They sucked tonight because they took their foot off the gas. It was clear that outcome was in LA's favour 5:00 into the third when the Kings almost came back from a 24-12 shot deficit and the team was reeling. Luck is where persistence and hard work meet. Other top performing teams continually rise to the challenge and adversity and I don't call it luck. It's hard work and the will to win.
My major frustration point is that the coach doesn't adapt. He has the opportunity to regroup. To call a timeout he never uses and tell them what he is seeing. Reset the momentum. If he doesn't want to do that, reset some of the lines to adapt to the dominance that was unfolding before them. You can see when the team goes off the rails.
Smith was outstanding and kept them in the game. It could have been much worse without him.
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