Anthony Davis Believes Lakers' Loss To Rockets Came Down To Effort

01/06/2025 01:39 PM

The Los Angeles Lakers took a step back on Sunday night as they lost to the Houston Rockets, 119-115, in the first game of their road trip.

The Rockets provided a tough test for the Lakers and early on, they didn’t appear up to the challenge. Houston built up a 22-point lead before L.A. came storming back to make it a game late.

When the Lakers were mounting a comeback, Anthony Davis was called for a crucial offensive foul on a moving screen on Aaron Holiday that halted their momentum.

After the game, Davis was unhappy with the call although he ultimately concluded that is not what cost the Lakers the game, as seen on Spectrum SportsNet:

“It was a terrible call. Holiday was grabbing my arm. The ref said I grabbed him and threw him to the group, which I didn’t. I was setting a screen on him and he was flopping, grabbing my arm and fell down and they called an offensive foul. Those calls are not made in a basketball game, but it is what it is. That’s not the reason why we lost the game. Obviously so many offensive rebounds, transition points. The game was lost in the first half. We fought to give ourselves a chance to win, but their second-chance opportunities and offensive rebounds is what really hurt us tonight.”

As Davis mentioned, the Lakers gave up 18 offensive rebounds on the night with Steven Adams and Amen Thompson killing them on the glass. Davis discussed how the team can clean up those issues despite being at a size disadvantage:

“I don’t think that we weren’t boxing out. Trying to get Steven Adams, he’s a big guy, strong. I know there were times I tried to face guard him, try to get lower than him and box him out, everything. He’s a physical guy. There’s time we went small where we had Rui or Doe at the five. Obviously he had the height advantage and he’s strong. I don’t think we weren’t trying to not box out. But everybody on the perimeter was crashing. They have a team full of crashers. So it was just a tough situation for us but definitely something that we can clean up, it will just take a little bit more effort. But that was the separation in the game.”

Ultimately, according to Davis, the loss came down to the Rockets playing with more effort than the Lakers:

“That team right there, they just beat us in effort. Like I said, transition, something you can control. Get back. Turnovers, we didn’t have a lot, but they were timely, especially in the first half. Offensive rebounds, all of those effort plays. When we were in the halfcourt, they got separation sometimes but for the most part, we were solid defensively. I think the game was lost in all of the effort categories. Transition, offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding for us. We take care of that, it’s a different ballgame.”

Lack of effort has been an issue for the Lakers in the past, so hopefully Sunday was a one-off and not something that becomes a theme moving forward.

JJ Redick: Lakers’ poor rebounding led to loss against Rockets

JJ Redick echoed Anthony Davis in believing the Lakers’ poor job on the defensive glass cost them against the Rockets.

"We made some shots. Our inability to get defensive rebounds was the difference in the game."

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