Lakers fall to Nets, 107-97, for their eighth consecutive loss

Reporting from Brooklyn, N.Y. —  In the locker room after the Lakers lost their eighth consecutive game, this one 107-97 to the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night, Coach Luke Walton challenged his team.

He challenged them not to be mentally soft, to fix what’ has been going wrong all of December during which the Lakers have been winless.

“It’s true,” forward Larry Nance Jr. said. “We’ve been getting mentally outworked. … There’s been a lot of issues we’ve had. I think the resiliency we’re lacking right now is due to a weakness mentally.”

Said forward Julius Randle: “We do have to man up. Coach is exactly right, we’ve gotta get back to being us. Got too many guys pouting or whatever it may be, complaining, whatever it is. Things aren’t going our way, not making shots. We just gotta step up.”

Said shooting guard Nick Young: “I know I’m not soft. My teammates aren’t soft. So we gotta show it and prove ourselves. He believes too much in us for us to go out like this.”

The Lakers performed in spurts against Brooklyn, unable to sustain any momentum.

The Lakers shot 54.2% in the first quarter, then followed that with a 13-point second quarter in which they made only four of 19 shots.

They outscored the Nets by 10 points in the third quarter, ending the period with an outstanding play by Nance.

He crossed over and past Anthony Bennett, drove to the basket, elevated over Brook Lopez and dunked the ball. Center Timofey Mozgov grabbed his head with both hands as he ran down the court and the Nets bench couldn’t help but react. The dunk gave the Lakers a one point lead.

“I was hoping it would give us a little bit of adrenaline,” Nance said. “Light a fire for us. It did for a little bit. Third quarter was rocking pretty good.”

With about six minutes remaining in the game, the Nets produced a 7-0 run that helped them pull away.

Three Nets players scored more than 20 points — Bojan Bogdanovic with 23, Lopez with 20 and Sean Kilpatrick with 22. But what rankled Walton the most was that Nets forward Trevor Booker, an undersized power forward whose rebounding prowess comes from hustle, got 18 rebounds.

“I don’t think there’s one thing to point at,” Walton said. “Being mentally locked in for 48 minutes. I think we shot 60% from the free-throw line. Sixty-one percent tonight. We’re a good free-throw-shooting team. If we’re really locked in and really serious about stopping the bleeding as you put it, we’re not shooting 61% from the free-throw line. Our minds are nowhere but winning.”

The Lakers’ eight-game losing streak matches their second-longest losing streak of the 2015-16 season. The Lakers’ longest losing streak last season lasted 10 games and they finished 17-65 for the worst record in franchise history.

Part of Walton’s goal this season, his first as Lakers coach, has been to create a culture of winning and an environment where players don’t get comfortable with losing. The tense air in Wednesday night’s locker room indicated these players aren’t, or at least weren’t comfortable with Wednesday night’s loss.

“As a team we’ve got a lot to learn about winning and how hard it is,” Walton said. “It’s frustrating but it’s where we’re at. Like I told the guys, we’re going to find our way out. When that is, time will tell.”