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MEMPHIS, Tennessee – As the Los Angeles Lakers took a step forward and two steps back in their playoff game after another defeat against another loss to a smaller opponent, it was asked LeBron James if the pressure was the same. was becoming a distraction for his team.
"At this point, if you still allow the distractions to affect the way you play, then it's a bad franchise and you should just come and be like: Listen, I do not do it [think this is for me]. I can not do that, "said James in the wake of a 110-105 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday.
LeBron James is ranked Monday in the top 10 career aids and has become the first league player in the history of the league to rank in the top 10 all-time for aids and scores. He currently ranks ninth and fifth respectively.
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The loss to a less than 0.500 Grizzlies with 14 games came on the heels of the loss to a New Orleans-based pelican team that had 12 games under 500 and was playing without star Anthony Davis.
And the Lakers' 0-2 trip quickly wiped out all the hope they could get from their 19-point win over the Houston-Rockets in their first All-Star weekend game.
With 22 games in the regular season, the Lakers are 11th in the Western Conference standings, beating the San Antonio Spurs for eighth and last place in the playoffs by three games.
"For example, seriously, if you're distracted by the playoffs, do not do everything we talked about this year, nah," James said. "Come do your job.We do our work at a high level and it's not a distraction.It's what you want.Is what you want at every game.You want to to have the impression of fighting for something. "
After suspensions, rumors, commercial discussions, injuries and a record that seemed sometimes disjointed, the game Memphis was luckily a basketball affair. And the Lakers showed more fights on Monday than they did in New Orleans, but failed to score more than two points in the fourth quarter, after losing 11 points.
The number of James' careers has leapt forward: he became the first player in the league's history to rank in the top 10 in both career markers and career aids after spending Andre Miller in 10th aids, and his 24 points, 12 11 rebounds and 11 assists brought him ahead of Wilt Chamberlain in 5th place in the triple triple standings with 79 – but that happened a evening when he shot 8 to 23 from the ground with five turnovers.
Nevertheless, despite playing in a less than .500 team at the end of the season since his second year in the league in 2004-05 with the Cleveland Cavaliers, James has expressed his optimism – a sentiment shared by most locker rooms of the Lakers.
"Stay positive, it starts with me, you know," James said. "I have to stay positive, keep knocking on the door, and I felt like we're playing like tonight, so we have to keep up this constant effort, that will allow us to overcome the bump as we move forward."
The eight-part docuseries, produced by UNINTERRUPTED and broadcast on ESPN +, will follow the unlikely journey of LeBron James and Maverick Carter from Akron to the world stage. Watch on ESPN +
Kyle Kuzma, who scored 22 goals against Memphis, noticed the change in team spirit after challenging his teammates for their incoherent body language in his comments to the media following the defeat against the Pelicans.
"It was different," he said. "New Orleans thought we were hopeless, we did not really get the better of it, and tonight we fought, but at the end of the day, a loss is a loss and no matter how you turn it, you always put an L in this column. "
Lakers coach Luke Walton praised his team's "efforts and solidarity". He also suggested that the disappointment caused by the defeat was necessary before Wednesday's next match, welcoming the same pelicans who had just beaten his team.
"A game, feel this pain, do not try to run away from it," he said. "It should hurt that we lost, that we made 0-2 on this trip.But the only thing that matters is the next game, the chance to redeem ourselves against New Orleans. We do not need to look any further than that, it's all we can control as a group, so that's where we need our state of mind. "
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