LeBron James calls out the Lakers following another poor effort

It goes without saying that the Los Angeles Lakers are the team to beat in the NBA right now. They entered this season as the reigning champions and continued to strengthen their already impressive roster with some top-notch additions. Then again, even the best teams go through rough patches every now and then, and they aren’t the exception to that rule. Right now, they’re struggling to beat subpar teams like the Detroit Pistons or Oklahoma City Thunder but they’ve still found a way to get the job done.

Then again, LeBron James isn’t exactly pleased with having to play overtimeto beat teams they’re supposed to beat, and he looked quite gassed after last night’s 119-112 win over Oklahoma City.

At the end of the game, James was quite angry and pointed out his team’s poor effort to start the game. Clearly, he’s not looking forward to playing catchup night in and night out as it’s happened lately.

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“Allowing ourselves to get down double-digits to start games is not something we want to do long-term,” James said. “I’m good with one. I’m good with one overtime as opposed to two overtimes,” he concluded.

The Lakers were forced to play without Anthony Davis due to injury and that took a major toll on their game last night. They combined to shoot 23% from beyond the arc and it’s not like the Thunder were contesting their shots.

At the end of the day, a win is a win, regardless of how ugly it is. But the Lakers should know better than to wear out LeBron James at the beginning of the season if they want to repeat as NBA champions.