Lakers' early-season issues again highlight pressure placed on LeBron James
DETROIT — You can set a watch to it, LeBron James huffing and puffing to put everyone sharing a jersey with him on high alert and everyone in an office with big windows into scramble mode.
Everyone around panics like Godzilla is coming through, stomping over buildings, with careers and livelihoods on the line. One wrong step, one cross look from James, and you’ll be fired or sent away to parts unknown, to NBA obscurity.
Losing by 44 in embarrassing fashion to the Philadelphia 76ers tends to elicit that level of reaction. It didn’t seem to be the case with Los Angeles Lakers coach Darvin Ham, or even the rest of the group two nights later.
“It’s LJ; it’s the Lakers,” Ham said prior to Wednesday’s game against the Pistons. “You know, people want to blow things out of proportion. And that’s just him being a passionate competitor, in my opinion, and like no one’s happy with our performance. At all.”
He’s not wrong. It feels dire because it’s the Lakers and of course, because it’s James. Their record says 11-9 after a 133-110 loss to the spry Oklahoma City Thunder, but when five of the losses are by double digits, it’s easier to call for the code red.
Ham pointed to the injuries to key rotation players who’ve been in and out the lineup. It’s hard to apply how the absences of Gabe Vincent, Rui Hachimura and Jarred Vanderbilt have contributed to the inconsistent start.
Hachimura had a concussion early in the season, and then underwent a procedure to repair a nasal fracture Friday. Vincent has knee swelling that has limited him to four games. Vanderbilt, while making progress from heel bursitis, has yet to appear in a regular-season game.
Even for the top-heavy Lakers, missing three rotation players at every point of the floor is bound to make an impact. Ham’s “Key Performance Indicators,” which he likes to assess after 20 games, is a bit skewed because he doesn’t have a full complement.
“We lost Rui at a really sensitive time when he was playing well,” Ham said. “That’s the biggest thing, us trying to become as whole as possible … we’ll keep marching along.”
James didn’t say what his issues were, and he often speaks cryptically when he wants to get a message across. But their shooting has been ghastly, last in 3-point attempts and makes and 28th in percentage (33.9%).
That’s probably a key performance indicator of the blowout losses, not even being able to rely on that shooting and putting an inordinate amount of pressure on James to create offense.
The Lakers need rim pressure, which is why the thought of adding Bulls guard Zach LaVine seems like a natural fit. Sliding him in as a third scorer, a streaky shooter but attacking guard, would alleviate pressure and make defenses uncomfortable enough that open shots would be created for some of the Lakers’ average shooters.
Like James’ huffing and puffing, another yearly dance that’s walked is ways to preserve him, to prevent him from overuse and unnecessary fatigue: putting more playmakers around him; shifting the team to a more Anthony Davis focus; or this season, playing him fewer minutes so he can be fresh or even just available for key stretches.
James pressed very hard last season to capture the all-time scoring record, and soon after, a bill came due on his health, causing him to miss extended time. The Lakers can’t afford to have that happen this season, but zooming out, inconsistency has been a hallmark for most teams expected to be contenders this season.
Milwaukee is still adjusting to the loss of Jrue Holiday and addition of Damian Lillard, particularly on defense. They’ve righted the ship, winning eight of nine but that will continue to be a bugaboo while new coach Adrian Griffin figures things out.
The Clippers, even with adding James Harden, could be too old and ill-fitting to make a true run. The Golden State Warriors can’t make the most obvious decisions like keeping a hot Moses Moody in a late game, and now must deal with injuries to Chris Paul and Gary Payton II.
And the champion Denver Nuggets are dealing with what every defending champ must battle — internal malaise — and the return of Jamal Murray.
Perhaps that perspective is why James was bouncy in the pregame Wednesday and had plenty of it during his 29 minutes, scoring 25 — plenty of them easy dunks — with eight rebounds and three assists. Davis and D’Angelo Russell did the heavy lifting, with Russell scoring a season-high 35, hitting five triples and adding nine assists.
Russell almost seemed to have a zen-like approach to the injuries and his subsequent night. He can’t get downhill in the half court, but a hot night from 3 isn’t a bad alternative.
“That guy’s absence might not be relevant today, and that’s because I was ready,” Russell said. “This league is about opportunity and having the right mentality to be in the right place to be successful. I’ve learned that through the years, preparing myself the best way I can to have a great night.”
Now, it’s very easy to dance and prance all over the lifeless Pistons, losers of a franchise-record 15 straight — after all, the Wizards delivered a 19-point beatdown two nights prior, and the rebuilding franchise is going through a no-win November, along with winning just four games since last All-Star break.
It’s very hard to be that bad for this long, even though the Pistons were in the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes following Cade Cunningham’s shin surgery early last season. But this iteration actually had a strong start, going 2-1 and having a sizable lead against the Portland Trail Blazers before collapsing at home, thus starting this spiral.
The return of Bojan Bogdanović — out since the preseason with a right calf strain — should help with the spacing around Cunningham and add some desperate scoring, but their rebuild has hit a severe snag. Once losing gets in your building, when general manager Troy Weaver came in and rightfully took a sledgehammer to the end of the Blake Griffin era, it’s hard — almost impossible — to get it out.
Pistons head coach Monty Williams was short and terse following Monday’s loss, saying his players didn’t honor the Pistons’ jersey with their lack of fight and unwillingness to compete. Ham isn’t in a serious rebuild and can afford to take a different approach.
His own experience through life, as a player and assistant coach has led him to be more glass half full.
“I’ve been around coaches that dump on their players in negative way,” Ham said. “Insults very rarely give you improvement. You can address the things you can get better at, but more so focus on the positives. Let guys know, it’s OK to fail. You don’t want to remain a failure.
“But if you fail after you try, then you know you learn things about the first attempt that hopefully make you successful in your next attempt. And so just trying to focus on being solution based. And again, I just never believe in, quote unquote, calling guys out. I call the facts the facts.”
The Pistons are struggling and only they can pull themselves from it, a larger hole to climb, with young players who don’t have much sweat equity in winning at this level. The Lakers are middling, it can be said, with higher expectations because of the stars and the finite time one star has left in his body.
“It was constructive criticism,” James said of the early film session. “We took it to heart and applied it to the game. We responded well, we played a lot better."
James reminded reporters the Lakers are only 19 games in, not even a quarter through the season. It’s masterful, he can sound the alarm and turn the temperature down, all in one breath.
He’s been through too many regular seasons to truly be unnerved by just one game, but he knows when he has the opportunity to grab eyeballs and ears, to get everyone’s attention when the schedule allows for it.
Almost like he planned it, even if he didn’t.
