NEW ORLEANS — It’s one of the great mysteries in the NBA, why a team like the Lakers can look so competitive one night and so lost 24 hours later.
“Play harder” can be the core of every coaching message, the desire of every player and, for some reason, it doesn’t matter.
Some nights, and especially on the ones like Saturday in New Orleans, teams just don’t have it.
And no matter if the sneakers look as if they’re made of concrete or the jerseys of lead, those teams still try to win.
LeBron James has done it before. Saturday, he did it again, helping his team steal a 104-99 win.
“I mean it’s LeBron,” Lakers rookie Dalton Knecht said. “… We should get out of his way and let him do LeBron.”
James hit back-to-back threes in the fourth quarter — punctuating the second with his signature “silencer” celebration — as he stomped his feet in exclamation. Max Christie, getting a surprise start because of injuries, sealed the win by stealing the Lakers an extra possession in the final seconds.
The Lakers have won five straight.
“Just living in the moment, being able to still make plays and make big shots at this point in my career,” James said. “That’s what you live for. You never will be able to get those moments back when you’re done.”
Moments like the ones James had, when the Lakers are banged up and recovering from the emotional highs of Friday’s win against the Spurs, are tough to create. Fatigue, while not an excuse, is real. Focus fades. Legs feel heavy.
“It’s really hard to win a game in this league,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said he told his players Saturday morning. “It’s really hard to win on the road in this league, and it requires effort and toughness.”
And in games like this, when New Orleans was missing so much of its roster, it strangely requires more.
Facing a Pelicans team so banged up that only three players featured in their pregame hype video actually played, the Lakers (9-4) were already facing a threat to their competitive focus.
Then the game started and the worst-case scenario unfolded.
The Lakers looked as though they were trudging through the swamp — they were slow to rebounds, late to rotations and, uncharacteristically, a mess on offense.
James coughed the ball up. Anthony Davis had it squirt through his usually sure hands. And Austin Reaves, standing wide open in the corner, shot a three that hit the side of the backboard.
“AR shot one off the side of the backboard wide open. Like that never happens, you know what I’m saying?” Davis said. “We had great looks. Missed some bunnies around the rim.”
The malaise allowed New Orleans (4-10), which played the night before (albeit at home), to build a 15-point lead despite being without Zion Williamson, Dejounte Murray, CJ McCollum, Herb Jones, Trey Murphy and Jose Alvarado.
The Lakers, who won and looked sharp in San Antonio in NBA Cup play, still didn’t have Rui Hachimura because of an ankle injury. Cam Reddish, who had helped the Lakers go undefeated since his move to the starting five, also couldn’t play because of ankle and thumb injuries.
But Knecht, making his second start of the season, shot the Lakers back into the game in the third quarter, sparking the team’s competitiveness and effort. Knecht finished with 27 points.
And despite blowing a 10-point lead of their own, James and the Lakers did enough late to finish this quick road trip 2-0. James finished with 21 points and seven rebounds and Davis had 31 points and 14 rebounds.
The Lakers’ energy should be in a better place Tuesday when they continue their NBA Cup schedule at home against Utah.
“When you don’t have it as much as you would like to have it, you lean on your next guy next to you. And I think we all did that,” James said. “We all lean on the next guy to the side of us. And that’s how we was able to get it as a unit because you can’t do it on yourself. You can’t do it by yourself.”