LeBron James Says Lakers 'Have a Very Small Margin of Error This Year'

The most talented teams in the NBA have larger margins for error because they can rely on said talent to carry them even if they aren't fully dialed in on any given night.

LeBron James doesn't believe the Los Angeles Lakers are one of those teams this season.

"We have a very small margin of error this year, and teams are making us pay," James told reporters following Wednesday's 139-130 overtime loss to the Houston Rockets.

Los Angeles is arguably the most disappointing team in the league this season, and Wednesday's loss was one of its worst of the campaign. It dropped the Purple and Gold to an ugly 28-37 overall and 4-13 in the last 17 games.

This was a team with championship-or-bust expectations at the start of the year with five potential Hall of Famers in James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony on the roster.

Now, just making the play-in tournament for the Nos. 7-10 seeds in the Western Conference isn't a sure thing with 17 games remaining.

The Lakers are sitting in the No. 9 seed and just 1.5 games ahead of the 10th-seeded New Orleans Pelicans and 2.5 games ahead of the 11th-seeded Portland Trail Blazers. It is a testament to how weak the bottom of the Western Conference is that they are even in play-in position at all while being nine games below .500, but they looked nothing like a playoff team Wednesday.

Houston is one of the league's worst teams, but it basically did whatever it wanted on the offensive end for extended stretches.

In fact, the Rockets scored the first 10 points of overtime to essentially put the game away with Jalen Green leading the charge. The rookie poured in 32 points on 13-of-21 shooting from the field and 4-of-7 from deep and likely had fans of the 17-49 Rockets thinking about the future.

Los Angeles can't really afford to think too far into the future with the 37-year-old James as the centerpiece of its roster, and it continues to lose while Davis is sidelined by injury.

Perhaps this group of headliner names pulls it all together and figures it out come playoff time, but doing so would require avoiding the mistakes that have plagued them all season.

After all, they don't have much room for error.