Kyle Kuzma: Lakers ‘Gave Up’ in 37-Point Loss to Thunder

The Lakers have now dropped eight in a row.

Lakers rookie Kyle Kuzma had a harsh assessment of his team’s play after a 133–96 home loss to the Thunder on Wednesday night. 

“We gave up,” Kuzma said, according to ESPN. “You could see, they got basket after basket, we had no resistance on them on the defensive end and offensive end. When things got tough, we tried to do it individually, and you can’t do that in this league.

“They took a little lead, and we just went to being selfish on the floor. We didn’t compete on defense. They killed us. ... To lose by [nearly] 40, it is pretty embarrassing to be out there.”

Los Angeles has now lost eight in a row and 11 of its last 12. The Lakers have the worst record in the Western Conference at 11–27, ahead of only the Hawks at 10–26. 

The losing streak follows a surprise road win over the Rockets on Dec. 20, a game in which Kuzma dropped 38 points. The win snapped a 14-game Houston winning streak. 

The Lakers have been playing short-handed during their recent stretch of futility. Brandon Ingram missed two games in late December with injuries to both quads​, Lonzo Ball has missed six games with a shoulder injury and Brook Lopez sat out eight games with an ankle issue before returning on Wednesday. Starting shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is not allowed to play games outside the state of California because he is currently serving a 25-day jail sentence with work release privleges.