“They are quitting” Shaquille O’Neal blasts LeBron James, Lakers with harsh truth after loss to Mavericks
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Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James
Being the center of all conversations is a great thing but not when it is about your talent put into question. The Los Angeles Lakers have been the core topic over the past couple of months and each night it seems like they have more to contribute for critics to get in their face. While they played against the Mavericks, the players in purple and gold have one of their worst nights, and people are starting to understand where they are lacking. And in all fairness, there is plenty of blame to go around.
As a Laker, players have very big shoes to fill being successors to some of the league’s absolute legends. LeBron James has come quite the distance for himself but as a team filled with the greatest, they are not living up to the hype at all. Many former players have blatantly called out the team for being complete garbage for not being able to win with such an experience roster. The Lakers are running out of time, especially LeBron.
The LA Lakers have no chance of winning a title
The LA Lakers have filled in the 9th seed in the Western Conference with an underwhelming record of 27 wins and 34 losses. With only 21 games left to conclude the season, they would literally have to win 80% of those remaining matchups in order to escape the play-ins this year. Considering their level of experience, they have a few easier games up ahead which could help them get higher up the board.
They have lost three games back to back so far and any further losses would damage their chances of getting into the playoffs itself. “We win games and get us in. We’re gonna prepare, we’re gonna be ready. But we are trying to win one basketball game right now. We are really trying to figure out how to get over the hump. As far as the play-in, can’t really think about that right now,” said LeBron after the Lakers’ loss to the Mavericks.
“Yeah well it hurts. All these guys are hurting. We’re putting in the work, we’re mixing up our plans, we’re mixing up our rotations. Trying to find some combinations to that are going to get us over the hump. But we got a resilient group, a mentally tough group. We’ll take whatever lessons we can from this game and apply it to the next,” said head coach Frank Vogel. The atmosphere is most certainly heavy around the Lakers at the moment but the players have all been great in their own way.
Shaquille O’Neal shares an honest thought about the Lakers
Hall of Famer and former center for the LA Lakers, Shaquille O’Neal had a few words to share after the team lost to the Dallas Mavericks. Shaq said, “When you’re a Laker, all opponents, they’re going to come into LA, they’re going to be playing above their heads. And you can never make an excuse for lack of effort. Nobody is playing hard.” Then four-time champ caught onto something very important and obvious about this roster. The team put up a very poor performance against the Mavericks playing slow to no defense, mindlessly moving around, and making one person take the entire load.
“You got a team coming to our house blowing us out, laughing, joking around doing this. You got at least put more effort into it. Like I don’t mind losing but when don’t have a lot of effort, it shows. Looks like they’re quitting.” The legend said what he had to say and he might be right. He further explained that the Lakers can compete on a better level only if they show effort. He urges them to start with getting out of the 10th spot in their conference (suggesting that they should get past the play-in tournament seeds).
Also read: Is LeBron James a Billionaire and what is his current net worth?
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Rakibul John Rodgers
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