The Los Angeles Lakers have lost four of their last five games. After the game against the Detroit Pistons, LeBron James explained the reasons for the downward trend.
After a good start to the season, the Lakers had major problems in December, especially on defense. They were the second-worst defensive team in the NBA, and with a record of 20-11, the Californians are now only fifth in the Western Conference.
They suffered a 106-128 defeat against Detroit, even though the score was 79-79 in the middle of the third quarter. “I thought we had some good moments defensively, but there were also too many situations where they were able to run to the basket on their own after turnovers,” James said. “Teams are running us over and getting so many easy points in transition.”
In addition to turnovers, LeBron, who celebrated his 41st birthday, also addressed offensive rebounds and demanded that the team improve collectively. James pointed to the numerous injuries on the team, which he said were making it difficult for the team to find its footing.
LeBron points to the many absences
“We’ve had maybe one game with our entire team available, if that. We’re missing an All-Star guard in Austin Reaves. Rui Hachimura is out, Gabe Vincent keeps having problems, but at least we have Jaxson Hayes back now. There’s just a lot of fluctuation, and then it’s hard to get into the flow and find a rhythm.“
But James didn’t want to use that as an excuse. ”We still have to deliver. I think we did that in part today, but the turnovers were too much. Still, we played hard, but the better team prevailed.”
LeBron himself scored 17 points and became the twelfth player to play an NBA game on or after his 41st birthday. With a total of 1,577 games, the forward now needs 35 more appearances to overtake the all-time record holder Robert Parish.