Don’t let a championship in the inaugural NBA in-season tournament fool you. The Lakers currently are a mediocre-at-best basketball team.
Los Angeles’ Christmas Day loss to the Boston Celtics at Crypto.com Arena dropped the Purple and Gold to 16-15 on the season. If the campaign ended Tuesday, the Lakers would have to compete in the play-in tournament as the Western Conference’s ninth seed. And outside of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, no one on LA’s roster is inspiring much confidence in the Lakers’ chances of becoming a legitimate contender.
Following Monday’s game, James acknowledged some of his team’s ongoing struggles can be tied to injuries. But health status aside, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer knows the Lakers will need to put in a lot of work to get where they want to be.
“I don’t think we’re where we want to be to compete vs. the top teams until we continue to get better and better, continue to work our habits,” James told reporters, per a video shared by ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “For us, we’re trying to figure our situation out as far as how we want to continue to attack each game. We’ll be better. “
Those criticisms can’t be applied to the Lakers’ latest opponent. James on Monday hailed the Celtics as one of the league’s premier teams, and Boston certainly looked the part across its four-game West Coast road trip.
