LeBron James points to the same problem with Luka Doncic or Anthony Davis
The The Los Angeles Lakers were certainly lucky to get Luka Doncic in the bombshell trade that continues to reverberate around the association. However, the Lakers already built their roster with Anthony Davis keeping in mind that LA still couldn’t surround Doncic with the pieces he needed to make a championship push.
Currently, the The Lakers sit in fifth place in the Western Conferenceand have glaring roster gaps that they couldn’t address before the trade deadline. Their defense lacks a ton of pieces to cover the deficiencies of Doncic and Austin Reaves on that side of the ball.
Of course, any team with Dončić i LeBron James it cannot be counted on. Still, James admitted the Lakers were navigating similar issues as in previous years, although Doncic is now his colleague instead of Davis.
“We play good ball at times, but health is the number one thing for us. We finally got healthy when AR came back and then Luka went down with his hamstring. That’s going to be the most important thing for our team. And it’s been the last few years for our team,” James said on the latest episode of the Mind the Game podcast.
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The Lakers’ injury woes are preventing them from getting into a more consistent rhythm
Every game seems to be a dogfight for the Lakers, as their defensive limitations have required them to constantly outplay their opponents. Against isolation defensive teams, the Purple and Gold have tended to struggle, especially with Doncic, Reaves and James coming in and out of the lineup.
“We weren’t set up to the point where we had a lot of room for error or, like, when AD was on the team. AD goes down, it was like, s**t. We don’t have enough to kind of pick it up. When Luka goes down, you know it’s s**t, it’s Luka. AR went down, but it was tough for us,” James added.
2026-02-18 05:06:00
