LEBON JAMES SUFFERED the biggest loss of his NBA career as the Los Angeles Lakers were thrashed by the Indiana Pacers last night.
Los Angeles fell to Indiana on the road 136-94 and the 42-point loss was the largest margin of defeat in James’ career.
The Lakers have only lost 11 games by 40 points or more in the history of the franchise.
James became just the fifth player in NBA history to eclipse 32,000 points during the contest. He finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and nine assists.
The Pacers got scoring from everywhere. Bojan Bogdanovic and Myles Turner led the way for Indiana with 24 and 22 points respectively. Five other Pacers scored in double-digits.
Indiana extended their winning streak to three games with the victory. The Lakers have now lost two straight.
Tuesday’s results
Los Angeles Clippers 117-115 Charlotte Hornets
Boston Celtics 103-96 Cleveland Cavaliers
Indiana Pacers 136-94 Los Angeles Lakers
Detroit Pistons 105-92 New York Knicks
Memphis Grizzlies 108-106 Minnesota Timberwolves
Oklahoma City Thunder 132-122 Orlando Magic
Toronto Raptors 119-107 Philadelphia 76ers
Miami Heat 118-108 Portland Trail Blazers
There’s a lot of those Irish players who are more comfortable on Instagram and twitter than on a rugby pitch.
@Treaty Bhoy: why do you do it
@Treaty Bhoy: absolutely.
‘This is rugby country’ lol. Bring back the hurling quick
@Frank Scanlon: Game of the people I think it was called
@Frank Scanlon: Love Guinness but that disgusting add nearly put me off it.
@mar: love the drink, but Diageo makes me want to avoid drinking it anymore. So much tripe
Too much faith in old legs time to tell Rory stay at home
So has the penny finally dropped, Stone Age tactics finally well and truly found out, just like Jack Charlton in his final days, past his sell by date
@Paul O Neill: We do not offload Joe does not seem to trust the players to do it. We do not counter attack from the back 3, we do not use 2 play makers to open up play, and we depend on possession retention so we have to out mussel teams we are not capable of doing that to physically stronger teams like England NZ and SA. This we all knew before today.
However our line out and defense was appalling, the amount of space we ceded was crazy. The line out I think is fixable with practice and different personnel. However the defense really worries me, we were beaten on the inside and outside, there looked to be no structure.
I fear this world cup came 12/18 months too late many players are aging and losing form, quarter final exit again.
Conway, Beirne, Carty & Marmion all need to start the next game. Move Larmour into 15 as Kearney is only fit for a cameo in this world cup.
@Richard: 3 out of that 4 are nowhere near good enough. Won’t mention names because I think we both know
@Ollie Watson: carty? Ammaright? The Connacht goat should just be given the reins off the great pretender Sexton already.
@Ollie Watson: actually 4 out of 4 are nowhere near international standard.
@BrianBoru: I’ll admit Marmion mightn’t exactly be world class but if he’s going to be in the 31 then it makes sense to start him. Regarding the other three if Carty and Beirne aren’t going to get a start in light of what we’ve just witnessed, I honestly dunno. And Conway is certainly international standard, if Larmour and Kearney are adjudged to be by yourself.
@Richard: Marmion should have been at the last world cup ahead of Redden, and he has been part of Ireland’s best performances when he has been give a chance. Unfortunately, a crocked Murray is often kept ahead of him, ala Wales game a few years back.
@Joe Vlogs: that game v Wales, when Murray got crocked was a very costly game, because Murray’s injury was made far worse by sending him back out to play on. He should have been immediately removed and not allowed to play again until the latter part of this season’s 6N. He has never been the same since but Joe keeps on flogging him.
A sobering defeat. It could be a blessing in disguise. There are men in the team that can’t question Joe if they get dropped now.
Apparently Murray was never meant to return to the field of play. They couldn’t even get a substitution right today.
The only thing worse than the performance, was Stockdale’s hair .
I think what will be most telling will be how we manage to bounce back next week. NZ got bossed around by AUS the other week, conceded 47 points and then kept them to 0 the following week. Can Ireland have a dramatic change in performance like that??!! Every team misfires, and that could certainly be excused on a first outing of the season, but if we are this flat for the next 2 weeks , then there is obviously major major concern.
@Ciaran O’ Donoghue: first outing of season post a gruelling camp and a week that they appeared to have trained hard in rather than winding down for the Test… they looked understandably tired
@Ciaran O’ Donoghue: couldn’t have said it better myself. That will truly be the real test, of Ireland gets hammered again, that spells really bad news and no sign of change or adjustment to game plan.
Today was painful to watch!
