The timer signaling for Anthony Davis to take his feet out of the purple ice bucket kept ringing, but no one stopped it. Davis, eyes frozen and fixated on the door, didn’t move, his hands folded on his lap, the disappointment from the night filling all the empty space in the locker room.
The Lakers hadn’t experienced a loss in Los Angeles this season, and they definitely hadn’t felt one quite like this.
Franz Wagner hit a go-ahead three-pointer with 3.3 seconds left, giving the Orlando Magic a 119-118 win and ending the Lakers’ undefeated start at home.
Shooting with a two-point lead and 18.9 seconds left, Davis missed a pair of free throws that likely would’ve lifted the Lakers to their seventh consecutive win. Afterward, he sat in the locker room in stunned stillness.
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“We lost the game,” Davis said quietly. “I missed three free throws down the stretch. Come down, hit a three, take the lead. My free throws are very important, very crucial. Missed them.”
It wasn’t just Davis. The Lakers had their chances with the shot that’s the only one easy enough to have the word “free” in front of it. But LeBron James split on a late trip to the line. Austin Reaves, one of the Lakers’ best shooters, missed two earlier in crunch time.
“We missed them. That’s really it,” Reaves said.
The Lakers missed six free throws in the fourth quarter, transforming what could have been a hard-fought win into a devastating loss.
“I go to a very dark place, literally,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of the way he processes a loss like this. “It’s the basement. I turn the lights out and watch film from the game.”
The team had mostly played well against the Magic, minus a clunky third quarter when a 10-point lead vanished as Orlando’s zone defense stalled the Lakers.
But James’ fourth-quarter magic — he scored 14 of his 31 points in the final period — seemed like it would be enough to help them overcome. He found Davis on a full-court assist that gave the Lakers a late three-point lead and put momentum on their side.
The misses at the foul line, though, kept the Magic alive, and Wagner, in the midst of a breakout season, hit the biggest shot to silence Crypto.com Arena. He finished with 37 points, 11 assists, six rebounds and four steals.
“Didn’t love the thought process and the mindset when Wagner hit the three,” Redick said.
Davis, who led the Lakers with 39 points, badly missed a contested shot at the buzzer.
“Any loss is frustrating,” Davis said. “More frustrating for me because I’m the one who missed the free throws.”
The Lakers host Denver, the team that eliminated them the last two postseasons, Saturday night.
“We had our chances. They played well,” James said. “We played well. I mean, obviously, the biggest bucket of the night, obviously, was Franz. But we put ourselves in a position to win the game and we just didn’t come through.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.