LeBron James says the Lakers’ tough schedule played a major part in their 118-125 loss to the Clippers.
The Lakers are coming off a five-game road trip which ended with a back-to-back.
“It’s tough. It’s one of the toughest games we’ve had this year,” James said. ” … This was one of those scheduling conflicts in the season. And it definitely got the best of us tonight.”
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LeBron also addressed how the Lakers feel about which seed they finish with.
“Wherever we end up, that’s where we end up,” he said. “It’s been like four or five seasons in one for us. We don’t have the luxury of (picking and choosing). … Wherever we fall, we’ll be ready to go.”
Lakers head coach Darvin Ham also spoke to the media and addressed his decision to play James and Anthony Davis 35 and 32 minutes respectively, compared with Kawhi Leonard’s 43.
“We did what we had to do to give ourselves a chance to win not only tonight, but to keep our players in good standing health-wise moving forward,” Ham said.
The Lakers will now round out the regular season with home games against the Suns and Jazz.
They are currently seventh in the West. At 41-39, they have the same record as the eighth-placed Pelicans and sit one game behind the sixth-placed Warriors.