LeBron James appeared to be a bit tired and fed up in the fourth quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers’ game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night. James had set up Anthony Davis for an easy dunk on a play, but Isaiah Joe blocked the shot, which led to LeBron putting his hands on his knees and not running back on defense.
Isaiah Joe blocks Anthony Davis from behind, leads to a Dort transition three on the other end pic.twitter.com/p59wvQ5WZ7
— Alex (@AlexHoops_) December 1, 2023
Davis is listed as 6’10”, so for Joe, who is only 6’4″, to block that attempt was a bit embarrassing. Had the big man just strongly gone up for a dunk, it wouldn’t have happened, but he was a bit labored and went in with little to no force.
You can understand LeBron being a bit fed up at that point, but he has to run back on defense there. His just staying on that side of the court led to Lu Dort getting a wide-open three, which he hit to push the lead to 18 points.
It ended up being the cue for head coach Darvin Ham to pull his starters as he waved the white flag. The Lakers would end up losing 133-110, for their second blowout loss in three games. LeBron ended the night with 21 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block.
LeBron James Says The Lakers Are Off To An Impressive Start
If you had told anyone that the Lakers would be 11-9 after 20 games, they probably wouldn’t have believed you. This was a team that was supposed to be in the mix for one of the top seeds in the West, but LeBron thinks they are off to an impressive start considering the circumstances.
“We’re 11-9 without ever having a same group. That’s pretty impressive.”
LeBron: "We're 11-9 without ever having a same group. That's pretty impressive."
— Lakers Daily (@LakersDailyCom) December 1, 2023
LeBron had previously blamed injuries for the Lakers’ early-season struggles as well, and it is somewhat fair to point to them. Jarred Vanderbilt has not played a game this season while new arrival Gabe Vincent played just four games before being ruled out with a knee injury.
They were also without Rui Hachimura and Cam Reddish here, and both of them had started the season well. Any team without four key rotational pieces would struggle a bit and to make matters a little bit worse, Jaxson Hayes missed this game as well.
Despite that, though, you’d like to see them play better than they have so far. The 44-point loss to the 76ers was flat-out embarrassing and while they beat the lowly Detroit Pistons after that, they crumbled again when facing a good team in the Thunder.
Losing to good teams when being short-handed is excusable, but getting blown by them is not. Fortunately for the Lakers, they take on the Houston Rockets next, who have failed to win a game on the road this season.
LeBron James Was Not Satisfied After The Win Against The Pistons
After that crushing loss to the 76ers, it was important that the Lakers avoided defeat to the Pistons and they handily ended up beating them 133-107. Despite the large margin of victory, though, LeBron was not satisfied after the win.
“You always have room to improve. We have to improve a lot. We’re only 19 games in. We have to continue to improve, no matter what. We’re not even a fourth into the season yet, so we have a lot more room to improve.”
This team certainly has a lot of room to improve. They are second from bottom when it comes to three-point percentage at 33.8% and offensive rebounding, at 8.2 per game.
They have also been very slow starters, being among the worst first-quarter teams in the league. The only positive for the Lakers is that they have plenty of time to work on these issues, as they won’t win a championship if they play like this.
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