we played pretty well and then four games where our defense is weaker.”

Coach Frank Vogel said Friday that the Lakers went through a “spiritual” movie session in which he called each of them off the field. In the previous match, they dropped 125 points. After the movie, they gave up 133 points.

After the loss, Vogel said the Lakers needed to “get back to the drawing board” defensively, which didn’t sound promising given he spent half a year trying to tolerate his defensive formation.

“It’s not good enough,” he said. “We have a new team that we’re trying to get these guys to learn our system and get to know our doubles teams and get to know each other quickly. We didn’t have as much practice time to get this group to connect as we should. And we are working on it. We are doing everything we can. But definitely not where we want to be.”

When the Lakers were assembled for the season, there was a lot of buzz about what they had achieved as individuals. The Lakers are the only team to have four players actively make the NBA top 75 list – James, Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony and Anthony Davis.

Westbrook was asked if he thought winning would be easier considering the background of his teammates, but said he had never thought of the squad that way. While the Lakers know they have to be more consistent, he said, he also insists the team stays together despite these disappointments.