The Los Angeles Lakers welcomed back Rui Hachimura to the lineup on Wednesday night against the Houston Rockets. However, Anthony Davis sat out the contest, leaving LeBron James without his superstar teammate in the team’s 34-point loss in Houston.

The Lakers now find themselves at 3-5 on the season and 0-5 on the road. The team has been decimated by injuries with Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince, Jaxson Hayes, Jalen Hood-Schifino, Hachimura and now Davis all missing games.

LeBron spoke to this point after the contest, saying that it’s not possible for the Lakers to build the necessary cohesion when so many players unavailable, via Spectrum SportsNet:

“I mean, we can’t build cohesion if we don’t have our unit. It’s that simple. It’s just, we’re very depleted on the injury side. I thought offensively, we did a good job of sharing the ball offensively early on, we just couldn’t get in a rhythm offensively and they were shooting the ball extremely well.”

 

As for what the Lakers can do to get through these tough times, James said they just have to keep showing up and play the right way:

“Just show up to work. Show up to work and we got a goal and our goal is to go out and win and play together. Share the ball offensively, defend, rebound and try to play hard and see what the outcome is.”

The Lakers came into this season with big expectations but have struggled out of the gate and many aren’t sure what to make of this team so far. But as LeBron said, the team has been decimated with injuries to the point that he can’t make a judgment on what the Lakers are:

“I don’t have an assessment,” James said when asked about the team so far.

The Lakers have been missing key rotation pieces all season long and thus have been unable to figure out a consistent rotation and build chemistry. Once healthy, everyone will be able to see what this team is really capable of and whatever issues remain they will be able to identify and fix going forward.

Lakers’ LeBron James excited for intensity of In-Season Tournament

When the Lakers do take the court on Friday night in Phoenix, it will be their first contest as part of the league’s In-Season Tournament and LeBron James is excited for it.

LeBron said that while he wasn’t able to watch the first group of tournament games, he did hear players saying that it felt like a playoff atmosphere and for that reason alone, the Lakers superstar is looking forward to this game.