LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers suffered a disappointing loss to the L.A. Clippers in their first game at Intuit Dome as they were never really in it.
The defeat dropped the Lakers to 22-18 on the season which currently is sixth in the West, but the team has been mostly mediocre for a better part of the season save for a couple hot stretches. That was the expectation among pundits leading into the season as while James and Anthony Davis remain two of the better players in the league, they haven’t had enough help the last few season to recapture the magic they had in 2019-20 and go on another championship run.
After making no roster moves in the offseason, L.A. finally made a trade a few weeks ago in a deal that swapped D’Angelo Russell for Dorian Finney-Smith. Since that trade though the Lakers are just 4-5 and have not yet shown to be noticeably better.
Now after a non-competitive loss to the Clippers, James was very blunt when discussing the team’s margin for error on a nightly basis.
“Nah. That’s how our team is constructed. We don’t have room for error — for much error,” James said.
James was then asked how they can navigate the mental demands of having to play close to perfect basketball.
“We don’t have a choice,” he admitted. “That’s the way our team is constructed and we have to. We have to play close to perfect basketball. And we know the game is never perfect. It’s never gonna be a 48-minute perfect basketball game.
“But we can’t combat it on multiple possessions in a row or if we’re turning the ball over, we have to do a better job of that. If we’re making like aggressive turnovers plays where we’re trying to make the right play to our teammates, but it’s some of the careless ones. Defensively, we can’t have breakdowns. If our coaching staff has a game plan for us, we can’t break down on the game plan.”
While the addition of Finney-Smith is a good one, it seems that LeBron is making it clear that more moves are needed ahead of the NBA trade deadline on Feb. 6 in order to vault them into championship contention. The Lakers were killed on the offensive glass by Ivica Zubac and the Clippers, and it’s no secret that frontcourt help should be a priority.
Until a deal can potentially be made though, James knows they just need to go out and compete every night.
“We just gotta keep putting our foot forward and keep working,” LeBron concluded.
LeBron James: Lakers aren’t team they’ll be in February & March
This isn’t the first time LeBron James has hinted at the Lakers needing to improve as he recently said they aren’t the team they’ll be down the road.
“I feel like we have so much more room to improve. We are not the team, I believe we’re gonna be, once February, March hit. But I do like our chances and we got to continue to put the work in and that’s all that matters.”
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