LeBron James believes the Los Angeles Lakers "don't have room for error" after suffering a defeat to rivals the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA on Sunday.

The Clippers cruised to a 116-102 win in the first meeting between the teams this season, subjecting the Lakers to a fourth defeat in six successive games.

James finished with 25 points and 11 assists, with Rui Hachimura adding 19, while Anthony Davis got 16 points and 10 rebounds, but was held to 5-of-14 shooting.

The Lakers trailed by 15 points at half-time due to a slow first half, and though they showed improvements in the second, they were unable to overturn the deficit.

It halted a two-game winning streak for the Lakers, and James was frustrated after the loss, saying the team’s roster construction is the reason they have such a small margin for error.

"That's how our team is constructed. We don't have room for error — for much error," James said.

"We don't have a choice [to not be near-perfect every week]. I mean… that's the way our team is constructed. And we have to, we have to play close-to-perfect basketball."

Final pic.twitter.com/uPyJxYKVpR

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) January 20, 2025

The Lakers have endured an inconsistent season so far and are sixth in the Western Conference with a 22-18 record and a negative point differential.

JJ Redick also admitted that there was not much room for the Lakers to make mistakes, but believes the team can turn things around.

"Every time we made a mistake, they made us pay," Redick said about the Clippers loss. "But our guys competed. We fought. We stayed together.

"This is for us; this was a good process for us. We didn't get the result we wanted.

"We don't have a huge margin for error. Nor can we create that margin organically. It has to be emphasized daily to touch the paint, to play paint-to-great mentality, make the extra pass.

"We don't have a guy on our team that's going to necessarily always draw two to the ball. We don't have a guy on our team that's going to be able to get past his guy one-on-one and get to the paint and spread it out to the perimeter.

"Like, that's just not our team. So, we have to do it through connectivity, through execution. And when we do that, we’re really good."