The Lakers lose to Minnesota in the weakest game of the LeBron era in LA

LeBron James shrugged. He rolled his eyes. He complained to the referees. He hung his head.

There was no discretion in Minnesota on Monday — everything you needed to know about the Lakers and their leading scorer was written in big, bold letters.

“It’s everything,” James said. “It’s the rhythm. I just felt like I was out of rhythm in the last three or four games.”

Playing on the second night of back-to-back games, James looked as uncomfortable as ever in a Lakers jersey as he and his team continually failed at the game’s simplest task – putting the ball in the basket.

Minnesota defeated the Lakers 109-80 on Monday, their fifth loss in their last seven games. James has now gone four straight games without making a three-pointer, and the Lakers’ offense has failed to score 110 points or more in five of the last six games.

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The 80 points are the Lakers’ worst offensive game in James’ time with the team and the worst for the organization since January 22, 2017.

Anthony Davis called the game “disgusting.”

It’s been a miserable stretch of offensive basketball for James, especially from the perimeter, where he’s now missed 19 three-pointers in a row. He was also remarkably careless with the ball, turning it over six times on Monday, including a pass that perfectly separated D’Angelo Russell and Gabe Vincent on the counterattack without either player coming close to stopping him. to go to the seats.

James has turned the ball over at least five times in 11 of the Lakers’ 21 games.

Russell, who missed Sunday’s ugly win at Utah, led the Lakers with 20 points.

Slightly less concerning than James’ problems is Davis’ bad week. On Monday he scored just 12 points, a season low. He went under 20 in three of the Lakers’ last four games.

“Sometimes we look like a team that can compete with anyone, and sometimes we look like a team that looks terrible and isn’t going to do anything this season,” Davis said.

Before the game, coach JJ Redick said he and the players believed the best version of their team was one based on movement.

“I think everyone I’ve spoken to, and these are our seven or eight key guys, they all feel the same way I do, because the best version of us is when we have body movement and ball movement. I think we’ve seen that that’s a fact,” Redick said. “I think everyone agrees with it. I had conversations with them and they all agreed with me. And I think if you look at the quarterfinals and games where we faltered, we didn’t experience that.”

The Lakers played on consecutive nights and didn’t move much as they suffered another loss at Minnesota, where they have won just twice since the 2015-16 season.

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“I feel like the offense was fun. … I really think we’ve gotten better defensively. And I think we put a lot of time into defense as a team,” Redick said. “And that’s the nature of the NBA season. You don’t have much time. The things you emphasize will hopefully make you more proficient. And sometimes when you don’t emphasize something or you don’t work on something because you don’t necessarily have time, or you think you’re good at it and you think you’re ready for it, then you just slip up. We have to clean this up.”

And they’re going to need James for that.

“Working,” James said when asked about the solution. “Just work. That’s all.”

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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.