LeBron James and Frank Vogel not panicking as LA Lakers suffer second-consecutive loss against Detroit Pistons

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The Purple and Gold struggled in the absence of Anthony Davis

The LA Lakers are now down to the third spot in the Western Conference standings after losing to the Detroit Pistons 107-92. LeBron James and co. had a second-half breakdown where they managed a mere 34 points.

Anthony Davis was sidelined with a right knee contusion and that allowed the Detroit Pistons' bigs to dominate. Blake Griffin recorded only his second 20-point game of the season while Mason Plumlee had 17 points and 10 rebounds. LeBron James managed 22 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds but it wasn't enough.

LeBron James reflects on what went wrong for LA Lakers

Speaking after the game, LeBron James alluded to the fact that fatigue did play a part in the LA Lakers' loss against the Detroit Pistons.

"I think Detroit played really well tonight and we didn't play well, we didn't play well at all. Our legs got twisted a little bit on the second night of a back to back and that was a result of it," LeBron said.

LeBron James himself struggled late in the game. He had 20 points in the first half but managed just another two in the second. However, he claimed that he's ready to go.

LeBron on getting tired on the road: “I don’t get tired. I don’t feel tired. I get my sleep. I get my rest. I have a lot of energy. I don’t get tired.”

— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) January 29, 2021

LeBron James finally spoke about adjusting to new lineups in the absence of key players due to injury. He explained:

"We are definitely all adjusting to playing minutes with different lineups... I think we're all learning on the fly with the lack of practice time... A lot of our games are like practices for us too."

Frank Vogel and Kyle Kuzma not overreacting to LA Lakers' loss against Detroit Pistons

Kyle Kuzma had a double-double on the night [Image: NBA.com]

Kyle Kuzma had a good outing with 22 points and 10 rebounds but his efforts did not translate into a win for the LA Lakers against the Detroit Pistons. Kuzma is not too worried though. He explained:

"I think we just weren't connected defensively at the level we're supposed to be. ... It's a brand new team. We're going to have struggles along the way, that's just part of a beautiful journey."

Head coach Frank Vogel wasn't too pessimistic after the result either.

He's also not going to overreact to this game.

"We'll be fine. You have nights like this in a long season... None of us are happy with how we played tonight but we'll bounce back."

— Harrison Faigen (@hmfaigen) January 29, 2021

The LA Lakers play perennial rivals Boston Celtics in their next game on Saturday.

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