The Lakers came up short tonight at Madison Square Garden when they faced the Knicks and lost 100-112. Luka Doncic’s 30 points and LeBron James’ 22 points were not enough to facilitate a win for the Lakers tonight.
Today marks one year since Luka Doncic was traded to the Lakers. After the game, a reporter asked LeBron James if he was satisfied with the way the team had progressed towards building a championship-contending team since the move to acquire Doncic.
“I can only speak for the group that we have here. We’re 29-19 right now. We’ve had some really good moments, we’ve had some not-so-good moments. We want to continue to build off of that.”
“Me speaking on anything other than that is not my pay grade,” James responded coldly, subtly reminding the reporter that he’s not the general manager of the Lakers and he can not speak directly on the issue of the Lakers’ potential trade pieces and targets.
No matter how many rumors claim that him and Rich Paul have an influence over the Lakers’ front office, the recent events have actually indicated otherwise.
From the questions over James’ uncertain future heading into the last year of his contract from last summer to recent reports claiming a rift between James and the Lakers’ ownership.
His agent has categorically denied that and moreover, reports also indicated that the Lakers are frustrated with the way Paul intervenes in their matters. Therefore, unfortunately for his fans, but the era of ‘LeGM’ is over.
While the reporter’s question was valid to the extent of asking about the current group’s championship ambitions, a subquestion included “have the pieces settled down as a team?” which seems to have confused James. Upon clarification, James further elaborated.
“I like this group but we gotta get better and that’s good, we should want to get better its only February 1st. We want to get better and better going into 48 games now”
The Lakers’ forward then moved on point at Austin Reaves’ injury as a contributing factor to the Lakers’ lack of consistency. The 27-year-old guard was a gametime decision today after being set for return on this road trip. However, he was downgraded to out for the game at the last-minute.
“It’s a tough Western Conference and a tough league. It’s been tough dealing with injuries, guys in and guys out. Unfortunately our all star two guard has been out for a minute and that’s a big piece for our team. It’s kind of hard to see what we can really truly be,” said James.
LeBron James finished tonight with 22 points, five rebounds and six assists while shooting 9-16 from the floor (60.0 FG%) and 2-6 from beyond the arc (33.3 3P%).
Reaves was initially expected to return against the Cavaliers midway through the Lakers’ eight-game road trip. But now, they have reached the last game of the road trip and Reaves is yet to make an appearance.
JJ Redick spoke to the media as well, and although did not explain why Reaves did not play today, remained hopeful that Reaves would be back on Tuesday when they face the Nets, contingent on Reaves feeling 100% sure of making a return.
When Reaves comes back, do you think all of the Lakers’ problems will be solved? Or are they still vulnerable and should look to make more trades? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
