The Los Angeles Lakers lost a big one on Sunday night after they fell to the New Orleans Pelicans, 116-108. The defeat means that the Pels have now surpassed LA for the ninth spot in the West as both teams battle for positioning for the last remaining Play-In slot in the conference.

After the game, Lakers superstar LeBron James was brutally honest about how he felt about his team's deflating loss to New Orleans. The four-time NBA champ then went on to pinpoint one specific area he believes his teammates were lacking down the stretch:

“It feels like s—t,” LeBron said about the Pelicans loss. “I mean, excuse my language but it sort of feels like (it). I came here with a mindset understanding it was a playoff-type atmosphere, playoff implications, things of that nature. I knew that from the jump. We also got a lot of guys on our ball club that haven’t played in playoff games as well, and plays a lot of big minutes for us.”

According to LeBron, his teammates' lack of playoff experience played a key role in the loss. The Lakers were up big in this one only to see the Pelicans come from 23 points down to score a huge win over LA. Needless to say, James was extremely disappointed.

LeBron then went on to identify which particular teammates he's talking about here:

“You have Malik [Monk], Wenyen [Gabriel], Austin [Reeves], Stan (Stanley Johnson). And you know Talen [Horton-Tucker] is pretty much not accustomed to it as well,” LeBron continued. “We’re trying to bottle that in and help the young guys understand the magnitude of it, and they’ve got guys who’ve been in the postseason.

“It feels like a wasted opportunity, obviously, for myself and for our team. We weren't able to get it done.”

To be fair, the Lakers had a handful of guys playing on Sunday that have had more than their fair share of experience in the playoffs. Apart from LeBron, guys like Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony, and Dwight Howard have all been through numerous postseason battles in the past. However, as James pointed out, all of LA's younger players have had little to no playoff experience whatsoever.

It is worth pointing out, though, that the Pelicans don't actually have much playoff experience either outside of CJ McCollum and Jonas Valanciunas. Be that as it may, it was clearly New Orleans who outplayed their opponents down the stretch as they escaped with a narrow victory over LeBron and Co.

James suffered an ankle injury during the game but he was able to play through it for the most part. The King is pretty banged up right now, but unfortunately, with the Lakers fighting for their lives, it does not sound like LeBron will be able to take a night off. They return to action on Tuesday against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks before heading to Utah to face the Jazz.

The 11th-placed San Antonio Spurs, who are in the midst of a three-game winning streak, are now just one game behind the Lakers for the 10th and final Play-In spot in the conference. The Lakers will need to muster up a handful of wins in their eight remaining regular-season games if they hope to hold off Gregg Popovich's men.