LDN - Sports

Inexperienced Lakers starting to wear on LeBron

[October 31, 2018] Just seven games into the season, LeBron James is starting to run out of patience with the mistakes of his young Los Angeles Lakers teammates.

The Lakers are 2-5 following a 124-120 loss at Minnesota on Monday night and have given up an average of 122.3 points per game, 29th in the league. The Lakers haven't been able to keep opponents off the boards -- they surrendered 20 offensive rebounds to the Timberwolves -- nor have they been able to shut them down on crucial possessions.

"We talk about patience but you can't have reoccurrence of the same thing," James told reporters after the loss to the Timberwolves. "If you are doing the same things over and over and over and expecting the same result then that's insanity.

"So we have to get better. We can't keep having the same mistakes over and over."

When James left an aging Cleveland team behind and signed with the Lakers in free agency in the offseason, he acknowledged he was moving to a young team that he would need to nurture and teach. Already, though, he's grown tired of losing.

"You probably don't want to be around when my patience runs out," added James, who turns 34 in December. "I'm serious."

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Timberwolves guard Jimmy Butler (23) and Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) in the fourth quarter at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

The Lakers' young core -- Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma -- has shown potential but James expects more from the Lakers.

"We got to figure it out," James said. "It is not one guy. We are all in this together, so, we got to figure it out. We got another one on Wednesday (against Dallas) on our home floor and we got to be really good."

For his part, James is ninth in the NBA in scoring, averaging 27.6 points per game. He is tied for third in minutes played with an average of 36.0.

--Field Level Media

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