On January 13, Beijing time, the Lakers lost 116-125 in the away game against the Kings, after which the Lakers' record dropped to 21 wins and 21 losses (50% win rate), and the Lakers have been two consecutive defeats after four consecutive wins.
Considering that the Lakers, who have a big three lineup, are supposed to be competitive teams, their only performances so far this season certainly can't meet the team's expectations.
However, as the Lakers' superstar, LeBron James can still play well on the court. In the whole game, LeBron James can play in 39 minutes and have 34 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists on 13 of 29 shooting, although James's performance outside the three-point line is still not ideal, but it is also James's 19th game so far this season to score at least 30 points, including 11 of James's past 12 games.
In the game where James scored at least 30 points, the Lakers only had a record of 10 wins and 9 losses. The Lakers' 21-21 record so far this season is the second season in LeBron James' career to have only 50% or less wins in the first 42 games, the last time was LeBron James's rookie season for the Cavaliers (14-28).
The Lakers' inability to win despite James' statistic performance is also largely due to Russell Westbrook's poor performance, in this game, Westbrook only had 8 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists on 2-of-14 shooting in 37 minutes, and only 0-of-5 from outside the three-point line. More importantly, Wei Shao's dry three-point shots and mistakes at key moments caused the Lakers to completely lose hope of reversing the game.
While Westbrook has only made one turnover in this game, and it is true that Westbrook has made only four turnovers in the past four games (two of which have been zero), Westbrook has only had an embarrassing performance of 15 of 59 shots (25.4% shooting percentage) in these games.
This is certainly not good news for the Lakers, after all, the team can not win in the case of James can play such a performance, which means that the Lakers lack depth of the lineup, and the 37-year-old James will also have potential injury risks if he spends too much time playing.
As for Wei Shao, he could not help the Lakers' offensive end with only inefficient shooting performance, and more seriously, Wei Shao's only such a game also made it difficult for the Lakers to promote a deal involving Wei Shao in the case of valuable returns. So whether it's the lack of team lineup depth, James's potential injury hazards or the difficulty of pushing for trades due to Westbrook's inefficiency, this shows that the current Lakers have been completely in a difficult situation, and all this may be attributed to the offseason sacrifice of lineup depth and promote the move involving Westbrook trade.