LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers entered their matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers with plenty of momentum as they had won their past four games.
Although it was the second night of a back-to-back, the Lakers were favored to beat a shorthanded 76ers team that was missing Joel Embiid and Paul George. However, Los Angeles turned in one of their laziest and dull performances of the 2024-25 season as they lost to Philadelphia 118-104.
The Lakers were also missing Gabe Vincent and Jarred Vanderbilt, though that shouldn’t have led to such a poor performance against an undermanned 76ers squad. In fairness, Anthony Davis suffered an abdominal strain and didn’t return after the first quarter so his absence largely contributed to the loss.
Even without Davis, the Lakers didn’t help themselves out much as they turned the basketball over 22 times. After the loss, James acknowledged he and the team weren’t as sharp as they needed to be and that their mistakes cost them a win, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“I just thought we weren’t as mentally sharp as we should’ve been tonight and made too many mistakes. That’s all.”
Philadelphia scored 27 points off of Los Angeles’ turnovers and James took accountability for the eight he committed himself:
“No excuses. Got to be better… Just got to be better. Can’t keep making the same mistakes. We can’t allow teams to get out and run. We had too many turnovers tonight that resulted in too many buckets for them. Like I said, we don’t have a lot of room for error. When we make errors, teams usually make us pay. So we gotta be better and it also starts with me too being one of the primary ball-handlers.”
James also discussed how turnovers were the difference in the game and that they were too much for the Lakers to overcome:
“That’s the game. When you look at all sports, you make too many mistakes, teams will make you pay. We just can’t make mistake after mistake after mistake and I think tonight, we just compounded too many mistakes in a row. It’s hard to come back from that.”
The normal caveats of missing players and being on the second night of a back-to-back certainly apply, but James and L.A. need to be better especially against lower-level opponents. Hopefully LeBron and the rest of the team are able to regroup ahead of their Thursday game against the Washington Wizards.
LeBron James and JJ Redick say Anthony Davis carried them in win against Hornets
Anthony Davis’ importance to the Lakers can’t be understated as he’s the focal point on both ends of the floor. One doesn’t have to look any further than the win against the Charlotte Hornets to see how important Davis is.
Both head coach JJ Redick and LeBron James said Davis carried Los Angeles in the win against Charlotte, a reminder of how dominant the star big man can be on any given night.
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