After falling to the New Orleans Pelicans over the weekend, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers dropped another game to a bottom feeder out west. This time, it came Monday night against the Grizzlies in Memphis.
King James racked up yet another triple-double in the loss and made his way into the top-10 list for assists. This wasn’t good enough for Los Angeles to come out on top.
After the game, James seemingly blasted his teammates.
Lakers’ LeBron James after loss to Grizzlies (via @SpectrumSN): “If you’re still allowing distractions to affect the way you play, this is the wrong franchise to be a part of and you should just come in and be like, ‘Listen, I can’t do this.’” pic.twitter.com/s3gHiuhODx
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) February 26, 2019
“If you’re still allowing distractions to affect the way you play, this is the wrong franchise to be a part of and you should just come in and be like, Listen, I can’t do this,” James said.
That’s obviously a shot at teammates who were impacted by trade deadline chatter earlier in February. Even then, it doesn’t look like the game’s best player was giving it his 100 percent on the defensive end of the court.
I just wanna know what LeBron James was thinking on defense during this Lakers / Grizzlies game 👀 pic.twitter.com/6gadl2AWrx
— kingtisemedia (@kingtisemedia) February 26, 2019
Above, we see James staying in a stationary position on defense. Bold strategy.
There’s something to be said about saving his energy for offense. But we’re not too sure if what was going on here. There are multiple plays in which James is giving exactly zero effort on defense.
James previously noted that he’s hitting playoff mode. If that’s the case, the Lakers should be concerned. Heck, that’s even if the team makes the playoffs after dropping to 11th out west following Monday’s loss. Ouch.