Throws were lost with Toner jumping as well, lets not fall again into that old misbelief that everything is fine in the lineout with Toner. We had a terrible lineout throughout the 2017 Six Nations with Toner present throughout until that final England game when POM stepped in for Heaslip and Toner was dropped.
@Rochelle: for all Rory Best’s qualities, his darts have always been inconsistent with the possibility of a nightmare day. Joe will have seriously look at Scannell off the back of this. Won’t succeed in Japan if our lineout fails
I know it probably has feck all to do with it but ever since Joe announced he was leaving things have not been the same
Surely nobody is deluded enough to think that this team can get past quarter finals, Schmitt exit can’t come quick enough
@Paul O Neill: will do well to get to quarters. So much for the conveyor belt of talent; conveyor belt of inflated egos more like it
@Paul O Neill: don’t worry if joe goes back to his old ways and picks, Cronin, toner, Ryan, Sexton, Ruddock, henshaw and Conan we’ll get back to winning ways.
@Chris Mc: he doesn’t pick Cronin though, and Henshaw is not an improvement. Agree with the others though…really feel ruddock deserves to be in ahead if pom
Ah lads calm down… was it not obvious that this team took to the field physically tired without the normal wind down in training you’d expect for a test match. They met a top team at a different point in their preparations- England looked physically energetic & lively, and we looked exhausted after 15mins. England knew this would be the case and played high tempo to try and inflict a deflating defeat… it worked. Up to the management now to keep the heads up and the prep going and get the bodies in peak shape for Start of World Cup
@BMJF: it’s fine for them to loose a match like that. What’s not acceptable is to lose with more than 50 points on them. Seriously think Joe is still backing his tactics from 2018.
Rugby like every sport is ever changing, and your game plan has to be evolving constantly as well.
The All Blacks are a prime example of a team that changes to match surprises and new threats posed to them.
@Aaron Tynan: today’s loss was nothing to do with tactics… we actually made some good carries but look how slow players were to get to breakdown, how slow they were to tackle to get back into a. Defensive line – They were physically knackered. Rugby is a game of physicality and we got hammered in those stakes but also England played at a tempo the tired boys couldn’t live with. Hard to play against that with lead in your legs
@BMJF: A coach has no business flogging his team to exhaustion leading up to a Test match against one of the biggest teams in rugby in 30 degree weather. The knock-on effect of that is they will not fully recover before the match v Wales and go in under-cooked to suffer a probable second humiliation. If he plays the same 23 they’ll be wrecked, if he plays a whole new set of starters they’ll probably be underprepared and not good enough.
My team for next week;
15 Addison
14 Conway
13 Farrell
12 Henshaw
11 Earls
10 Carty
9 Marmion
1 Kilcoyne
2 Scannell
3 Ryan
4 Ryan
5 Toner
6 Beirne
7 Murphy
8 Conan
16 Herring
17 Mcgrath
18 Porter
19 Henderson
20 Ruddock
22Mcgrath
22 Sexton (needs minutes)
23 Ringrose
Most of todays squad dont deserve another run out!!
John Cooney x
There’ll be no semi this year lads
Why can’t our forwards accelerate onto the ball instead of taking it from a standing start? Solve that riddle and you’ll actually breach the gainline which solves an awful lot of problems.
Horrific ,players need to be dropped 5678
Dogsh!t
Same auld game plan from Joe we are so predictable, one out rubbish no depth no one running at pace into space. Passive defense, lineout was a joke Rory should have retired.
I was optimistic at half time but that was a killing!
Hopefully it’s all because they are being flogged in training.
Seems like confidence is very, very low which is the biggest concern.
The players never owned up to the awful 6 nations earlier in the year.
Hopefully they will take an honest read on where they are now in and do what they can to fix things.
Hard to pick out individuals as they were all awful. Only explanation can be dead legs from heavy training schedule.
Joe will still pick the old reliables when it comes to the WC. Feels like the end of the O Sullivan era where it was harder to get dropped from the team than it was to get into it.
Serious freshening up is needed!
Maybe one of the bowlers from the Irish cricket team can throw the ball into the line out!
Lots of people calling for Carty to start against Wales. No. Sexton has to start. He can’t go into the Scottish game with no minutes in his legs. We have to start with Sexton and Murray and all the players who looked ring rusty today. I’m sure knows his 31 now, or at least very close to it. In one of the next two games we need to play our strongest 15 from the start and close to it in the other.
Serious question marks now. Game plan the same as always. No change up in how we play. The biggest worry is how players will still be picked no matter how bad they play…..
We were missing 4 world class players – Ryan , Sexton , Earls and Henshaw , take 4 of England’s out I.e Itoje , Vunipola , Farrell and Tuilagi – Would it be a different game ???
@Gareth Ward: Keith Earls is not world class. He wasn’t even good enough to make the last Lions squad.