Davis rips Lakers after Timberwolves loss: 'Championship team? Not us right now'

Anthony Davis is fed up with how his team is playing, and he made that clear Friday night after an “embarrassing” 107-83 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Timberwolves snapped a six-game losing streak on the Lakers’ home floor behind a 40-12 run in the third quarter. Asked what went wrong in that quarter, the Lakers’ superstar put it bluntly:

“We sucked,” he said. “No defence, can’t score, and that’s not just this third quarter, it’s every third quarter we’ve played this season.”

Los Angeles currently sits seventh in the Western Conference with a 7-6 record, but as recent NBA champions that were among pre-season betting favourites, according to Basketball-Reference, this Lakers team is nowhere near expectations.

“We got to decide who we want to be… A championship team? That’s not us right now,” Davis said. “We’re not winning a championship the way we’re playing, we got to be better, and we got to care more for our wins at home, wins in general.

“That was embarrassing.”

The Lakers have dealt with some injuries, going 2-3 since LeBron James was sidelined by a strained abdominal muscle after a game against the Houston Rockets on Nov. 2.

Davis also made sure to point out that it is early in the season, and there’s still time to turn things around.

“We gotta learn from it and most importantly, we gotta stay together,” he said. “It’s still fairly early… We still don’t have all our guys back, but we still have enough to win some basketball games.

“When we get our guys back we know we’ll be a great team, but we still gotta do what we do no matter who’s on the floor.”

Head coach Frank Vogel said after the game that the team could use the frustration to get back on track.

“There’s no better motivator than a bad loss,” he said. “I think our guys are angry, our coaching staff is angry.”

The Lakers have a chance to bounce back against the 4-8 San Antonio Spurs on Sunday.