Lakers News: LeBron James Blames Celtics Loss On Health, Despite LA Being Pretty Healthy
Having lost 6 of their last 8 and sitting at just one game over .500 despite LeBron James and Anthony Davis being historically healthy by their recent standards, the Lakers are in a rough spot heading into matchups with the Timberwolves, Pelicans, Heat, Grizzlies, and Clippers in the next couple of weeks.
Their 126-115 Christmas Day loss at the hands of the Boston Celtics was yet another display of inconsistent offensive production from key contributors, along with issues surrounding depth, shot creation, and coaching.
LeBron James had a rough game, finishing with just 16 points on 5-14 shooting from the field. Here's what he had to say about the loss, per Helene Elliott of the LA Times:
“I don’t think we’re healthy right now. I don’t think we are where we want to be to compete versus the top teams,” he said. “Until we continue to get better and better, work on our habits, for us we’re still trying to figure our situation out as far as how we want to attack each game. We’ll be better.”
This was a strange comment from James, seeing as the Lakers are healthy.
The entire roster, in fact, is healthy, outside of Gabe Vincent, who is set to miss the next 6-8 weeks with a knee injury.
James could be referring to injuries that aren't on the injury report, as nagging issues like Anthony Davis' ankle could be creating issues for them, but given the product he put out on Christmas, he seemed perfectly healthy.
This is either a storyline to watch or an awful excuse, as if it's the former, perhaps some injury news is released in the coming days ahead of their tough slate ahead. If it's the latter, the Lakers have some major issues to work out. My guess is that it's the latter, and this team needs to get it together as soon as possible.