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LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton has been criticized for contributing to his team's crash in the final minutes of a 131-120 loss to Canada. Milwaukee Bucks, the NBA's best team, on Friday.
Crossing 121-118 with less than two minutes to play, Walton asked for a timeout to create a game designed to give LeBron James the ball and give him space on the open floor to launch an attack.
Only, while the mission of the game was clearly communicated, Walton said he did not focus on the initial trigger: enter the ball cleanly from the baseline.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was the man coming in and returning him trying to feed him to James, who was sandwiched by two Bucks defensemen – Malcolm Brogdon and Ersan Ilyasova – in the middle of the lane. Ilyasova let the lob pass in front of James Khris Middleton, and Middleton found Brogdon in the corner for a 3, thus doubling the Bucks' lead to six with less than 1:48.
"I'm going to take this responsibility," said Walton after the loss. "I took it for granted that we would have the ball inside.It's mine.We have an extra time, we have to accept it.We can not afford to to shoot the ball there, but they came in with the press, and we were not open and at that point we probably should have called that last time, I know the guys still want to save them, but the party was expensive. "
Caldwell-Pope also found himself at fault, noting that his role in the play was going badly.
"I was just looking for someone to open, I could have managed the baseline and I have not done it," he said.
The Brogdon 3 was part of a 15-2 Bucks final that brought the Lakers record to 30-32 – 3½ games behind the San Antonio Spurs for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West Conference with 20 games to play.
Subsequently, James – who preached positivity all week – let in the disappointment of the loss.
"We ruined everything," James told ESPN.
The Lakers led the Bucks up to 12 points in the middle of the third quarter before letting Milwaukee come back. According to data compiled by ESPN Stats & Information, it was the seventh time this season that Los Angeles was losing after retaining a double-digit lead in the second half of the season, the second-biggest lost opportunities in the NBA behind the Orlando Magic, who did it nine times.
"I mean, listen, it's win or lose, and obviously, you want to build, but it's win or lose at that moment," said James, adding that he was living in the present. "Tomorrow we have to be awesome tomorrow in the next game, so we can not say, OK, we were awesome three quarters, three quarters and a half against Milwaukee, we can stand it." No, we can not do that. We must be good against Phoenix and press the restart button. "
From 7:09 to play in the third quarter – when the Lakers kept their biggest lead up to – until the final ring, the Bucks shot 22-for-34 on the field (64.7%), including 7-for-13 3 (53.8%) and scored 12 points on Lakers's five turnovers.
The Lakers will play the 12-51 Suns on Saturday, then return to the Staples Center for a three-game family match against the LA Clippers, Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics – three teams that would qualify for the playoffs if the series started today. .
"I thought we had played really well against one of the best teams in the league and that, for some reason, we collapsed a bit in the end," Walton said. "We know we have to play … When we play against elite teams, all teams must take part in games."
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