LeBron James Had a Ben Simmons Moment as the Lakers Lost Again

LeBron James passed up a shot that could have won the game and instead kicked it out with time running down in regulation against the Houston Rockets. Carmelo Anthony missed a jumper and the Los Angeles Lakers went on to lose in overtime. For once, you can point the finger at LeBron. Just look at this final play in regulation and tell me it doesn't remind you of Ben Simmons passing up that dunk against Atlanta in the playoffs.

Now obviously it isn't the same thing. This was just LeBron's pass-first mentality taking control when he should have been reminding everyone that he is a scorer. He was looking for a perfect shot and ended up with that Melo jumper.

This was a brutal loss for LA against the worst team in the league as they cling to the 9th seed. The Pelicans, Blazers and Spurs are all within 3.5 games of the Lakers, who have lost nine of 11 games and have 18 games remaining on their schedule.

Maybe the most disappointing part of all this is that the Lakers are poised to finish with the worst record of any LeBron team since his rookie year when the Cavaliers went 35-47. The way the Lakers season has been going, it might end up being the worst team he's ever been on.

It's been a disappointing season full of nearly unthinkable results for the Lakers and now this. LeBron scored 56, took a night off and then came back to pass out of a possible game-winner against the team with the worst record in the NBA.