LeBron James and D’Angelo Russell have spoken out about the Lakers’ 114-103 loss to the Denver Nuggets in Game 1 of their first-round series on Saturday.
James stressed the importance of the Lakers paying greater attention to detail.
“I’ve never played on a championship team that didn’t pay attention to detail,” he said. “There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it. You have to.”
D’Angelo Russell, who struggled mightily with 13 points on 6-20 field goal shooting, also spoke to the media and addressed his disappointing performance.
“I don’t recall the last time I got 20 shots,” Russell said. “So for me to get 20 good looks, not 20 good, probably 5 or 6 of them were questionable but I know what I’m capable of.. so honestly I’m excited about that… sometimes the ball just doesn’t fall.”
D’Angelo Russell on his 6/20 performance: pic.twitter.com/49DXRtg0N7
— Lakers Lead (@LakersLead) April 21, 2024
Lakers coach Darvin Ham said he wasn’t going to bench Russell over one poor shooting performance, noting that he had helped LA get this far and had recently shot the ball well against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Ham added that the Lakers had some more adjustments to throw at Nikola Jokic in Game 2.
“Shit, it’s tough,” Ham said. “A championship team isn’t going to beat itself.”
The Lakers and Nuggets will play Game 2 in Denver on Wednesday.
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