LeBron: “Haven’t Played a Season With This Many Injuries”

In the battle of Los Angeles, the Clippers defeated more famous Lakers last night, 113-105.

But this was more than just an ordinary game and an ordinary win. After last night’s loss, the Lakers are left without realistic chances to reach the offseason.

With 30 wins and 34 defeats, Lakers are now 10th in the West, 5.5 games behind the Spurs who are in the last place which leads to the postseason. On top of that, the Spurs have an edge when looking at the tiebreaker.

So, the possibilities of catching up the big rival in the last 18 games are close to nothing.

It seems that this season is going to be one of the most frustrating for the purple and gold fans in the last decade. They had much worse records than this year’s, but back then, there were no expectations.

With the arrival of LeBron James, Lakers were supposed to become a title contender, and yet they can’t even reach the playoffs.

Injuries, bad chemistry, poor management decisions all this affected their performances during this campaign.

🎥 LeBron James talks about taking things one game at a time and fighting through adversity. pic.twitter.com/42Y40pCpCA

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) March 5, 2019

For example, against the Clippers, Luke Walton couldn’t count on Lance Stephenson, Tyson Chandler, Lonzo Ball, and in the end Brandon Ingram, who felt pain in his right shoulder during the warm up.

And to make it even worse and seal Lakers’ faith, Kyle Kuzma rolled his ankle in the middle of the fourth quarter and had to leave the court.

“Haven’t been part of a season with this [many] injuries to all of our key guys. To big, big key guys,” LeBron commented after the game.

He himself was unable to play 18 games, and during that period the team lost pace with other rivals winning only 6 and losing 12 contests.

Because of that, the stories appeared suggesting that LBJ might sit out the rest of the season, avoiding risks of picking up another injury which could damage his health long-term. With 34 years, James is no longer capable of recovering quickly as he used to be before.

Especially in the team which hasn’t got any other player who can step up, and help him in the moments when the game is on the line. It seems that the young core of this team was overrated compared to what are their true possibilities.

For James, this option is not possible.

“That would take a lot of convincing from Luke [Walton] on up,” James told. “Unless I’m hurt, I’m not sitting games.”

He also added that he didn’t talk about that with any of the executives or coach Luke Walton, but expects for the conversation to be arranged pretty soon.

Though, the executives of the organization have to take their part of the guilt in this one. Allowing the media to create hype surrounding Anthony Davis’ trade, and not being able to control it, no doubt affected the chemistry and the relationships in the locker room.

Jeanie Buss stated that the whole situation is messed by the media, who constantly made fake news about trade offers for Davis.

Jeanie Buss shoots down that their was any truth to the trade rumors around #Lakers prior to the trade deadline regarding Anthony Davis.#Lakeshow pic.twitter.com/MJu2fILeu0

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March 2, 2019

“The biggest challenge for [us is] the ‘fake news’ about how we were supposedly trading our entire roster for a certain player, which is completely not true,’’ Buss said.

The Lakers have two options now. First, to force James to sit out the rest of the season, and tank the remaining games in order to improve their chances for the upcoming draft lottery. Or the second, to keep on fighting despite all odds and do their job professionally.

LeBron has no doubts what is he going to do.

“For me personally, I can [only] speak for myself,” he said. “Continue to be a professional, and be as great as you can be every single night, no matter the circumstances. ‘Cause someone is always watching.”

Lakers have two games at home until the end of the week. On Wednesday night they meet the Nuggets, and after that on Saturday, face the Celtics, who also have enormous troubles in their team.

After that the purple and gold are off to a five-game road trip throughout the East.