Anthony Davis says the struggling Lakers need to start playing like ‘underdogs’

The Los Angeles Lakers‘ disappointing season continued on Thursday night, as they lost by double-digits to the Ja Morant-less Memphis Grizzlies. Not even LeBron James‘ 100th career triple-double was enough, and the Lakers fell back to .500 at 13-13 — a mark which has them in sixth place in the Western Conference. 

With the team once again left searching for answers, star forward Anthony Davis suggested a change in approach might be in order. He said the Lakers need to start taking on the same underdog mentality as the teams they go up against each night. Via ESPN: 

“These guys already feel like they’re the underdogs when they’re coming in, especially when they’re without their star players,” Davis said. “And we got to play like we’re the underdogs. Which, now, at this point of the season, the way we’re playing, a lot of games, we probably are.

“I think when their star players are out, we have to lock in even more because these guys have no conscience,” Davis continued. “They want to come in and beat the Lakers, beat LeBron, beat A.D., beat whoever, beat Melo. Like, they want to say, ‘I gave the Lakers 30, 25, whatever.’”

Asking stars as talented and accomplished as those on the Lakers to start considering themselves underdogs is probably unrealistic, especially at this stage in their careers. But Davis is touching on a real issue for the Lakers when he says they need to “lock in.” 

Injuries — LeBron James, in particular, has missed nearly half of the team’s games — have not helped, and there are serious flaws with the roster. But so many of the Lakers’ issues this season have been self-inflicted. 

They’re 24th in the league in turnovers, giving the ball up on 15.4 percent of their offensive possessions; we’ve seen them blow double-digit leads time and again, including an embarrassing 13-point collapse in the fourth quarter against the Kings, which led to a triple-overtime loss; there has been zero consistency whatsoever from night-to-night. 

For the most part, none of those are talent or availability problems. The stars were all there on Thursday against the shorthanded Grizzlies and it still didn’t matter. As head coach Frank Vogel put it, “too much casualness to our approach.” 

The regular season is a real grind, and every team is going to have bad outings or nights where the energy just isn’t there. Those performances are easier to excuse, though, when they aren’t happening seemingly every other game. Whether it’s adopting an underdog mentality like Davis suggests, or simply playing with more focus, the Lakers need to figure some things out if they want to turn their season around.