The Los Angeles Lakers dropped a tough one at Madison Square Garden, falling 112-100 to the New York Knicks after holding a halftime lead. It was a game that started with promise but unraveled in the third quarter - a familiar script for a team still trying to find its rhythm in a brutally competitive Western Conference.
After the game, LeBron James didn’t sugarcoat the situation. Speaking candidly, and perhaps for the final time under the Garden lights, he acknowledged both the potential and the shortcomings of this current Lakers squad.
“I like this group, but we got to get better. And that’s good - we should want to get better,” James said postgame.
“It’s a tough Western Conference, it’s a tough league. It’s been tough all season, dealing with injuries, guys in, guys out.”
The Lakers now sit at 29-19, a record that still keeps them in the playoff mix but has them flirting dangerously with the Play-In zone - a place no team with championship aspirations wants to be come April. The margin for error in the West is razor-thin, and every slip matters.
A big piece of the Lakers’ inconsistency? The absence of their breakout star, Austin Reaves.
Reaves had been electric before suffering a calf injury, averaging 26.6 points per game on 50% shooting. That kind of production isn’t just helpful - it’s foundational.
But since his last appearance on Christmas Day, the Lakers have gone 10-9. That record doesn’t scream collapse, but it does highlight the strain on LeBron and Luka Doncic, who’ve been tasked with carrying the offensive load night in and night out.
“Unfortunately, our All-Star two guard has been out for a minute, and that’s a big piece of our team,” LeBron added. And he’s right - Reaves’ absence has forced the Lakers to recalibrate on the fly, often without enough firepower to compensate.
The bigger issue? Continuity.
The Lakers have struggled to stay healthy long enough to build the kind of on-court chemistry that turns potential into results. On paper, this is a team with the talent to contend.
But in reality, key players haven’t shared the floor consistently enough to prove it.
“It’s kind of hard to see what we really, truly can be,” LeBron admitted - a telling quote from a veteran who knows what a championship-caliber team looks like.
Still, there’s reason for cautious optimism. Even with the injury setbacks, the Lakers remain firmly in the playoff picture.
If they can get healthy - and that’s a big if - they’ve got the pieces to make a legitimate push. But time is ticking, and in a Western Conference where every win counts, the Lakers can’t afford many more nights like this one.
The talent is there. The experience is there.
What’s missing is the consistency - and a clean bill of health. If they can get both, we might still be talking about this team deep into the spring.
But until then, the Lakers are walking a fine line between contender and question mark.