LeBron James said on May 10 that the Los Angeles Lakers are facing a critical moment in their playoff run after a blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder left them trailing 3-0 in their series. The defeat means the Lakers are one game away from elimination, with no NBA team ever having come back from such a deficit.
James acknowledged the difficult situation but emphasized that there is still hope for his team. “I’m not angry or disappointed,” he said. “Obviously, you’re disappointed with the simple fact that you’re down 3-0, obviously. But we still got life. That’s all you can ask for. We have to be much better on Monday.”
The Lakers have led at halftime in two of the three games but have struggled in third quarters, being outscored by a total of 31 points during those periods across the series so far. James said improvement will require significant effort: “I mean, obviously, everything,” he said when asked what it would take to win Game 4. “Everything and more to beat a team like this. We gotta be at our best on Monday.” In Game 3, James scored 19 points but missed several shots close to the basket and was unable to significantly impact play.
Historically, teams holding a 2-0 lead in best-of-seven NBA series advance about 92% of the time; only thirty-four teams have overcome such deficits before, and James has been involved in three of those instances during his career.
Head coach JJ Redick adjusted his rotation for Game 3 but could not prevent another third-quarter slump by the Lakers. Reflecting on Saturday’s performance, James said: “We didn’t have the energy, the effort and they put a thirty-plus point quarter on us. That kinda took care of the game right there, honestly… We did a good job of sharing the ball and knocking down shots [in]…the first half… But that third quarter, we didn’t knock down shots. We didn’t defend or get stops…and it allowed them to kind of take control of the game.” The Thunder outscored Los Angeles by thirteen points in that period.
