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On Monday night, the Los Angeles Lakers suffered yet another demoralizing loss, falling to the lowly Memphis Grizzlies by a score of 110-105. Keep in mind, this was just two nights after the Lakers lost to a New Orleans Pelicans team that did not have Anthony Davis.
With the defeat, Los Angeles fell to just 29-31 on the season and is seeing its playoff hopes dwindle by the day. Of course, there is still time for the Lakers to turn things around, but with the postseason less than two months away, we'll just bring up the old Yogi Berra-ism that says “it's getting late early out there.”
After the latest loss, LeBron James had some harsh words that seemed to be directed at the younger players on the team, saying that if they were distracted, then the Lakers were the “wrong franchise to be a part of.”
Even though, you know, James caused all of those distractions around the trade deadline by aggressively pushing to get the aforementioned Davis and then joking about it during All-Star Weekend.
Here is the thing: LeBron is missing the mark by blaming the Lakers' young players. Big time.
Maybe, just maybe, he should place some blame on himself. Not just for causing distractions in the locker room, but how about for giving a half-hearted (at best) effort defensively?
For example, with the Lakers down by four on a critical possession late in the fourth quarter against the Grizzlies, LeBron James, for some reason, decided not to close out on a three-point shooter:
LeBron playing terrible defense and then complaining to his teammates for not playing D is classic LeBron pic.twitter.com/MfdDH2mKG7
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) February 26, 2019
And then we have this string of plays where he literally just stood around like a statue:
If LeBron is suppose to be the leader of this Laker team, he can’t play defense like this. Period.
pic.twitter.com/mUa9leRYu6— De La Folks (@nahfooreally) February 26, 2019
But yeah, LeBron. Let's blame Kyle Kuzma and Brandon Ingram and the rest of the kids on the team for being a little perturbed by the fact that you tried to ship all of them out of town at the deadline.
This is the way of LeBron James, though. He has a history of calling his teammates out in the media and shifting the blame from himself. That was always wrong, but this season especially makes you wonder if James has completely lost touch with reality.
The Lakers were 20-14 before LeBron went down with a groin injury on Christmas. They weren't world-beaters or anything, but they were a solid club. Of course, in James' absence, Los Angeles went just 6-11, but most felt that his return would galvanize the team for a playoff push.
Instead, the Lakers have gone just 3-7 since James came back and have arguably looked worse than they did during their 17-game stretch where he was sidelined.
Aside from an incredibly bizarre buzzer-beating win over the Boston Celtics shortly before the All-Star break, the Lakers have looked absolutely lost.
One of the hallmark bullet points for those who feel that James is better than Michael Jordan is the fact that James has never lost in the first round of the playoffs. Well, this year, he might not even make the playoffs, so what will that do to his all-time great status?
I know we like to protect Lebron James and make excuses for him, but if you deflect blame from him this year? Sorry, but you are just wrong.
Of course, the argument can be made that while guys like Kuzma and Ingram are young, they are still grown men and should be able to handle trade rumors, but that's missing the point.
Remember: it's not like James tried to get the Lakers' front office to just trade one or two guys. The Lakers offered basically their entire team for Davis and were still rebuffed.
What do you think that does to a locker room?
I think the image of LeBron sitting on the bench away from his teammates during the Lakers' blowout loss to the Indiana Pacers a few weeks ago essentially epitomized how disconnected this team is right now, and James incessantly pointing the finger at everyone but himself is not going to help matters.
The thing is, James knew what he was getting into when he signed up. He knew this Los Angeles team was not ready to win, and he had to know that the young talent it had was questionable.
Unless LeBron was under the impression that Magic Johnson and Co. were definitely going to land another star to put alongside of him this year, then it's difficult to see why he is so surprised by the way things have unfolded.
From top to bottom, this is nothing more than a decent roster. Most had the Lakers pegged as something like a 7-seed in the Western Conference this season, so it's not like this team was expected to be a bona fide contender.
But, because James is frustrated, other players are to blame, of course.
The Lakers have 22 games to get it together. Maybe LeBron should take a page out of Tim Duncan's book and actually be a stand-up teammate the rest of the way. That might actually help.
