Anthony Davis believes the Lakers’ recent offense is too “random” and lacks spacing

After their loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, much of the Los Angeles Lakers’ conversation centered around the team’s offensive woes. Anthony Davis and LeBron James combined for just 22 points, and the Lakers managed just 80 total points, a season low, on 40.5% shooting.

This has been the case more often lately, as the Lakers, who averaged 114 points per game this season, have scored 105 or fewer in five of their last six games. And in assessing what’s going wrong for the team, Davis pointed out a few issues via Spectrum SportsNet:

“A lot of randomness. Whenever we’re not at our best defensively, we let that dictate our offense. The things that we put in place to kind of get us to move the basketball and the body movement, we didn’t do that. In the last six or seven games we were one of the worst offensive teams in the league. Shit, we scored 80 points tonight. That’s the thing, I don’t think they did anything special defensively. We were just really bad offensively and it hurt us.”

In addition to the poor shooting, the Lakers also committed 20 turnovers that led to 26 Timberwolves points, contributing to an overall terrible night on offense. As for the team trying to patch things up, Davis pointed to their spacing:

“Just go back to our distance. We’re kind of on top of each other when the guys try to drive. Guys are shooting and there’s a guy right underneath them, so the distance is bad. I think if we just go back to our spacing it will clear the playing field for everyone to make plays for themselves or for others. But right now our spacing is bad and I don’t think anyone is intentionally trying not to do the right thing, but we have to do the right thing in the right way. That’s the one thing we need to come back to and finish this journey with a winning record.”

Perhaps most annoyingly, the Lakers appear to have made progress defensively, allowing fewer than 110 points in four straight games. Davis echoed that thought but maintained his belief in this team to find out:

“Yes, it is very frustrating. We were really good offensively and our defense was a problem. Then we started focusing on defense and now our offense has kind of changed. So we have to get back to the state we were at the beginning of the year when we played very well on both sides of the ball. The good thing about it is that you don’t need much offensively to get back into the swing of things. The defense is a little tougher, so I think with the guys we have in this locker room we can handle it and get it done.”

The Lakers have the makings of a very good offense, as they have shown for much of this early season. Davis must return to his dominant form, but the team as a whole must not fall back into the stagnant habits of previous seasons.

Anthony Davis thinks the Lakers are too inconsistent

The Los Angeles Lakers have had some great nights this season, but also some very bad ones, and that inconsistency really plagues this team.

Anthony Davis agreed, saying that sometimes the Lakers look like they can keep up with anyone, while other nights they look “disgusting.” The big man added that they need to figure out which team they want to play for the rest of the season.

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