Two of the NBA playoffs’ most tҺrilling games to date took place on Monday night, one of which ended with an unbelievable heartbreaking loss for the Los Angeles Lakers. LA once again gave up late in the game, allowing the reigning champions to tie the game after leading by as much as 20 points.

The Nuggets, spurred on by the ferocity of their home crowd, battled back to grab their first lead since the first quarter in the dying minutes of the game. The Lakers’ potentially game-changing victory swiftly unraveled. Denver was down three points with just over a minute remaining when Aaron Gordon made a heroic save that set up Michael Porter Jr. for the game-winning three-pointer.

Once again, the Nuggets’ clutch-time offense was explosive, and the Lakers looked like a deer caught in headlights. Unsurprisingly, Jamal Murray’s clutch step-back jumper at the buzzer sealed Denver’s victory. Despite having a difficult game for the majority of it and only shooting 9 of 24 shots, Murray once again delivered in crunch time to defeat LA.

With the loss, the Lakers fell behind 0–2 in the series and found themselves in a very difficult situation when they returned to Los Angeles. Teams with homecourt advantage and a 2-0 lead have an all-time series record of 89-5 in the opening round.

Anthony Davis gave honest criticism of Lakers’ coaching

When Anthony Davis addressed the media following the defeat, he was candid about how he felt about the way his team performed. He informed NBA reporter Dave McMenamin of ESPN There are moments on both ends of the floor when we are unsure of what to do. I just have to get it right [in Game 3 on Thursday].”

For a variety of reasons, athletes these days are usually cautious to hide their sentiments about a coaching or personnel gaffe. First of all, they don’t want to go blaming others or pointing fingers when they are aware that doing so would be, at most, awkward. However, guys also typically view such admissions as a sign of weakness of some kind.

You don’t want to be making statements that suggest your squad isn’t as good as they seem or that things are harder than they seem to be when you are figҺting a top club like the Denver Nuggets. You can be giving your adversary even more mentаl leverage over you at this point.

Now, Davis’ remarks undoubtedly reflect poorly on the Lakers’ readiness, and the coaching staff bears a large portion of the blame. Several fans seem to concur with that idea, based on the responses to McMenamin’s tweet. However, AD making such a statement is still highly concerning, especially considering the incredibly slim likelihood that they can resolve such a significant issue in just three days.