Veteran forward LeBron James stormed off the court after his Los Angeles Lakers suffered an embarrassing Christmas Day loss to the Houston Rockets. His body language wasn’t the greatest during the game either, as noted by his former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate, Kendrick Perkins.
“Watching that game last night — and I was a teammate of LeBron James and grew up playing with him in AAU — I know this man,” Perkins began on “First Take” on Friday.
“When he’s not engaged, or if he feels some type of way, it speaks in his body language,” Pekins said of James. “And last night, his body language was awful.
“He was not engaged. He was pouting, moping and walking up and down the damn floor, and he was complaining.”
Lakers Internal Issues?
Perkins added that the relationship between the Lakers and James “has run its course,” and the two sides need to come together to “figure out a solution,” which could lead to the 23-year veteran waiving his no-trade clause.
“LeBron has been to 10-15 NBA Finals. He knows when a roster is not good enough. Rich Paul, his agent, just said the Lakers are not title contenders. If Rich Paul is saying it, they both feel that way,” said Perkins, hinting at James’ unhappiness in L.A.
The 2008 NBA Champion also insinuated a possible disagreement between LeBron James and JJ Redick by highlighting how the Lakers coach wasn’t this vocal about calling out the team before James returned from his sciatica.
“He wasn’t having these conversations earlier in the season when LeBron James was out,” Perkins said of Redick.
Redick Calls ‘Uncomfortable Meeting’
As noted by Perkins, Redick ripped his teammates after Thursday’s loss and warned them of “an uncomfortable” meeting on Saturday, where he plans to bluntly address their defensive issues.
“Saturday’s practice — I told the guys — it’s going to be uncomfortable,” Redick said. “The meeting is going to be uncomfortable. I’m not doing another 53 games like this.”
Interestingly, Redick said the targeted players know who they are.
“It’s a matter of making the choice, and too often we have guys won don’t wanna make that choice,” Redick said of his team’s defensive issues.
“And it’s pretty consistent who those guys are.”
One wonders if Redick was referring to LeBron James, who was lambasted for his horrific defensive performance on Thursday, a persistent trend in his 23rd season.
The Lakers (19-10) are on a three-game losing streak for the first time this year, and have lost six of their last ten games after starting the season with a 15-4 record. During this 10-game stretch, they’ve been outscored by 9.6 points, while allowing opponents to average 117.4 points on 49% shooting. Worryingly, the Lakers have lost their six games by an average margin of 18.6 points, becoming very prone to blowout losses.
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