The Los Angeles Lakers saw their six-game winning streak snapped last night and in about as soul-crushing of a fashion as possible.
With less than half a minute remaining in last night’s game against the Orlando Magic, the Lakers led 118-116. Anthony Davis went to the line after a foul but despite having gone 10-of-11 from the line throughout the game he left the Crypto.com Arena stunned by missing both of them. Magic forward Franz Wagner collected the ball after the rebound and carefully moved the ball down the field as the clock wound down. With five seconds remaining, he took the shot from beyond the arc and drilled it, giving the Magic a 119-118 lead over the Lakers right before the buzzer.
Davis finished the game with 39 points while LeBron James added 31.
AD missed two FT’s in a row right before Franz Wagner hit the game winner 😬 pic.twitter.com/rMtPMFWEVC
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 22, 2024
As you might expect, Davis and the Lakers have been getting roasted for their late-game collapse all night:
“I hope he can’t sleep tonight, I hope this pains him. I hope Jokic comes back Saturday and puts belt on (expletive) for this pathetic (expletive) AD pulled tonight. One thing I hate losing is because of FTs and layups,” one fan replied.
“Explain to me why the best defensive player switched off the ball in crunch time..this is just a bad sequence for AD,” wrote another.
“Life is good when the Lakers lose like this,” a third wrote.
The loss sends the Lakers to 10-5 on the season and fourth in the Western Conference. This early in the season there’s more than enough time for the Lakers to string together some more wins and put this brutal loss behind them. Though if they wind up losing out on their desired seed by just one game, they’ll most likely wind up kicking themselves for letting this one in particular get away from them.
Will this loss haunt them for the rest of the season, or will they find a way to recover from it?
Related: Anthony Davis Announces Decision On Playing For Team USA