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LeBron James shrugged. He rolled his eyes. He complained to the referees. He lowered his head.
There was no discretion Monday in Minnesota — everything you needed to know about the Lakers and their leading scorer was displayed in big, bold letters.
“That’s it,” James said. “It’s the rhythm. I just feel out of rhythm the last three, four games.
On the second night of back-to-back games, James looked as uncomfortable as ever in a Lakers uniform as he and his team failed again and again at the game’s simplest task: putting the ball in the basket.
Minnesota beat the Lakers 109-80 on Monday, their fifth loss in their last seven games. James has now gone four straight games without making a three-pointer, and the Lakers’ offense has failed to score 110 points or more in five of its last six games.
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The 80 points were the Lakers’ worst offensive game since James was with the team and the worst for the organization since Jan. 22, 2017.
Anthony Davis called the game “disgusting.”
For James, it has been a miserable stretch of offensive basketball, especially from the perimeter where he has now missed 19 straight threes. He was also remarkably careless with the ball, turning it over six times on Monday, including a pass that split D’Angelo Russell and Gabe Vincent perfectly on the break, with neither player coming close to stopping him from going in. the seats.
James turned it over at least five times in 11 of the Lakers’ 21 games.
Russell, who missed Sunday’s ugly win at Utah, led the Lakers with 20 points.
Davis’ bad week is a little less concerning than James’ struggles. On Monday, he scored just 12 points, a season low. He’s been held below 20 in three of the Lakers’ last four games.
“Sometimes we look like a team that can compete with anyone and sometimes we look like a team that looks terrible and won’t do anything this season,” Davis said.
Before the game, coach JJ Redick said he and the players believed the best version of their team was the one based on movement.
“I think everyone I’ve talked to, and these are our main seven or eight guys, they all feel the same way I do, which is the best version of us is when we have the movement of the body and ball I think we’ve found that that’s a fact,” Redick said. “I think they all agree with that. I’ve had conversations with them, they all agree. I agree with that and I think if you look at them. quarters, the games where we stagnated, we didn’t have that.
Playing back-to-back nights, the Lakers didn’t move much as they struggled through another loss at Minnesota, where they have won just twice since the 2015-16 season.
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“I feel like the offense was fun. … I definitely think we’ve gotten better defensively. And I think we spent a lot of time as a team defensively,” Redick said. “And that’s the nature of the NBA season. You don’t have much time. I hope you get better at the things you emphasize. And sometimes when you don’t focus on something, or you don’t work on something because you don’t necessarily have time, or you think you’re good at it and you think adhere to it, you just get sliding. We need to clean this up.
And they’ll need James to do it.
“Work,” James replied when asked about the solution. “Just work. That’s all.
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This story was originally published in the Los Angeles Times.
