LeBron James is just focused on the now as Lakers fall to Spurs in the NBA Cup
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LeBron James refused to look too far into the future to say what kind of team the Lakers might be when the playoffs arrive in April while they still are playing games in December.
The Lakers had just lost an NBA Cup quarterfinal at home to the San Antonio Spurs 132-119 on Wednesday night, and James didn’t want to venture into how things might unfold.
Two years ago when the Lakers went to Las Vegas and won the inaugural NBA Cup championship, James cautioned that they had a long way to go and that the in-season tournament title wasn’t an indicator of what that team could accomplish.
Not making it to Las Vegas this time and instead now having to play the Suns in Phoenix on Sunday to start a four-game trip, James was asked where the Lakers (17-7) stand when it comes to competing for the playoffs.
“It’s December what?” James responded.
He was told it was Dec. 10.
“And you’re talking about the playoffs? Nah, can’t do that. It’s not OK. Not my mindset,” James said. “I don’t. I can’t think about what we can do in the playoffs in December. What I can say is that the habits that we built throughout the regular season each month, if we are in a position to make it to the postseason and be able to get to that point, well, we have to build it now. But as far as talking about what type of damage we’re gonna do in the postseason in December, that’s not right for the basketball gods, not for me.”
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The Lakers showed they still have many holes to fill on defense, a sign of how far they have to go to be a championship contender.
San Antonio (17-7) shot 50% from the field, 44.7% from three-point range, the Lakers seemingly unable to slow down the faster and more athletic young Spurs, who were playing without their best player, center Victor Wembanyama (left calf strain).
Still, the Spurs had seven players score in double figures, led by Stephon Castle’s 30 points and De’Aaron Fox’s 20.
San Antonio will face the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the semifinals in Las Vegas on Saturday.
“Obviously, it’s a unique team. They got six guys that can literally, six or seven guys that can break you down off the dribble,” James said about the Spurs. “Super fast, super quick. Some of them are stronger, some of them are faster, some are quicker ballhandlers. Unique team and they definitely got the best of us.”
Luka Doncic pointed to the Lakers’ struggles on defense.
“It was more defensively tonight,” said Doncic, who had 35 points and eight assists. “They were just dragging us. We scored [119] points. So, I think it’s enough to win. We just got to be better [on defense].”
The Lakers fell behind by as many as 24 points in the fourth quarter and made a run to get to within eight points late in the game.
Marcus Smart came off the bench to score 26 and James had 19 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists.
When the Lakers needed someone to lift them when they were down in the second quarter, they got it from the oldest player on the court, the soon-to-be 41-year-old James.
James drove the lane and threw down a thunderous dunk over 7-foot-1 Spurs center Luke Kornet, bringing the Lakers to within eight points and charging up the Crypto.com Arena crowd.
James growled and yelled in the face of the reeling Kornet. The fans stood and cheered, happy there was a Lakers awakening.
But the Lakers couldn’t hold on to that momentum, falling behind 70-58 at halftime. And when the third quarter started the Lakers came out flat, giving up back-to-back threes and two more easy baskets by the Spurs to fall into an 80-60 hole early in the quarter.
“It was just a play. You always wish, you hope that momentum plays would carry over,” James said of his dunk. “And that was a moment where we had an opportunity. We had two straight turnovers after that. It went from an eight-point game to a 12-point game to end the half. So we did have some momentum going into the halftime and then started the third, we went back down 20.”
