Alexander: Lakers haven’t been paragons of consistency so far

As the Lakers approach the All-Star break, LeBron James summed up their situation as well as anybody could. “That’s a championship team right there,” he said of the Oklahoma City Thunder after the Lakers’ 119-110 loss to the defending champs on Monday night. “We’re not. “We can’t sustain energy and effort for 48 minutes, and they can. That’s why they won the championship.” Terse, but true. The positive is that it’s changeable. The negative: Why hasn’t it changed before now? This has been a weird first four months of the season for the Lakers in terms of consistency. They are 15-3 in what the NBA considers “clutch” games, where the margin is five points or less with five minutes remaining,...