Jim Alexander: Lakers haven't been paragons of consistency so far

As the Los Angeles Lakers approach the All-Star break, LeBron James summed up their situation as well as anybody could.

“That’s a championship team right there,” he said of the Oklahoma City Thunder after the Lakers’ 119-110 loss to the defending champs on Monday night. “We’re not.

“We can’t sustain energy and effort for 48 minutes, and they can. That’s why they won the championship.”

Terse, but true. The positive is that it’s changeable. The negative: Why hasn’t it changed before now?

This has been a weird first four months of the season for the Lakers in terms of consistency. They are 15-3 in what the NBA considers “clutch” games, where the margin is five points or less with five minutes remaining, but one of those losses was Monday’s game, in which MVP candidates Luka Doncic and OKC’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander both sat out because of injuries.

The other part of that equation? They’ve been on the business end of 16 double-digit losses and eight by 20 points or more, including Tuesday night’s 136-108 drubbing by San Antonio.

Then again, you can throw out that game. James, Doncic, Austin Reaves, Marcus Smart and Deandre Ayton were all in street clothes on the bench because of injuries, ailments and/or caution with specific body parts. The Lakers’ starting lineup against the Spurs: Jake LaRavia, Rui Hachimura, Jaxson Hayes, Luke Kennard and Kobe Bufkin. That five was outscored 67-50 by San Antonio’s starters – and Victor Wembanyama had 40 of those himself, along with 12 rebounds.

Among other things, the 41-year-old James’ absence because of what the availability report described as “left foot arthritis,” was his 18th game missed this season. According to the league’s games-played requirement to be eligible for postseason awards, LeBron’s streak of 22 seasons as an All-NBA selection is over, because it’s now mathematically impossible for him to get to the mandated 65.

James was out for the first 14 games of the season because of right side sciatica, and the other four absences have all been part of back-to-back situations. Perhaps that’s a sign that the league should make some changes to its scheduling philosophy.

It’s not only LeBron, either. Other stars – Nikola Jokic, Anthony Edwards, possibly Steph Curry and Kawhi Leonard as well – could be looking down the barrel of a rule that was originally designed to discourage load management but is instead a form of double jeopardy for anyone who is legitimately hurt.

Memo to the league and its schedule-makers: If you want your best players on the court more often, schedule better. That starts with eliminating back-to-backs, and maybe even trimming a few games off the schedule would merit consideration.

Anyway, with nearly 65% of the regular-season schedule completed and with only Thursday night’s home game against Dallas remaining before the midseason break, the Lakers are 32-21 and again occupy the squishy middle of the Western Conference standings. As of Wednesday morning they were 8 1/2 games behind the conference-leading Thunder, four percentage points ahead of Minnesota for fifth place and just a half-game clear of the play-in zone, that seventh-through-10th group that will be playing just to get into a best-of-seven first-round series against one of the top two seeds.

For a franchise that measures its value in championships, and one that Dodgers controlling owner Mark Walter bought into with a $10 billion valuation, can we say this is underachievement?

Then again, consider that the Lakers haven’t always been able to follow the original blueprint. The threesome of James, Doncic and Reaves have started together in just eight out of 53 games, with Reaves coming off the bench in two others. The team’s record in those games? 7-3. The rest: 25-18.

“I think for us, it’s just continuing to grow every single game playing alongside one another, just getting game reps, becoming more familiar with everything we’re trying to do,” Reaves said after the Oklahoma City loss. “And I still don’t think we’ve played a lot of games fully healthy. So, just trying to continue to do that.

“And then as far as things we can get better at, you can take them (the Thunder), for example. Every single night, their consistency is, I think, one of the biggest reasons why they’re so good. They know exactly what they’re gonna do every single night. … (The) physicality that they’re gonna play with, the way that they are gonna play, it never changes.”

That last part might have been a subtle reference to a technical foul Reaves received that night for what turned out to be a pretty significant non-call earlier in the third quarter. Redick was less subtle before that game.

“Still a really good defense, and still very disruptive and physical,” he said. “And we talk all the time about grabbing and holding, and they do that on every possession. They do it for 48 minutes.

“… I always joke with my staff, I wish I could play in this era, not just for the offensive stuff. I mean, the fact that you’re allowed to foul on every possession now, I might have been considered a plus defender.”

The teams play twice more, April 2 in OKC and April 7 in downtown L.A. It’s never too soon to start working the refs.

But don’t expect a lot of roster help going forward. Rob Pelinka’s big move at the deadline was to acquire Luke Kennard from Atlanta for Gabe Vincent and a 2032 second-round draft pick, which gives the Lakers an additional sniper from outside and should help.

But as for potential additions in the buyout market, there aren’t many difference-makers.

“I’ll just be frank, because I (said) this when I was working in media, it very rarely produces a player that impacts a team’s playoff chances,” Redick said. “It just very rarely does. … If you’re going to get a buyout player, you got to make sure that guy’s healthy (and) is ready to play.”

Instead of waiting, the Lakers filled their final roster spot by signing Kobe Bufkin off their South Bay G-League roster, and he had seven points, two rebounds, an assist and a steal in 24:20 against the Spurs on Tuesday night.

But if the Lakers are going to be a force the rest of the way, Doncic, James and Reaves are going to have to be there consistently. And everybody involved – players and coaches – had better commit to a full 48 minutes (or more when necessary) every game night.

No exceptions.

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