{"id":120323,"date":"2026-05-11T05:38:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T05:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/11\/lebron-james-still-believes-lakers-can-extend-series\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T05:38:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T05:38:29","slug":"lebron-james-still-believes-lakers-can-extend-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/11\/lebron-james-still-believes-lakers-can-extend-series\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James Still Believes Lakers Can Extend Series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers are officially on the brink. After another disappointing second half against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Lakers now trail 0-3 in the series and sit just one loss away from elimination.<\/p>\n<p>No team in NBA history has ever climbed back from a 0-3 deficit, but James is refusing to let that reality creep into the locker room just yet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not angry or disappointed,\u201d James <a href=\"https:\/\/lakersnation.com\/lebron-james-mindset-lakers-facing-elimination-thunder-series\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> after Saturday\u2019s loss. \u201cObviously, you\u2019re disappointed with the simple fact that you\u2019re down 3-0, obviously. But we still got life. That\u2019s all you can ask for. We have to be much better on Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles has actually shown flashes throughout the series. The Lakers either led or remained within striking distance during the first halves of all three games, including halftime leads in both Games 2 and 3.<\/p>\n<p>But every time the game has reached the third quarter, Oklahoma City has completely flipped the momentum.<\/p>\n<p>The Thunder outscored the Lakers 33-20 in the third quarter of Game Three and have dominated that stretch throughout the series overall.<\/p>\n<p>James didn\u2019t hide his frustration with how the Lakers responded after halftime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe didn\u2019t have the energy, the effort and they put a thirty-plus point quarter on us,\u201d James said. \u201cThat kinda took care of the game right there, honestly. We had moments, obviously in the first half, that was really good for us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did a good job of sharing the ball and knocking down shots. But that third quarter, we didn\u2019t knock down shots. We didn\u2019t defend or get stops, I would say. We defended, we didn\u2019t get stops, and it allowed them to kind of take control of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>James also acknowledged the level required to beat a team as deep and disciplined as Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, obviously, everything,\u201d he said when asked what it would take to win Game 4. \u201cEverything and more to beat a team like this. We gotta be at our best on Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foreverbet.com\/en-us\/sportsbook?utm_source=basketballforever&amp;utm_medium=sitearticle&amp;utm_ca%5B%E2%80%A6%5Dn=basketballforever500ph&amp;utm_term=JamesLakersElimination&amp;lid=j0ytdho0wlyd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-69110\" src=\"https:\/\/basketballforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ForeverBet-BF-promotional-banner-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"730\" height=\"175\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/basketballforever.com\/2026\/05\/07\/anthony-edwards-admits-timberwolves-came-out-cool-in-game-2-loss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Anthony Edwards Admits Timberwolves \u2018Came Out Cool\u2019 in Game 2 Loss<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/basketballforever.com\/2026\/05\/10\/lebron-james-still-believes-lakers-can-extend-series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers are officially on the brink. After another disappointing second half against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Lakers now trail 0-3 in the series and sit just one loss away from elimination. No team in NBA history has ever climbed back from a 0-3 deficit, but James is refusing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":120324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120323"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}