Anthony Davis warned the Los Angeles Lakers must be more ruthless after they made hard work of beating the Phoenix Suns on New Year's Day.
The Lakers made a brilliant start to 2020, bossing the Suns to open up a 74-41 half-time advantage at Staples Center.
Phoenix rallied in the second half and although the Western Conference leaders ran out 117-107 winners, Davis says there can be no repeat of their second-half showing.
"You can lose games like that, which is the worst feeling in the world," the forward said.
"You gotta be able to play the same way the entire four quarters. If we're going to continue to play like that then we’re going to lose games like that.
"We don't want to come in and blow a 36-point lead. … When we get leads like that we gotta make sure we continue to play the right way."
This decade starts the way the last one ended. #LakersWin pic.twitter.com/HVIQENtJ1K
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) January 2, 2020
Davis added: "We started playing a lot of one-on-one, we completely stopped playing defense.
"They were getting a lot of offensive rebounds, attacking the basket. Nobody was getting open shots."
The Lakers are 27-7 following three consecutive victories and next face the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday.
