LeBron James made some interesting comments after the Los Angeles Lakers dropped to 22-18 in this 2024-25 season thanks to a 116-102 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. In his postgame press conference, James spoke on why the Lakers came up short and hinted that the front office had to make moves.
Reporter: “LeBron, you cut their lead in half in the fourth quarter but could not get closer than 11. What were some of the reasons why you guys did not win tonight?”
LeBron James: “They capitalized off our turnovers and mistakes defensively. It’s a great team. Very well coached, Hall of Famers, great complimentary players. Norm (Norman Powell) having a great season, Big Zu (Ivica Zubac) big time. So, when you’re playing against a great team, you got to limit your mistakes, offensively and defensively, ’cause they make you pay and I think they did that tonight.”
Reporter: “You’ve been telling us that the margin for error is small in this (team) for few years now. Are there ways they can get bigger? Internally?”
James: “Bigger or better?”
Reporter: “I guess can you give yourself more margin? Are there things you can do some nights to make it easier?
James: “No, that’s not how our team is constructed. We don’t have room for error — for much error.”
Reporter: “How can you guys navigate the sort of mental demands of having to play close to perfect basketball?”
James: “We don’t have a choice. I mean that’s the way our team is constructed. We have to play close to perfect basketball. We know the game is never perfect, it’s never going to be a 48-minute perfect basketball game. But we can’t combat it on multiple possessions in a row or if we’re turning the ball over, we have to do a better job with that.
“If we’re making aggressive turnover plays where we’re trying to make the right play to our teammates but it’s some of the careless ones. Defensively, we can’t have breakdowns. If our coaching staff has a game plan for us, we can’t break down on the game plan.”
That’s about as close as someone can come to throwing the front office under the bus without directly criticizing them.
It’s fair to assume that James, who had 25 points (9-20 FG), five rebounds, 11 assists, three steals, and a block against the Clippers, isn’t happy with the job that GM Rob Pelinka and the front office have done. The 39-year-old wants the roster to be strengthened as soon as possible.
James wasn’t actually the only one from the Lakers to talk about the margin of error on the night. In his postgame press conference, head coach JJ Redick stated that the team doesn’t have a huge margin.
“We just don’t have a huge margin for error and nor can we create that margin organically,” Redick said. “It has to be emphasized daily to touch the paint, to play paint-to-great mentality, to make the extra pass.
“We don’t have a guy on our team that’s going to necessarily always draw two to the ball,” Redick added. “We don’t have a guy on our team that’s going to be able to get past his guy one-on-one and get to the paint and spray it out. It’s just not our team. So, we have to do it through connectivity, through execution and when we do that, we’re really good.”
This certainly isn’t an ideal situation and the Lakers do not have a lot of time left to fix things. The NBA trade deadline is on Feb. 6, so just over two weeks are remaining now. It will be interesting to see if Pelinka and the front office can get another player in before that.
Getting back to the loss to the Clippers, it snapped a two-game win streak for the Lakers. They’ll now look to start another streak when they take on the Washington Wizards at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday at 10:30 PM ET.
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