Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James went on the Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday morning ahead of the team’s game against the Indiana Pacers and discussed a variety of topics.
Among them was this Lakers season and where the team stands. The Lakers currently sit in fifth in the West at 43-28 after losing their last three games. After acquiring Luka Doncic, the team went on a win streak and showed they can compete with anyone.
But then some injuries set in with James among the players going down. Everybody is now back, but it is expected to take some time for the team to gel ahead of the start of the playoffs. James spoke about that with McAfee, labeling health and the ability for him to quickly gel with Doncic and Austin Reaves as the keys for the Lakers to finish out the season:
“Obviously it goes without saying for any team, but health. Health. That’s the most important for our team. We are not in a position where we can afford anybody to go down. And then after that, Luka, Myself and AR15, we gotta all be clicking at the same time. And we know there’s gonna be games that happen throughout the course of a playoff game where I may not be making my shots or whatever, or AR is not making his shots, or Luka might not be making his shots. But when I say clicking, we have to be in tune on what we gotta do every single night because we gotta make sure everybody is in the right place every single game. The playoffs is literally, one possession will have you losing a series. One possession can make you lose a series and it’s up to us three, obviously I know my voice and what I command out of guys, that’s gonna be heard. Luka’s play, some people lead by example. And the way AR, his infectious play, we have to make sure we have everybody in tune because we know our coaching staff is gonna give us the game plan. JJ is not gonna send us out there on a wild goose chase. Nope. He and his coaching staff, they’re gonna make sure we know what the hell to do in order to get the job done and then it’s up to us to go out there and get it done.”
James is definitely right about the health part as the Lakers’ roster lacks the necessary depth to overcome a key player getting injured, especially if it’s in the frontcourt.
Then as far as things clicking with Doncic and Reaves, it is understandably going to take some time considering they are all used to playing with the ball in their hands. There has been an aspect of them taking turns so far when they share the court together, but as LeBron alluded to, they will have to figure out a way to co-exist and gel together for this team to make a deep playoff run.
The Lakers only have 11 regular season games left to figure all of this out, but if anyone can, it is James, Doncic and Reaves. The hope is just that they will all stay healthy in order to make it happen.
LeBron James bringing back podcast
LeBron James has also announced that he will be bringing back his “Mind the Game” podcast. Since JJ Redick is no longer hosting, James has brought on NBA legend Steve Nash to co-host with him in season two.
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