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NBA 28/10/2017, 12.41

Coach Luke Walton benches Lakers starters vs. Raptors as teaching lesson

Per ESPN, Ball, Brandon Ingram, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Larry Nance Jr. and Brook Lopez were all yanked with 3 minutes, 42 seconds remaining

NBA
Luke Walton did not like the defense of his starters and benched them for the final 3 minutes and 42 seconds in loss to Raptors 101-92.

Per ESPN, Ball, Brandon Ingram, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Larry Nance Jr. and Brook Lopez were all yanked with 3 minutes, 42 seconds remaining and the Lakers trailing 91-83 before dropping a 101-92 loss to the Toronto Raptors at Staples Center.
"I took the starters out a little early in the third because they didn't get back in transition defense. which is our No. 1 key to being a good defensive team," Walton said. "We talked about how important that third quarter was with the momentum of the game changing and them being a playoff team, so we can't afford to give those up so as a teaching lesson we took them out a little earlier than I normally have done."
"Unfortunately, we didn't get back on defense again with four minutes to go in a close winnable game," Walton added. "You can't just give away free points. To let them know how serious we are about transition defense, we pulled them out again. We were going to let the starters see what they can do with the game. But when they didn't get back on the break, they are telling me and each other that they don't really want to finish that game."
E. Carchia

E. Carchia

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