The Los Angeles Lakers entered Wednesday's night game against their cross-town rivals, the Los Angeles Clippers, tied for the sixth seed in the Western Conference. With the top six spots automatically qualifying for the playoffs, that made this game crucial for both teams. You wouldn't have known that from watching the first half though.

The Lakers looked absolutely exhausted coming off a draining, overtime victory against the Utah Jazz the night before. Anthony Davis and LeBron James specifically looked sluggish, having not been playing many back-to-backs this season. The Clippers would go on to build a 21-point lead.

But James truly struggled on the offensive end in a way rarely seen during his pro career. LeBron finished the half with just three points on 1-for-6 shooting from the field and 0-1 from deep. It was only 10th time during his Hall of Fame career that James finished a first half with three or less points.

To put that into perspective, he has played in 1,418 games, per Basketball Reference.

Fans let him know about what they thought of his first-half performance.

https://twitter.com/BarryOnHere/status/1643818640100171777

https://twitter.com/FeelLikeDrew/status/1643812902032359424

TV personality Nick Wright even made mention of the fact that maybe this was done on purpose.

There is an argument to be made that it is better for the Lakers to lose this game. If they win, they will move up to the fifth seed. The fifth seed will play Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the NBA playoffs. The Suns still have not lost a game that Durant played in.

However, the downside of a loss makes it highly they are headed for the play-in tournament.

Nevertheless, James bounced back in a big way in the third quarter. He scored 16 points on 7-9 shooting to climb back into the game. But the Clippers midway through the fourth quarter still hold a double digit lead.