After the Los Angeles Lakers lost their sixth game in their last seven tries, LeBron James voiced plenty of frustrations. Amongst them, the NBA's new play-in tournament that is set to be implemented at the conclusion of the regular season.

Currently, the Lakers are tied with the Dallas Mavericks and Portland Trail Blazers for spots 5-7 in the Western Conference. Everyone is trying to get into the top 6 of the standing, as the 7-10 seeds will battle in said play-in tournament. After Sunday's loss to Toronto, LeBron spoke out on the play-in tournament.

However, it was the Lakers superstar who sung a different tune just last season when the idea of a play-in tournament popped up. James had said this on the “Road Trippin' Podcast” according to an article on NBC Sports.

“One thing you can't just do is go straight to the playoffs, because it discredits the 60-plus games that guys had fighting for that position. You got Portland. You got Memphis…New Orleans and Sacramento tinkering around there…so if there's five or ten games left…why not those guys battle it out? Make them play each other all five games?” – LeBron James on the ‘Road Trippin' Podcast.'

Now that the Lakers find themselves engulfed in a race to get out of the play-in tournament with 8 games to go, it's no surprise to see the thought process shift, though LeBron did initially react negatively to the idea back in 2018. The Lakers struggled to stay afloat in the absences of James and Anthony Davis earlier in the season. That was to be somewhat expected. What wasn't expected was the massive struggles to continue on once both returned to the lineup, as they have.

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The Lakers have time to figure it out and climb up the standings but the schedule will do them no favors in the stretch run of the season. Time will tell if the Lakers end up in the dreaded play-in tournament or not.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect that LeBron James initially didn't like the play-in idea in 2018 and then said he liked it in 2020 before changing his stance again this season.