The Los Angeles Lakers have lost three consecutive games and haven’t looked particularly promising in any of the outings. They fell to the lowly San Antonio Spurs amid an 18-game losing streak, dropped a home game against the New York Knicks and lost to the Chicago Bulls in blowout fashion to round it out.
LeBron James, who has typically leaned on a lack of health in struggles, had to turn somewhere else with the Lakers sporting their full roster in the Bulls loss.
Gabe Vincent made his long-awaited return to the lineup and played 14 minutes against the Bulls. He was a minus-12 in those 14 minutes, one of several bench players who struggled to keep things afloat for the Lakers against a Bulls team that is in the midst of fielding trade offers on nearly their entire roster.
James spoke candidly about the Lakers struggles and admitted there is no easy way out for L.A., via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Just figuring it out. I think both on and off the floor, you can figure it out. It’s not like our schedule gets any easier as far as travel, as far as opponents, things of that nature. Obviously we play I think they’re still the best team in the Western Conference in Minnesota and then OKC, one of the best teams in the West, and then I think one or two of the best teams in the Eastern Conference in Boston. So it’s not like the schedule will ease up for us. But we just got to be better.”
James believes that it’s a mix of all types of fatigue and frustration that have built up and led to this miniature mid-season slump:
“It’s a combination of everything. It’s the emotional fatigue, it’s the physical fatigue, the grind of the season fatigue. When you’re not winning, obviously that’s the frustration fatigue so a little combination of everything.”
When asked about if the Lakers need to make any lineup changes, James avoided a potentially messy answer by focusing on how much time it takes to make a rotation work with new players.
“That’s not my call. Obviously I understand that it’s very difficult as far as when guys are in and out, roster has not been whole all year, whatever the case may be. Vando is working through his situation, Rui has been up and down as far as his minutes and obviously Gabe just coming back tonight for the first time and he’s on a minutes restriction. So we’re just trying to find what works for us, what works well for us as far as lineups and things of that nature. We had a lineup out there tonight obviously that we haven’t played with all season and Chicago was able to make a run when that lineup was out on the floor. So it’s something we got to work through. I think it’s trial and error and it’s gonna happen on the fly because we don’t have much practice.”
As James said, it doesn’t get any easier for the Lakers from here. Matchups against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City Thunder and Boston Celtics are going to further test this roster, even at full strength. Now is the time for the Lakers to show what they are in the face of adversity.
LeBron James out against Timberwolves
If the Lakers are going to beat the Timberwolves on the road, they will have to do so without James as he was ruled out with left ankle peroneal tendinopathy. Vincent is also out while Anthony Davis is questionable.
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