LeBron James Questions Lakers' Experience, 'Sense of Urgency' After Loss vs. Pelicans
LeBron James isn't sure whether his Los Angeles Lakers have what it takes to reach this year's playoffs.
After suffering a 128–115 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday, James questioned whether the Lakers have the experience to help them qualify for the postseason.
"How many know what's at stake if you've never been there?" James asked Saturday. "I'm playing devil's advocate, you know? It's kind of a fine line when you talk about that, because when you've never been there or know what it takes to actually shoot for something like that, sometimes you're afraid to get uncomfortable.
"So you got to be comfortable with being uncomfortable," James added. "So I'm not saying that's what we are as a whole. It kind of looks that way at times, that sometimes we're afraid to be uncomfortable and kind of get out of our comfort zone and kind of, you know, have that sense of urgency from the jump, and not be afraid to actually go out and fail to succeed. So, I mean we have, what? Twenty-three games left. We'll see what happens."
Los Angeles went down by as many as 20 points to a Pelicans team that was resting Davis and came into the night eight games under .500. At 29–30, the Lakers are now two games behind the Kings for ninth-place in the Western Conference and 3.5 games behind the Clippers and Spurs, who currently occupy the final two playoff spots in the conference.
James hasn't missed an NBA postseason in 13 straight years and has made the Finals in the past eight.
The Lakers have missed the playoffs for five consecutive seasons, their longest postseason drought in franchise history.
