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LeBron James was more than a little bit disappointed on Saturday night as his Los Angeles Lakers squad suffered a blowout loss against an Anthony Davis-less New Orleans Pelicans team.
Following the defeat, James questioned his young team's sense of urgency, and pointed out that their inexperience might ultimately prove to be their downfall:
“How many know what's at stake if you've never been there?” James asked Saturday, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN, after L.A. went down by as many as 20 points to a Pelicans team that was resting Davis and came into the night eight games under .500.
This is a very difficult question to address, and one that might very easily be misconstrued by some as LeBron insulting his teammates. However, the three-time champion clarified that this was not his intention. He said he's merely playing devil's advocate by asking the difficult questions, and thereby forcing his teammates out of their comfort zones:
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“I'm playing devil's advocate, you know,” explained James, “It's kind of a fine line when you talk about that, because when you've never been there or know what it takes to actually shoot for something like that, sometimes you're afraid to get uncomfortable.”
This is James' trademark leadership on full display here. And in all honesty, he has every right to call out his teammates here after another lackluster effort on both ends of the floor.
LeBron did his bit for the team in this one, putting up 27 points, seven rebounds, 12 assists, four steals, and a blocked shot. However, aside from Brandon Ingram (29 points, five rebounds) and Kyle Kuzma (16 points, eight rebounds, seven assists), the rest of the Lakers pretty much failed to show up against New Orleans.
It's going to be a long and difficult road ahead for the struggling Lakers, but with LeBron on their side, odds are they are going to figure it out sooner rather than later.
