![\"LeBron](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2262819368-e1771935061814.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers looks on during the first half of their game against the Los Angeles Clippers at Crypto.com Arena on February 20, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to find fault with a player averaging 21.7 points and 7.1 assists while shooting 50%, especially in his 23rd year, yet several advanced metrics suggest LeBron James<\/a> has been a net negative for the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> this season.<\/p>\n The 41-year-old James is a -44 on the floor<\/a> in 38 games thus far, the second worst plus\/minus among all starters, closely followed by Deandre Ayton\u2019s -48.<\/p>\n Even more concerning is that Lakers lineups featuring the Big 3 of James, Luka Doncic<\/a>, and Austin Reaves<\/a> have not yielded good results, with the team outscored by 9.7 points per 100 possessions<\/a>. Furthermore, the Lakers seem to excel when only Doncic and Reaves are on the floor, surrounded by three other players not named James.<\/p>\n Lineups (With) James\/LeBron\/Reaves Doncic\/Reaves With James Off James\/Doncic With Reaves Off James\/Reaves With Doncic Off Doncic With James\/Reaves Off The Lakers\u2019 best five-man combo<\/a> this season has been Doncic, Reaves, Marcus Smart<\/a>, Rui Hachimura and Ayton, who\u2019ve outscored opponents by 33 points in 11 games together. As for the team\u2019s best five-man lineup with James, the unit of \u201cThe King,\u201d Smart, Jake LaRavia<\/a>, Hachimura and Jaxson Hayes<\/a> has a net rating of +7.2.<\/p>\n HeavyLakers lineups with James, Reaves and Doncic<\/p>\n Should LeBron Come Off the Bench?<\/p>\n It\u2019s not surprising that James has fared better in lineups without Reaves and Doncic, given that all three players are offensively skewed and viewed as defensive liabilities. However, the issue persists on both ends of the floor\u2014not just on defense.<\/p>\n Amazingly, the Lakers have\u00a0an offensive rating of only 107.7<\/a> when James, Reaves, and Doncic play together, with a subpar AST\/TO ratio of 1.78. These numbers look even worse due to their collective defensive rating of 117.4. For context, the Lakers\u2019 overall offensive rating of 116.0 is 8.3 points higher than when James, Doncic and Reaves play.<\/p>\n If the trend persists, Lakers head coach JJ Redick<\/a> may have to take the drastic step of bringing James off the bench, so the NBA<\/a> all-time leading scorer could not only run the second unit but also ensure there\u2019s no drop-off when Doncic and\/or Reaves check out.<\/p>\n Lakers Big 3: A Mediocre Unit<\/p>\n To that end, Lakers insiders like Jovan Buha and Jason Timpf have already made the case for James to come off the bench.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Lakers are 8-4 when their Big 3 play, but the four best teams they\u2019ve played in that stretch are Spurs, Suns<\/a>, Rockets<\/a> and now Celtics. They lost all four games by double digits,\u201d Buha said on his podcast<\/a>, making a case for Redick to bench James.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026You could argue that having the Big 3 has actually been a big thing for the Lakers, factoring in how those lineups have performed up to this season.\u201d<\/p>\n The Volume\u2019s Timpf<\/a> highlighted worrying Lakers trends against elite teams.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the Lakers play teams in the bottom 10 in points differential, they are 18-2, which is tied with Oklahoma City for the best in the league,\u201d he said on his podcast.<\/p>\n \u201cThat means they are 16-20 against the rest of the league. So, they\u2019re below .500 against anybody that\u2019s not in the bottom third of the NBA.\u201d<\/p>\n Another alarming statistic: the Lakers are being outscored by 13.0 points by teams in the top 10 in points differential, which ranks 28th in the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n Vs. Bottom 10 Teams Record: 18-2 Pts Differential: +11 The Lakers have yet to be competitive with the Big 3 \u2014 let alone win \u2014 against the best teams this season <\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSai Mohan<\/a> covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sports writer with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit, International Business Times, Hindustan Times and more. More about Sai Mohan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers looks on during the first half of their game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-501565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNet Rating<\/p>\n
\n-9.7<\/p>\n
\n+19.3<\/p>\n
\n-3.9<\/p>\n
\n-4.2<\/p>\n
\n+4.9<\/p>\n![\"Lakers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/HB3w3zBWIAEvRtF.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nVs. Middle 10 Teams
\nVs. Top 10 Teams<\/p>\n
\nRecord: 11-9
\nRecord: 5-11<\/p>\n
\nPts Differential: -3
\nPts Differential: -13<\/p>\n