Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons in overtime loss to Wizards

LeBron James is starting to break down, Los Angeles Lakers fans. There… Lake Show Life said it!

This Lake Show Life Lessons series has seen the highs of LeBron James (Last year’s championship season!) and the lows of LeBron James (His first season!), so the staff can make this statement with clarity and confidence.

LeBron James knows the Lakers season is back on his shoulders and he does not want to do this alone. The minutes thing will be all the rage this week, but let’s be honest here. That’s just part of the story here.

Now his statement after the Miami loss Saturday night reads really good in the press via ESPN.

"“I think that’s what it all boils down to, and right now is another challenge for me, to be able to adjust,” James said. “Not having AD for a long period of time is something that we haven’t had over the last year and a half, and now it’s time for me to adjust again and see ways I can be even more effective to help this team win ballgames. Because that is the sport that we’re in. “We’re in the winning business, and I’ve always been a winner. So, it’s time to click into that.”"

These comments sound similar to that “Gotta go into my playoff mode early”  speech after the Lakers failed to land Anthony Davis back in 2019. That was a good quote too. That façade evaporated in a week.

The Los Angeles Lakers are not going to be successful with Anthony Davis out until LeBron James gets a killer instinct that will not allow his team to lose close games. Period.

LeBron apologists will defend him with stats, but knowledgeable Lakers fans watched a guy named Kobe Bryant kill teams like this. Let’s just ignore the last-second shot at the end of overtime. See it should have never gotten that far!

Okay, every Los Angeles Lakers website and major sports network will concentrate on this play right here.

The Lake Show Life Lessons staff concentrates on the fact that he missed the free throw to potentially win the game. Watching his feet under him and the fact he bailed out on the release showed that he wanted absolutely nothing to do with shooting at the line.

LeBron James finished one rebound short of a triple-double with 31 points (14-29 shooting!), 9 rebounds and 13 assists. Now on the surface, these are great statistics. Now let’s flip the script here and look at the downside.

• LeBron James had 8 of the team’s 20 turnovers that helped the Wizards get back in the game in the second half with a huge 23-9 run. 
• He shot 2-10 from distance. Over the last two games, LeBron made “LeBrick” trend on Twitter from his last miss that leaves him at 3-18. 
• Free throws? 1-3 is not going to get it unless it was the potential game-winner.

The first year of the LeBron era in Los Angeles, the comment section was filled with the 28-8-8 stat line after every loss. The readers always ignored the defensive end. Fortunately for angry Lakers fans that want answers, Lake Show Life does not.

See the two defensive sets above? LeBron did not try. Bradley Beal had his easiest shot of the night and Russell Westbrook got the same royal layup treatment many opposing guards have enjoyed this season.

Sure what was just laid out will trigger the LeBron James fans and maybe some Lakers fans as well. But this series predicted that the Lakers would be out of the playoffs in 2019…at the ALL-STAR BREAK!

That being said, if LeBron James doesn’t find the mental and physical balance of what this team needs without wearing himself out, the Lakers are a second-round exit waiting to happen.

The workload is not going anywhere, LeBron James will have to adjust and get better.

Another player on the Lakers squad had a lot to say about the distribution of team production along with LeBron James. Only this player did everything mentioned in his quotes against the Wizards. Read on to see who that player was, the quote and how he backed it up.