The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a loss to their city rivals, the LA Clippers, on Sunday evening to fall to 22-18 for the season. While the Lakers are still holding onto sixth place in the Western Conference, they are only 1.5 games ahead of the 11th-seed, the Golden State Warriors.
In the loaded West, the margins between a playoff team and a lottery team are exceedingly small. Therefore, losses against teams at your level, like the Clippers, are that much more costly.
So, LeBron James was understandably not happy after the game. Per Lakers insider Jovan Buha, the 40-year-old superstar admitted a harsh truth about where the team is. Talking about how the roster construction is forcing the Lakers to play "close to perfect basketball," James confessed that his team simply doesn't have much room for error.
When asked in a follow-up about the mental demands of trying to play at that high of a level nightly, James said, "We don't have a choice. I mean, that's the way our team is constructed. And we have to play close to perfect basketball."
— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha)January 20, 2025
This criticism can be interpreted asa direct shot at GM Rob Pelinkaand the front office. The phrasing "the way our team is constructed" certainly raises eyebrows.
What James means here is the reality that he and Anthony Davis have to play heavy minutes and carry a large workload night in and night out. The Lakers are a top-heavy team, and they simply can't win games if James and Davis don't perform at a high level.
Pelinka has a chance to fix this roster construction issue at the trade deadline. The Lakers need more defense, athleticism, and shooting to have a real chance at a deep postseason run. By relying so much on James and Davis, the Lakers also carry the risk of running the two aging stars to the ground. For them to be as fresh as possible for the playoffs, the Lakers need to bring in some reinforcements to help share the workload in the regular season.
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