The play-in tournament is about to start, and to the surprise of a lot of the NBA community, that will mean the end of the season for the Los Angeles Lakers. While they were expected to do big things this season, it quickly became apparent that it wasn’t going to be the case, with injuries and a disconnect with the coaching staff causing loss after loss for the team.
Anthony Davis missed more than half of the Lakers’ games this season and even LeBron James was only able to play in 56. This meant that the Big 3 they had assembled barely got to play together, something Davis pointed out towards the end of the season when discussing what had gone wrong for the team.
And it would seem that LeBron James also concurs with this, indulging in a bit of gallows humor. James lamented the lack of playing time he had with his playing stars, joking about how he played more games alongside his high school teammates than with AD and Russ this season.
LeBron laments that he played more games with his high school teammates than he got on the floor with Westbrook and Davis this season
— Trevor Lane (@Trevor_Lane) April 11, 2022
“The reason why we weren’t very good together? Because we weren’t on the damn floor together”
The trio only started about 20 out of 82 games together, a very poor sample size when talking about gelling with your teammates and flourishing on the court together. He may be joking about it, but James played more games in every high school season than he did alongside his two, star teammates for the Lakers in the 2021-22 season.
This does make a point in favor of giving them another opportunity next season, maybe the three under a new direction with some more shooters around them could deliver success to the Lakers as initially anticipated. However, that is now a question for the Lakers front office to think about, with the offseason certain to bring more significant changes in Los Angeles.
