James Worthy: Thunder win over Lakers ‘might be the worst loss I’ve seen’
Los Angeles Lakers great James Worthy had an immediate reaction to the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 26-point comeback victory over his former team:
Send them home on the greyhound so they can think about their mentality.
“I’ve seen a lot of Lakers games, and I don’t know, this might be the worst loss I’ve seen,” Worthy said on Sportsnet Live following the 123-115 Thunder win.
Los Angeles led 41-19 after the first quarter, but Oklahoma City scored 37 points in the second quarter and 41 in the third to claw their way back. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 14 points in the final three minutes of the third quarter to give the Thunder the lead, and the Lakers missed three 3-pointers — two of which were airballs — in the final 30 seconds of the game.
“You have to finish the job, regardless of who you’re playing,” Worthy said. “You cannot disrespect the worst team in the league. In fact, you make sure you put them away and let them know that they don’t have a chance.
“… I know it’s early in the season, but this wasn’t one of those games. They should have won the game, and the disrespect that they showed for Oklahoma by not being professional and finishing the job, it’s not Lakers style.”
“this might be the worst Lakers loss ive seen.”
“send em back on the Greyhound”
James Worthy goes in on the Lakers to lead the postgame show after their embarrassing meltdown in OKC pic.twitter.com/3X6JUE4ubk
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) October 28, 2021
Ironically enough, it was the Lakers who took offense to the Thunder finishing the job. With OKC up by five points with four seconds remaining, Rajon Rondo threw in a lazy inbounds pass. Darius Bazley picked it off and slammed home the exclamation point.
Russell Westbrook led Bazley know that he broke an unwritten rule of not throwing down fun slam dunks to cap off 26-point comeback victories. The former Thunder star picked up his second technical foul of the game and was ejected.
“They think that teams are just going to lay down for them, and they’ve got to change that. This was really ugly. I don’t have a whole lot to say,” Worthy said.
“I’d put them on the greyhound and let them drive back to LA and think about it, cause you just cannot perform like that.”
