LeBron James has been here before, just never on the wrong side of it. The Lakers superstar walked off the floor at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday trailing the Oklahoma City Thunder 3-0 after a 131-108 home loss, and he opened his post-game press conference at a register that surprised the room.
"I want to say I'm not angry or disappointed," James told reporters when asked about his level of frustration. "Obviously you're disappointed and it's some fact like, you being down 3-0 obviously, but we got — we still got life. And that's all you can ask for. We got to be much better on Monday. See what happens."
It was an oddly even tone for a 41-year-old facing what could be the final games of a Lakers run that brought him to Los Angeles in 2018. The Thunder have not just beaten the Lakers in this series — they have buried them with the same third-quarter avalanche each time.
"The third quarter, we start with that," James said when asked what changed in the second half. "We didn't have the energy, the effort. They put a 30-plus-point quarter on us, and kind of took care of the game right there, honestly. We had moments obviously in the first half that were really good for us. We did a good job of sharing the ball and knocking down shots. In that third quarter we didn't knock down shots, we didn't defend or get stops — I would say we defended but we didn't get stops, and it allowed them to take control of the game."
The Lakers were a collective minus-31 in third quarters in the series, the kind of stat that ends careers and coaching staffs. When asked, James said he had no answer beyond the obvious. "I don't know," he said. "But obviously the numbers speak for us."
The questioning turned to whether James thought this Thunder team belonged with the franchises he had once played to a standstill: the late-90s Bulls, the 2017-18 Warriors. He held back from a coronation but did not push back on the framing. "They're pretty damn good from top to bottom," he said. "They don't let their foot off the gas."
He also conceded what every Lakers opponent has whispered about for two seasons. "They have a lot of bodies and they got a lot of guys that can do multiple things out on the floor," he said. "So, you know, it helps to have that depth."
Reporters tried twice to coax James into reflecting on the existential layer of the night — that an elimination loss in Game 4 could end this iteration of the Lakers, possibly his Lakers tenure entirely.
"Nah, no, you don't really talk about that," he said. "You focus on the moment at hand and go from there."
What the Lakers face on Monday is roughly what Phoenix faced last round when the Thunder swept the Suns in four games. Oklahoma City's seven-deep rotation, with Ajay Mitchell, Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe all capable of carrying scoring stretches, has not let Los Angeles defend a single fourth quarter in this series. JJ Redick, asked pre-game whether OKC ranked among the all-time great rosters he had played against, agreed in a roundabout way.
"They have the proper personnel to be able to shape-shift whatever you put out there and still be productive no matter who's on the floor," James said when asked about that same quality. "It's very challenging."
He was asked one last time what it would take to extend the series. James gave the only answer left.
"We got everything," he said. "Everything and more to beat a team like this. We got to be at our best on Monday."
