LeBron James had a blunt assessment of the Los Angeles Lakers following their Friday night loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
“We just suck right now,” James said after the 127-113 defeat at home, which dropped the Lakers to 3-10 since they won the NBA In-Season Tournament on Dec. 9 – a victory James noted represents a small sample size compared to their recent struggles.
“Everybody’s getting so cracked up about Vegas, keeps bringing up Vegas – it was two games,” James said. “We took care of that business, that was the In-Season Tournament. We played. We won it. But that was literally just two games.”
The Lakers, losers of four straight, were lit up by the Grizzlies Friday night. Memphis (12-23) hit a season-high 23 3-pointers on 45 attempts (51.1%). Marcus Smart led the way with eight made 3-pointers while Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. each added five.
“They shot the heck out of the ball tonight,” James said.
Coach Darvin Ham, who addressed his job security prior to the game, said the Lakers (17-19) need to ‘block out all the noise.’
‘It’s the NBA, man. This is a marathon,’ Ham said. ‘You have to look at the totality of the picture. I’m tired of people living and dying with every single game we play. It’s ludicrous, actually. It’s like ‘come on, man. This is a marathon.’
‘We hit a tough stretch. It’s the same team — we played some high-level games a little while ago and we just got to get back to that. We got to keep the fight, though. We cannot lose our fight.’
James, who had a game-high 32 points against the Grizzlies, said he will continue to “show up to work, punch my clock every day. Stay positive and go out and try to lead out on the floor, inspire on the floor.”
“That’s what I do,” he added.
