LeBron says loss started with him after turnover-heavy night

Afterward, he pointed right at his turnovers and said the Lakers’ problems started with him. Fair enough. In a playoff game that tight, those mistakes are killers, especially the live-ball ones. You give the ball away, and suddenly your defense is sprinting backward instead of getting set.

The Lakers were not buried all night. They had chances. But they also did not have much room to mess around, and every wasted possession made the game feel harder than it needed to be.

That is why LeBron’s answer rang true. The late-game reads got tougher, the ball got loose at the wrong times, and the Lakers paid for it.

He owned the loss. Now the Lakers have to clean it up before the series starts getting away from them.