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For the first time in years, LeBron James may finally see Father Time in his rear-view mirror. On Monday, the Lakers superstar put up a stinker, scoring only ten points on a dismal 4-16 shooting, as the Minnesota Timberwolves blew them out 109-80. While a huge chunk of the loss was the Wolves' stingy defense–they are one of the league's best defenses, after all–LA did them a lot of favors as James built on his 0-9 performance against the Jazz by building another brick house with Anthony Davis, who scored only 12 points on 4-14 shooting. After the loss, Lakers coach JJ Redick must now decide whether to sit LeBron James while still trying to win games.
Asked about managing the 39-year-old's games played moving forward, Redick admitted to reconsidering Bron's goal to play all 82 games this season.
“I think we're measuring the players and we can tell if a guy is running hot or whatever. [LeBron James] does a remarkable job of taking care of his body and getting recovery,” JJ Redick said, via Lakers reporter Daniel Starkand on X, formerly Twitter. “I don't know if that's in the best interest of him and us if he [plays all 82 games]. But if he's feeling well and feeling good, we should play. But we obviously want to manage that as best we can.”
The Lakers are in a crossroads
Simply speaking, the Lakers are not good, but they also aren't bad. Their mediocrity rests on this central paradox: the team needs LeBron James too much to rest him, but they also know he's too old to play heavy minutes every game.
Likewise, he has had to exert more than his usual effort in the last few seasons because the front office has yet to completely fix the disastrous Russell Westbrook trade, screwing with his usual ramp-up process that lets him preserve his legs for the postseason.
In the Lakers' loss to the Timberwolves, LeBron reached all the way back to his rookie season in 2003-2004 for his disaster-class.
He has now shot 0-19 from three-point range, his longest streak since missing 24 straight threes from December 26, 2003 to January 13, 2024, per ESPN Research.
Additionally, his 25% shooting against Minnesota was his sixth straight shooting less than 45%, his longest shooting slump since 2004, where he shot worse than that mark for 11 straight games.
Asked about what was going on with his offense, James couldn't pinpoint an exact reason.
“It's everything. It's the rhythm. I just feel off rhythm the last few, three or four games,” he said, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Then, when asked about what he needs to do to climb out of his slump, he added, “Work. Just work. That's all.”
Having lost five of their last seven games, the Lakers will need to find answers from wherever they can find them.
Whether that means resting LeBron or him and AD pushing Rob Pelinka to make trades, they'll need to figure it out before they make ESPN's preseason prediction come true.
