The Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Los Angeles Clippers 119-115 on Friday night.
After the game, multiple Lakers seemed to insinuate that their head coach, Frank Vogel, got legitimately outmaneuvered by Clippers head coach Ty Lue.
The first player to do so was Anthony Davis.
Anthony Davis credited Ty Lue’s playcalling down the stretch for the Clippers, saying that he found ways to take advantage of the Lakers’ aggressive rotations.
— Harrison Faigen (@hmfaigen) December 4, 2021
Davis was not alone in this assessment, though. Malik Monk went a similar route with his postgame comments:
Malik has now called this “great coaching” at least three times during his postgame presser. https://t.co/hACtKnZPVy
— Harrison Faigen (@hmfaigen) December 4, 2021
Monk’s commentary is particularly interesting since he is the primary reason his team was able to keep it as close as they did at the end offensively, all while being one of their biggest liabilities on defense. The 23-year-old scored all 20 of his points in the second half.
And it wasn’t just Lakers players noticing that they were being strategically bested.
Nice design from the Clippers here. Shooters, floor spaced. Looking to use PG to attack Monk. Lakers don’t want to switch but watch the spacing and Kennard after the screen. Right side is open. Lakers trap, Kennard slowly acts like its a roll before popping to the open space. pic.twitter.com/vWgM9YkA01
— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) December 4, 2021
With this loss, the Lakers are now 12-12 on the year. That puts them at seventh in the Western Conference, behind a Clippers group that is without Kawhi Leonard this season.
It’s something of an open secret at this point that Vogel is very much on the hot seat. Him getting into fights with players on the bench and lashing out at Russell Westbrook in interviews is telling. He is getting desperate.
Brittany Renner reveals what Colin Kaepernick made her do. https://t.co/Ynujeu5kzi
— Game 7 (@game7__) December 4, 2021
Will Vogel ultimately be able to survive the season? At the moment, it doesn’t look like it.
Related: Steve Kerr’s Blunt Response to Stephen Curry Criticism (Video)
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.
