LeBron James indirectly critiques Lakers weak links after 0-3 hole vs Nuggets: "How damn near perfect you gotta be"
In 21 years in the NBA, LeBron James has conveyed implied messages when he's been upset, especially with members of the organization he's played for. A 112-105 Game 3 loss against Denver at home on Thursday, James' career-high 11th straight against one team, prompted one of those press conferences.
The 39-year-old addressed LA's drawbacks by indirectly targeting weak links of this Lakers team that is one loss away from the 2024 NBA Playoffs elimination. While James and Davis have marginally outplayed or matched their counterparts Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, the Lakers' role players have thoroughly been dominated by the Nuggets' supporting caste.
"You've to ask individuals questions of how they feel," LeBron James said about the role players' stress to play at Denver's level. "Me and this guy [Anthony Davis] have been playing together for 6 years.
"We've been to the mountain top, we've been close to the mountain top ... We know what it takes to win a championship and how damn near perfect you gotta be."
The Lakers starters sans LeBron James and Anthony Davis have averaged 31.7 points in three games, while the Nuggets' trio of Aaron Gordon, Michael Porter Jr. and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope have tallied 56.3 ppg.
James and Davis, meanwhile, have averaged a combined 58.6 ppg to Jokic and Murray's 49.0 ppg.
James reflected on his four championship runs, including one with Anthony Davis, while indirectly critiquing their supporting caste's inability to step up.
"That's not something so crazy to obtain," James said about the goal of playing perfect basketball. "I have been a part of it four times where you have to have almost perfect basketball to win, and I've done it with him [Davis]."
LeBron James' message for the role players got more interpretable as he described the necessity to play flawlessly to beat the defending champions. The disparity in the performance of the Lakers' star duo to the rest of the group has been a massive factor in the 0-3 hole LA finds itself in, and it couldn't have been more evident.
LeBron James hints he still has faith in partnership with Anthony Davis
LeBron James' comments suggested he still believes in what he and Anthony Davis can do in tandem. They proved that in the NBA In-Season Tournament win when the Lakers executed their plans on both ends to near-perfection with the role players playing at an elite level.
They replicated that again when Darvin Ham inserted Rui Hachimura in the starting lineup on Feb. 3, resolving LA's woes, especially on offense. The Lakers went 22-10 to finish the season 47-35, improving on the previous season's record by four games.
The crucial difference between then and now has been the supporting cast's no-show. D'Angelo Russell, who certified himself as the third option in that winning stretch, has averaged 12.0 ppg on a measly shooting split of 32.6%, including 30.0% from 3 against Denver. He went scoreless in Game 3.
Meanwhile, Rui Hachimura, one of the key instigators in LA's midseason turnaround has produced 5.0 ppg and 3.0 rpg, shooting 33.3%.
The Lakers' issues also extend to their coaching staff. Anthony Davis didn't hesitate after the Game 2 loss to reveal the Lakers were clueless during stretches amid blowing a 20-point lead.
Darvin Ham has shown zero counters for Michael Malone's adjustments, leading to the Lakers blowing a double-digit first-half lead in all three matchups. LA must consider its options from the coaching and roster construction standpoint this offseason to keep LeBron James and Anthony Davis and give them a fair shot at contending for a title again.