"It starts with me playing point guard for our team" - LeBron James takes responsibility for LA Lakers' damning loss against Blazers
LeBron James has never shied away from taking responsibility. On Wednesday night, the 37-year-old superstar did more of the same as the LA Lakers lost 105-107 to an undermanned Portland Trail Blazers team.
James had a game-high 30 points, but also had six turnovers in a contest where the Lakers turned the ball over as many as 21 times. Portland benefitted from the Lakers' poor ball-handling, scoring 28 points off turnovers.
With Russell Westbrook missing the game due to tightness in his lower back, LeBron held himself accountable for the Lakers' woes with the basketball. He said:
"I'll take accountability for that. It starts with me being a point guard for tonight's team and it trickles down to everybody else."
"I'll take accountability for that. It starts with me playing point guard for our team, and it trickles down to everybody else." twitter.com/kylegoon/statu…
James continued on by lamenting his and the Lakers' performance on the night, highlighting turnovers as a particular sticking point.
"Every time we turned the ball over, majority of them was me, it was almost like pick sixes. We didn't get a tackle.. and they basically ran it in for a touchdown every time. That's not the ingredients for winning basketball."
"Obviously this is something that’s weighing on this group that we’re all trying to get through. Almost feels like it’s a fog, just fog in the air. And we’re all trying to see what’s on the other side of it." @KingJames on the looming trade deadline. https://t.co/OdmezXoKHv
LeBron James may post third sub-0.500 campaign of his career this season
While the LA Lakers currently hold a 26-30 record during this 2021-22 campaign, they are 20-19 in the 39 games that LeBron James has played for them. The Lakers have posted a losing (6-11) record in the 17 games that LeBron has missed due to injury or other reasons.
James has been part of only two teams with a sub-0.500 record in the last 18 seasons. The Cleveland Cavaliers posted a 35-47 record in LeBron's rookie season (2003-04). Over the next 14 seasons, while James played in Cleveland (until 2010 and then again between 2014-18) and at the Miami Heat (2010-2014), the 2003 No.1 draft pick never finished below .500 in the NBA.
"There's a really tough virus going on with this team right now and I don't know what the medicine is." Our 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀𝗡𝗲𝘁 crew react to tonight's loss against the Blazers. https://t.co/ucAzrRFaxB
The only other season when James went under .500 winning percentage was with the Lakers in the 18-time All-Star's very first season with the team. Los Angeles finished 37-45 in 2018-19, which, coincidentally, also saw LeBron play the fewest games (55) over a full 82-game schedule.
Should the Lakers continue to post a losing record for the rest of their 2021-22 campaign, it would be the third time a LeBron James-led team has finished below .500. With the Lakers still having to play more games away (15) than from within the comfort of Crypto.com Arena (11), the odds are stacked against them.
The Lakers still have to take on Western Conference frontrunners the Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors and the Utah Jazz, as well as the Dallas Mavericks and Denver Nuggets - teams that are all currently above the .500 mark. They will face some of those sides more than once over the remainder of their schedule, meaning that their chances of finishing with a winning record appear very slim.