LeBron James insists he won't give up on Lakers' season - 'Until you bury me 12 feet under, then I got a chance'

LOS ANGELES — As bleak as things might seem for the Lakers after Tuesday's 109-104 loss to the Dallas Mavericks — their 10th defeat in their last 13 games — dropped Los Angeles just two games away from falling out of the play-in tournament altogether, LeBron James insisted he won't give up on the season.

«We still have games to play,» he said after the Mavs finished the game on a 15-4 run in the final seven and a half minutes of the fourth quarter to win it. «Until you stomp me out, cut my head off, bury me 12 feet under, then I got a chance. So that's my confidence.»

James, who has missed 17 games this season because of various injuries and most recently sat out five games from late January through early February with swelling in his left knee, has no plans to shut his season down at any point, sources close to James told ESPN. James is committed to play out the season, wherever it goes.

In James' first season with the Lakers in 2018-19, he sat out nine of L.A.'s final 14 games — including the last six straight — after missing a significant portion of the season prior to that because of a groin injury.

Just before the All-Star break, James was asked about the status of his knee and said that he will need more time to get back to 100%.

«The only way it'll be back to full strength is with rest,» he said. «And I don't have the luxury of having rest. So it'll wait 'til the offseason.»

The Lakers, coming off perhaps the worst loss of the season on Sunday when they werebooed off the court by the home crowd en route to a 28-point loss to a New Orleans Pelicans team that is chasing them in the standings, looked better against Dallas, but several of their persistent problems were there.

They fell down by as many as 21 points in