Magic Johnson is no longer the only Los Angeles Lakers legend who is getting frustrated with the current status of the team. After witnessing LeBron James and the Purple and Gold lose to the Houston Rockets on Wednesday, James Worthy got brutally honest about the team's problems.
According to Worthy, the Lakers are not dead yet, but they are lacking a sense of urgency. More than that, they are also not showing any sign of willingness to fight–which was evident against the Rockets.
“They're not dead on arrival, but they don't have that tenacity, or that will to make it out of this… it doesn't seem like they believe in anything they're doing,” Worthy said of the Lakers, per Harrison Faigen of SB Nation.
James Worthy is simply spitting facts, though. While the Lakers continue to struggle, the mentality they showed throughout–especially late in the game–is not a good sign and doesn't bode well in their attempt to make the playoffs.
If you are a team backed into a corner, the usual response is that of a motivated and fiery one. Unfortunately, that is not the case for the Lakers. Instead of showing energy and grit, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and the rest of the team seemed to just give up.
Case in point: Westbrook missed a wide-open lay-up in crunch time–when the Lakers were trailing by 10 points–and LeBron looked dejected after witnessing such horrible fail.
Only the Lakers can fix their problems, but they won't be able to until they start playing motivated and show everyone the championship mentality that brought them the Larry O'Brien trophy a couple of years ago.