Going into their playoff series, the Los Angeles Lakers knew it was not going to be easy to defend themselves against the 2023 Champions. After all, they are the same team against whom the franchise holds a 2-8 win record. However, the Lakers have not only now been defeated by the Nuggets twice in the playoffs, but there has also been criticism about their certain lapse in play. This was something that LeBron James and D’Lo felt needed to be addressed.

Discussing the games, LeBron proceeded to state that his team did not play well offensively. A major reason for this was missing the abundance of shots that the veteran and some of his teammates made toward the hoop. “It’s all about sustainability. It doesn’t matter what you can do throughout the first 47 and a half minutes. You gotta close the game, which we didn’t do. We gotta do a better job at that,” said LeBron.

LeBron James’ shooting ability varied during the two Nuggets games. While his field goal attempts had a success rate of 62.5% (10-16) during the first one, it dropped to 47.4% (9-19) during the next clash. A shot attempt he made in the final 19 seconds of the previous game, which failed to go through, ended up being a major factor in the Lakers’ loss. Despite this, the 39-year-old maintained an average of 26.5 points in both games by playing significantly well.

D’Angelo Russell proceeded to state that he liked the way that he and his teammates guarded throughout the games and formed a lead during the initial stages. However, the Nuggets then proceeded to “crawl back” and found a way to “get back in the game”. Therefore, there is a need for some room for improvement.

However, the same that was said about LeBron could not have been said about Russell. During the first game, he became a topic of conversation after going 6-20 with his field goals and 1-9 with his three-pointers. There was an improvement in the next game, with his field goal percentage going up to 50 and his three-pointer percentage to 63.6%.

However, the above statement by the two lead scorers of the Lakers was a complete contrast from a few days ago when the duo placed their troubles on the alleged behavior of the on-court referees.

LeBron James and D’Angelo Russell expressed their frustration over the referees’ foul decisions

Two incidents occurred that the Lakers were not happy about. Nuggets small forward Michael Porter Jr reportedly hit Russell in the face when the latter was dashing to drop the ball through the hoop. A foul was awarded to the Lakers star which, unfortunately, was later overturned by referee Scott Fisher. After the game concluded, the player took to his official X account and proceeded to write, “That’s a foul we all saw it on national television” for his 716,100+ followers and more to see. Even LeBron was not happy with how the decision was taken.

“D’Lo clearly gets hit in the face on a drive, what the f**k do we have a replay center,” said the Lakers’ lead scorer during the post-game press conference. “It doesn’t make sense to me. It bothers me.”

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The player was already frustrated with a foul decision that was made against him during the later part of the game. As the Lakers were leading 97-95 during the final 1 minute, LeBron reportedly made “minimal contact” against Jamal Murray as the latter attempted a shot. Unfortunately, the action resulted in the referee awarding Murray two free throws, which later evened the score to 95-95. LeBron was not happy, and there were some words exchanged between him and the referees.

Despite everything that happened, the Lakers duo seem to have realized that nothing will come out of criticizing the referees. A loss in Game 3 would drastically reduce the Lakers’ chances of going past the playoffs. Therefore, learning from their mistakes and presenting a united front is a must when going up next against Nikola Jokic and co.