Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James engaged in a conversation with former NBA professional basketball player JJ Redick to shed light on the team’s struggles in the early stages of the 2023-24 NBA season.

On the Mind the Game Pod program, James and Redick talked about the Lakers’ current problems, especially the difficulties in finishing:

“We were terrible at finishing. For the first two months of the season, we couldn’t even hit any shots from the 3-point line.”

The Los Angeles Lakers showed instability in their playing style when they had an unsatisfactory record of 24-25 in January. Weakness in attack was the core problem, but they succeeded in overcoming it in the second half of the season, ending with a remarkable 23-10 record.

This change helped the Lakers go from an average offensive team to one of the NBA’s top offensive teams. By the end of the season, they ranked eighth in the NBA in three-point shooting percentage (37.7%), second in field goal percentage (49.9%), sixth in scoring (118.0 points/game), and second in scoring (118.0 points/game) about the number of shots from the free throw line (18.9 times/game).

Superstar LeBron James has played a key role in this improvement, shooting a career-best three-point shooting percentage of 41.0%. However, the team’s success is not only due to James, but also has significant contributions from D’Angelo Russell (41.5%), Rui Hachimura (42.2%), and Anthony Davis (55.6%).

Despite a late-season resurgence, the Lakers’ playoff journey began in the play-in round, where they earned a spot but faced a formidable first-round opponent in the defending champion Denver Nuggets.

Although the Lakers made a strong effort, the Nuggets won 4-1 in the first-round series, marking an early end to this season for King James and his teammates.