Los Angeles Lakers superstar Lebron James says that his team is “not concerned’ following their Game 3 loss to the short-handed Miami Heat that brought the series to a 2-1 Lakers lead.
James scored 25 points to go along with 10 rebounds and 8 assists, but he also had 8 turnovers.
“I don’t ever feel like we let our guard down,” James said, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “Also, I don’t feel like we’re concerned. We’re not concerned. We know we can play a lot better. We have another opportunity to take a commanding lead on Tuesday. You relish that opportunity.”
Lakers big man Anthony Davis also came back to Earth following his impressive performance in the first two games of the NBA Finals, which had him entering Game 3 averaging 33.0 points per game.
Davis scored only 15 points.
“Trust me,” Davis said. “We’ll be fine.”
“I just have to be better,” Davis continued. “Both ends of the floor. Foul trouble, bringing the energy to the team — the team relies on me bringing the energy to start the game, and when you pick up two fouls, guys come in earlier, things like that. So I just have to be better.”
“They are really, really good offensively, so you just can’t turn the ball over against that team,” James said. “I take full responsibility for that.”
Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma, who is the subject of a petition on Change.org requesting that he does not get a ring should the Lakers win the title given his poor play, didn’t seem bothered.
“I really honestly don’t care,” Kuzma said. “I mean, you either love or hate someone. It doesn’t matter. I mean, y’all see I dyed my hair blond this year. I don’t give a f—. I don’t care. I mean, Twitter is for jokes. I laugh at jokes, too. It really doesn’t affect me at all.”
“We’re not perfect. No one’s perfect. You are not a perfect team, you are not a perfect individual. Everybody f—s up. Everybody makes mistakes. The biggest thing for us is keying in on what we need to do and then doing what we have done all year,” he said. “Our message to the team is we don’t like to lose two in a row. That’s been our goal — not for playoffs, but entire season long. Obviously, having a little letdown is great for us. We have been on a high, and for us, we got to respond. And I like our chances because of who we have on the team.”
“Obviously, we have to do a better job of that coming down the stretch,” James said. “But I like our fight tonight, even as poorly as I believe we played.”
