Lakers' LeBron James offers 'great' admission about facing Kawhi Leonard again

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Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James discussed facing LA Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard in Sunday's 116-102 loss. After head coach JJ Redick revealed what was 'okay' about losing, James addressed the opportunity he was granted to face off against one of the best.

James talked about competing against Leonard again.

"For me, it's always great to go against the best," James said. "I know I don't have that many opportunities to continue to go against the best. So it was great to have him back out there."

James led his team with 25 points, 11 assists, and five rebounds. Leonard finished with 19 points and four assists. He also praised the Clippers' strong performance, crediting them for their talented roster, per Spectrum SportsNet.

"When you're playing against a great team, you got to limit your mistakes, offensively and defensively, cause they make you pay, and I think they did that tonight," James said. "It's a great team, very well coached, Hall of Famers, great complimentary players."

Kawhi Leonard played in only his fifth game for the Clippers this season.

JJ Redick reveals what's 'okay' about Lakers' loss vs Clippers

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While Lakers superstar LeBron James was honest after Sunday's loss, head coach JJ Redick focused on the brighter side after a 14-point loss against the Clippers. For Redick, the Lakers are still a work in progress despite heading into the second half of the 2024-25 campaign.

"We are growing. We all know during the growth process you have some bumps, and that's ok," Redick said. "Our group is together, and we're connected certainly more times than not. And we'll continue to grow and build. There was some good stuff tonight. There was good stuff. We have to try to keep getting better."

However, James says the Lakers' narrow margin for error factors into their games on a nightly basis, per ESPN's Dave McMenamin.

"That's the way our team is constructed. … We have to play close to perfect basketball [to win]," James said. "We know the game is never perfect. There's never going to be a perfect 48-minute basketball game. But we can combat it with multiple possessions in a row, or if we turn the ball over, we'll do a better job of that. But if we're making aggressive turnover plays where we're trying to make the right plays for our teammates, but it's some of the careless ones we made defensively, we can't have breakdowns.

"Our coaching staff has a gameplan for us; we can't break down in that gameplan."

The Lakers will host the Wizards on Tuesday.

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