{"id":595344,"date":"2026-02-10T21:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T21:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/595344\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T21:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T21:32:15","slug":"lebron-james-didnt-hold-back-after-lakers-loss-to-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/595344\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James didn\u2019t hold back after Lakers loss to Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not all regular season games are created equal.<\/p>\n

Some are measuring stick matchups, where teams can see how they fare against the NBA\u2019s best. That\u2019s exactly the scenario the Lakers were in on Monday night as they hosted the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder. Not only have the Thunder reached the mountaintop, but they\u2019ve remained up there with the best record in the NBA.<\/p>\n

The game was competitive and the Lakers led for parts during the third quarter and for a blip in the fourth, but they ultimately lost 119-110<\/a>. Despite the valiant effort and the Lakers testing the Thunder just as much as OKC challenged Los Angeles, LeBron James didn\u2019t view the loss as any kind of moral victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want me to compare us to them? That\u2019s a championship team right there,\u201d LeBron said. \u201cWe\u2019re not\u2026We can\u2019t sustain energy and effort for 48 minutes and they can. That\u2019s why they won the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

While no level-headed person would object to LeBron\u2019s comments, it\u2019s still surprising to hear him being so candid about his team. LeBron either was just having a candid moment, or the gap between these two teams was so large that he felt it was far from controversial to say.<\/p>\n

Admitting that the Lakers can\u2019t sustain energy and effort for an entire game is quite a damning statement coming from your superstar player.<\/p>\n

While James might\u2019ve been revealing some uncomfortable truths, he\u2019s not wrong. Sure, the Lakers didn\u2019t have Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/a> for this game, but the Thunder didn\u2019t have Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.<\/p>\n

While the Lakers kept fighting back and gained the lead for moments in the second half, OKC always felt inevitable. It was understood that their execution and quality would overwhelm LA, and it ultimately happened late in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

This loss exposed all the flaws the Lakers have shown all season long. They were outrebounded 45-37, they gave up 23 points off of turnovers and shot just 32% from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

The Lakers were unable to stop the Thunder from scoring from the perimeter, allowing Isaiah Joe to have one of his best games of the season with 19 points on 6-11 shooting from deep.<\/p>\n

Joe\u2019s great game isn\u2019t an isolated incident. The Lakers often make good shooters look like prime Reggie Miller against them. While the Thunder are the cream of the crop in the NBA, 52 games into the season, LA has shown that if you can score a little, you\u2019re going to score a lot against them.<\/p>\n

If this were a measuring stick game, it was proof that the Lakers don\u2019t measure up. They aren\u2019t a championship-contending team. Their record backs that up, the eye test does as well.<\/p>\n

All LeBron was doing was stating the obvious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not all regular season games are created equal. Some are measuring stick matchups, where teams can see how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[7,771,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-595344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-lakers-news","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-oklahoma","12":"tag-oklahoma-city","13":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","14":"tag-oklahomacity","15":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","16":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116048477963084438","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}