The downward spiral of the Los Angeles Lakers continued on Wednesday night as the team was once again blown out, this time by 41 points against the Miami Heat. LeBron James led the Lakers with 29 points and eight assists, but it meant absolutely nothing as the defense was poor and the effort of the entire team was lackluster at best.
The Heat tied a franchise-record with 24 3-pointers as they embarrassed the Lakers on every front. This is now six losses in the last eight games for L.A. with four of those being by at least 25 points and the team is now searching for answers as to how to stop this slide.
In terms of the defense, LeBron pointed to the Lakers’ lack of communication as a major issue, calling it horrible and saying teams will continue to make them pay if they don’t fix it, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“I just think the level of communication is not as great as it needs to be. There’s too many great teams out here and anytime you make a mistake, especially with us, teams are gonna make you pay. Miami obviously tied a franchise record for 3s and made us pay every time. We had horrible communication and they made us pay.”
Communication is absolutely vital for a team to be successful, especially on defense and the Lakers simply don’t have it right now. Just as concerning is the team’s complete lack of effort and energy. There were multiple instances against the Heat in which players gave little to no effort and allowed wide open dunks, layups and 3-pointers.
At the beginning of the season, win or lose, the Lakers were playing hard and playing together, doing everything in their power to get the win. That fire is not there at the moment and it is on LeBron and Anthony Davis as the leaders of this team to get things back on track as this season is now in danger of completely falling apart.
LeBron James says Lakers’ issues are on players, not coaches
In the NBA, it can often be easy to blame coaches when things start going bad and they are usually the first to go. But LeBron James made it very clear that these issues are on the Lakers players and not JJ Redick and his staff.
James said there are no schemes that can help the team compete the way they’re supposed to while calling the Lakers’ lack of effort in Miami ’embarrassing.’ LeBron added that this has been preached since the summer, saying this is ‘definitely’ on the players.
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