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Dave McMenamin, ESPN writer
MINNEAPOLIS — With LeBron James in the midst of his worst outside shooting slide since his rookie year, Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick said he wasn’t sure if the veteran star’s goal of playing in all 82 games is sustainable this season.
“I don’t know what’s best for him and us if he does that, but if he’s feeling good and he’s feeling good, then he should play,” Redick said after James tied a season-low with 10 points on 4-for-1. 16 field goals in Los Angeles’ 109-80 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday. “But obviously we want to… manage it as best we can.”
James was 0-for-4 on 3-pointers against the Wolves, extending his drought to 0-for-19 from deep in his last four games, the worst he’s made from 3-point range since missing 24 consecutive shots dating back to Dec. 26. 2003, as of January 13, 2004, according to ESPN Research.
James, who played his 1,800th career game between the regular season and playoffs combined on Monday (the most of all time for any player, ahead of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1,797)) and will turn 40 at the end this month, he also did not commit. way to continue wearing the suit in all the games this season.
“That’s a goal, but we’ll see,” James said. “It’s something I’m not discussing right now.”
James shot 25% from the field on Monday, his sixth straight game shooting under 45%. It’s his longest streak of shooting below 45% since 2004, according to ESPN Research, when he failed to reach the mark in 11 consecutive games as a rookie.
“It’s all,” James said when asked what frustrates him about his game right now. “It’s the rhythm. I feel out of rhythm in the last three or four games.”
When asked what he would rely on to regain his chance, James responded: “Work. Just work. That’s all.”
James’ outside shot wasn’t the only thing that didn’t work for him against the Wolves. He had a team-high six turnovers and a team-worst plus-minus of -28 in 31 minutes. On the season, the Lakers have been outscored by 111 points in the time James has been on the court, the worst plus-minus on the team.
Just as James has had problems, so have the Lakers. They have lost five of their last seven games, and the 80 points they scored against Minnesota were the fewest the franchise scored since Jan. 22, 2017, when Los Angeles lost 122-73 to the Dallas Mavericks.
“I haven’t seen us play like we did at the beginning of the year,” Redick said. “I mean, tomorrow I’ll have to spend all day with my staff trying to figure out how to get back to it.”
Anthony Davis also had a season low against Minnesota, totaling just 12 points on 4-of-14 shooting with 11 rebounds and 5 assists. He said Los Angeles players are squeezing each other on the offensive end.
“We have to get back to our spacing,” Davis said. “We’re kind of on top of each other when guys are trying to drive. When guys are in their spots to shoot, there’s a guy right under them. So the spacing is bad.”
With a quarter of the regular season completed, the Lakers are 12-9, number 8 in the Western Conference. Redick called the Lakers’ season “uneven and inconsistent” so far.
James and Davis were more direct in their criticism.
“Sometimes we look like a team that can compete with anyone, and other times we look like a team that looks terrible and isn’t going to do anything this season. So we just have to figure out what team we want to be for everyone else.” of the season,” Davis said. “I think we had games where we were phenomenal and we had games where we were disgusting like tonight.”
James added: “Our offense is ugly right now.”
