LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Lakers had a six-game win streak snapped at the hands of the Orlando Magic, 119-118, on Thursday night. Franz Wagner hit a step back three-point shot with 2.5 seconds remaining, and the Lakers couldn’t convert on the other end. Following the Magic loss, Lakers head coach JJ Redick had a hilarious quip when asked about how he plans to deal with the defeat.
“I go to a very dark place literally,” Redick said. “It’s the basement. I turn the lights out and I watch film. That’s my therapy.”
It was a tough loss for the Lakers who missed several free-throws late in the fourth quarter that could have sealed a win. Instead, they left the door open for Wagner’s heroics. Although the Lakers lost, JJ Redick acknowledged that he was actually pleased by the way most of the fourth quarter went, minus the hiccups at the end.
“I have to re-watch every possession there in the last couple of minutes, overall I felt comfortable with our execution up until the missed free-throws and the Wagner three,” Redick said. “We don’t want to allow threes in ISOs, late game especially. . .overall I’ll live with the execution outside of the missed free-throws and the Wagner three.”
The loss dropped the Lakers to 10-5, but they still hold a top four record in the Western Conference standings. Meanwhile, the Magic improved to 10-7. They were riding a six-game win streak of their own before suffering a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers the night before.
Free-throw woes sink Lakers against Magic
Down the stretch of the fourth quarter, the Lakers had multiple opportunities to essentially put the Magic away, if they had simply made their free-throws. As JJ Redick had said, their execution was overall solid.
They missed seven free-throws with under four minutes to go in the game. LeBron James missed one, Anthony Davis missed three and Austin Reaves missed two. The final two free-throws that Davis missed came with 18 seconds remaining and would have put the Lakers ahead, 120-116.
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Following the game, Davis was very blunt when assessing what happened, as per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
“Any loss is frustrating,” Davis said. “It’s more frustrating for me, cause I’m the one who missed the free-throws. Any loss is frustrating.”
Prior to that sequence though, Davis had been having a monster performance, on par for the course for him this season. He’s been getting MVP chants while at the free-throw line during home games, and he’s certainly played like an MVP this season.
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