As the biggest brand in the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers are always going to be at the center of attention. With LeBron James in town, every little thing that happens will get picked up by the fans.
Against the Timberwolves on Sunday, King James was caught getting into a heated discussion with assistant coach Phil Handy on the sidelines, raising some eyebrows on what exactly was being said.
LeBron and Phil Handy having a talkpic.twitter.com/RjOR9s0d6F
— Italo Santana (@BulletClubIta) January 3, 2022
This sort of thing happens all the time in the NBA, so it’s really nothing to raise alarm about.
Still, it does paint an interesting picture for the Lakers, who have been struggling to get on the same page all season long.
Tonight, they barely scraped by with a win against a Wolves team without their two best players. Throughout the season, their effort and chemistry has just been noticeably off.
While James has remained mostly optimistic about his team, he isn’t blind to the issues they are facing.
“It’s never ‘we got 65 games left.’ We damn sure need to play better, no matter who is in the lineup,” James said back in November. “We have our system and we need to obviously fast-track it and get better with it so we can play no matter who is on the floor, we can play at a high level… there is no level of panic, but there should be some sense of urgency every time we hit the floor. I felt like we had moments throughout this game tonight we didn’t [have the sense of urgency]. We got to figure how we can keep that sense of urgency for 48 minutes.”
Back a .500, the Lakers have a chance to get back on the right side of their record, but the road will not be easy.
Amid the rise of teams like the Warriors and Suns, the Lakers have to get healthy, work out their rotation, and learn how to maximize each other’s talent on the court. They have a long way to go, but the Lakers are in good hands.
