The Oklahoma City Thunder erased a double-digit deficit on Thursday night to come back and beat the Los Angeles Lakers 107-104.
LA was without LeBron James in this one, who is nursing an abdominal injury that will keep him out for at least a week.
With James unavailable, Carmelo Anthony stepped into a central offensive role for the Lakers. He ended up recording 21 points and hitting five three-pointers – two of which were instrumental in keeping LA in the game late.
After the fact, Anthony got brutally honest about his team’s struggles.
“For the most part we shouldn’t have lost this one,” Anthony admitted. “It ain’t come down to LeBron being out. We let this one go again. We shouldn’t have lost this one.”
That said, Anthony did point out that this group was still learning how to play together.
“We’re still work in progress,” he continued. “We played some good basketball last couple of games. Any time you’re missing a guy like LeBron, you still have to make those adjustments, guys got to do things that maybe it’s not called upon them to do when we have a guy like LeBron out there.”
Now that’s a Halloween costume. https://t.co/WVK6W11K9M
— Game 7 (@game7__) November 1, 2021
Anthony has had a rough few months. Between getting bloodied up on the court and facing some daunting experiences off it, nobody would’ve blamed him for a slow start to the 2021-22 NBA season. Instead, he has turned into one of the Lakers’ most consistent and reliable veteran options.
If LA ultimately bounces back and wins a championship this year, it will likely be in no small part due to Anthony’s efforts.
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A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.
