The Chicago Bulls blew out the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night 121-103. Somehow, even that final score doesn’t accurately depict just how overmatched L.A. was in the outing.
This marked the Lakers’ second blowout defeat in roughly a week.
Understandably, numerous players were left perturbed by how things turned out.
Chief among them: Carmelo Anthony. After the game, the 37-year-old was not shy about expressing his frustration.
“I don’t think you’re gonna beat anybody shooting 6-for-32 from three in today’s game,” he said.
“So we can talk about all the things that went on tonight, but when you shoot 6-for-32 from three, you’re not gonna beat anybody unless you’re just on it, you’re on point in every other aspect of the game…
“So there’s no excuses for that, we shot 18% tonight from three. If we can make a couple more threes, the game might change. But it’s not one of those nights. It’s just one of those nights where you’re getting a lot of the looks and we weren’t making the shots that we were taking. I don’t know what else to say about that, you just can’t beat a team when you go 6-for-32 from three. Not in today’s game.”
The Lakers kept it within striking distance for most of the first half, but in the third quarter the game completely got away from them. Perhaps not surprisingly, Russell Westbrook recorded 19 of his 25 points in the first half.
Anthony didn’t fare much better, finishing with fine points on 4-of-10 shooting in 27 minutes of action.
This isn’t the first time in recent weeks that Anthony has expressed frustration with how the Lakers look.
Anthony Davis has also been more vocal about how disappointing the squad is these days.
And Westbrook continues to be more newsworthy for his bizarre conflicts, like feuds with fans and beefs with reporters, than anything he actually does on the court.
One way or another, L.A. needs to get it together. Because if they don’t, they could quickly turn into one of the league’s more disappointing teams.
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