Basketball seasons are always made up of ups and downs, just as LeBron James’ 22nd campaign has already been a rollercoaster ride showing some of his best and worst in little over a month of action. Amid the Lakers’ current slump, now the team is reconsidering if the veteran should appear in all 82 regular season games.
His coach certainly isn’t convinced. “I don’t know that’s in the best interest of him and us if he does that, but if he’s feeling well and feeling good, then he should play,” JJ Redick said after he scored only 10 points in their 109-90 loss to Minnesota on Monday. “But we obviously want to … manage that as best we can.”
Not only did he go 4-of-16 from the field, but the superstar also missed his four attempts from beyond the arc, now extending his drought from range to 0-for-19 in the last four outings.
LeBron James has *MISSED* his 24th STRAIGHT three 😳
The King has lost his range…
— CourtSideHeat (@courtsideheat) December 3, 2024
The 39-year-old played his 1,800th career game that evening against the Wolves, which makes him the most all time by any player. However, this just proves the point that his age is finally telling him he should slow down a bit.
However, he still seems determined to play the entirety of the regular season, despite his own coach telling the press that they are currently thinking about it. “That’s a goal, but, we’ll see,” James shared this week. “It’s something I ain’t discussing right now.”
With his shooting compass out of order, the player addressed his team’s defects by saying that they need to improve overall. “It’s everything,” he said when asked what frustrated him about their performances. “It’s the rhythm. I just feel off rhythm the last few, three or four games.”
Well, here’s the numbers: the purple and gold have lost five out of their past seven games, and their last one against Minnesota became the fewest they’ve scored since January 22, 2017, when they lost 122 to 73 against Dallas. “I’ve not seen us play the way we played earlier in the year,” Redick said. “I mean, I’ve got to spend all day tomorrow with my staff trying to figure out how we get back to that.”
LeBron wasn’t the only one underperforming against the Timberwolves, as co-star Anthony Davis also had a season low that night
With his 12 points on Monday, Anthony Davis also had a season-low performance against Minnesota, hitting just 4-of-14 from the field, and adding 11 rebounds and 5 assists to his name. Once the game was over, he said his teammates were all crowding one another on the offensive end.
“We got to get back into our spacing,” said the versatile big man. “We are kind of on top of each other when guys are trying to drive. When guys are in their spots for shooting, there’s a guy right under them. So the spacing is bad.”
The Los Angeles squad have now fallen to the Western Conference’s 8th spot with a 12-9 record this season. “Sometimes we look like a team that can compete with anyone, and sometimes we look like a team that looks terrible and is not going to do anything this season.
“So we just got to figure out what team that we want to be for the rest of the season,” Davis shared at the start of the week. “I think we had games where we were phenomenal and we had games where we were disgusting like tonight.”
