The timer signaling Anthony Davis to take his feet out of the purple ice bucket kept ringing, but no one stopped it. Davis, eyes frozen and fixed on the door, didn’t even move, hands folded in his lap, the disappointment of the night filling the entire empty space of the locker room.
The Lakers haven’t lost in Los Angeles this season, and they certainly haven’t felt like one.
Franz Wagner hit a layup with 3.3 seconds left to give the Orlando Magic a 119-118 win and end the Lakers’ undefeated home run.
Davis hit a two-pointer with 18.9 seconds left and missed a pair of free throws that likely would have propelled the Lakers to their seventh straight win. Then he sat stunned in the dressing room.
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“We lost the game,” Davis said quietly. “I missed three free throws. Come down, hit the three, take the lead. My free throws are very important, very crucial. They were missing.”
It wasn’t just Davis. The Lakers had their chances on a shot that was the only one easy enough to have the word “free” appear before it. But LeBron James broke up late on his way to the line. Austin Reaves, one of the Lakers’ best scorers, missed two earlier in crunch time.
“We missed them. That’s all,” Reaves said.
The Lakers missed six free throws in the fourth quarter, turning a hard-fought win into a crushing loss.
“I’m going to a very dark place, literally,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of the way he’s handling a loss like this. “It’s a basement. I’m going to turn off the lights and watch the game film.”
The team played well against the Magic for the most part, minus a clumsy third quarter when a 10-point lead disappeared as Orlando’s zone defense shut down the Lakers.
But James’ fourth-quarter magic — he scored 14 of his 31 points in the final period — seemed to be enough to pull them through. He found Davis on a full-court assist that gave the Lakers a late three-point lead and momentum on their side.
Mistakes at the foul line kept the Magic alive, however, and Wagner, in the midst of a breakout season, hit the biggest shot to silence Crypto.com Arena. He has 37 points, 11 assists, six rebounds and four steals.
“I didn’t like the thought process and mindset when Wagner hit the three,” Redick said.
Davis, who led the Lakers with 39 points, missed a contested shot at the buzzer.
“Any loss is frustrating,” Davis said. “It’s more frustrating for me because I’m the one who missed the free throws.
The Lakers host Denver, the team that has knocked them off the last two postseasons, on Saturday night.
“We had our chances. They played well,” James said. “We played well. I mean, of course, the biggest bucket of the night, of course, was Franz. But we got into a position to win the game and we just didn’t go through.”
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.