LeBron James had an uncharacteristically poor showing in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 109-105 loss to the Phoenix Suns and after the game, he spoke on what went wrong for them and revealed he has been dealing with an illness since Friday.
LeBron James on the loss:
“Wins and losses is inevitable in this league. How you play and how you continue to play each and every week, each and every game would define what type of team you want to be. So, I think even with the loss tonight, we still did some great things.
“There’s some things we could have been better at obviously, 14 points second quarter got them back in the game… We started the fourth quarter up seven and we let them get right back into the game. So, we could be a lot better there but we did a lot of good things.”
LeBron James on playing against Kevin Durant and Devin Booker:
“They two of the toughest guys one through four quarters. They don’t never let you relax. So, when they got it going, it’s very tough to stop them. KD at his size, at his length, and his ability to put the ball on the ground and shoot the ball. Book with his ability to shoot midrange, threes, get in the paint, whatever.
“They keep you on your heels and (Bradley Beal) is still there too, so it’s like where do you get it from? They have a lot of firepower.”
LeBron James on the intentionally missed free throw at the end of the game:
“Missed on purpose to try to get the offensive rebound. We had no more timeouts and we couldn’t come away with it.”
LeBron James on what would be the perfect missed free throw:
“Perfect one would hit the rim, because if it does not hit the rim, then they take the ball out right away. So, you want to try to hit the rim, get a ricochet that’s kind of unconventional where it’s like bouncing, no one knows where it’s going. I was able to get the rim but it kind of bounced straight down and (Jusuf Nurkic) got his hands on it first and then it kind of bobbled around and then Royce (O’Neale) was able to get it… We work on it, we get better with that in case we have that situation.”
LeBron James on how he’s feeling:
“I’ve been better, you hear it in my voice.”
LeBron James on when he started feeling unwell:
“Friday.”
James’ voice didn’t quite seem right throughout this postgame press conference and he was sniffling as well, which led to that question. The 39-year-old doesn’t appear to be seriously unwell, but his not being 100% might well have played a part in his struggles on Monday.
James had 11 points, five rebounds, eight assists, and one steal against the Suns. The 20-time All-Star went just 3-14 from the field, 2-5 from three, and 3-6 from the line. At one point, it seemed like James’ streak of scoring in double digits was about to end at 1,224 games, but he got to 10 with a three-pointer late in the fourth quarter.
While that streak is still alive, the Lakers’ unbeaten start to the season came to an end against the Suns. They have now dropped to 3-1 on the season and will take on the 4-0 Cleveland Cavaliers next.
Thank you for being a valued reader of Fadeaway World. If you liked this article, please consider following us on Google News. We really appreciate your support.
