MINNEAPOLIS – LeBron James shrugged. He rolled his eyes. He complained to the referees. He hung his head.

There was no discretion in Minnesota on Monday — everything you needed to know about the Lakers and their leading scorer was written in big, bold letters.

Playing on the second night of back-to-back games, James looked as uncomfortable as ever in a Lakers jersey as he and his team continually failed at the game’s simplest task – putting the ball in the basket.

Minnesota defeated the Lakers 109-80 on Monday, their fifth loss in their last seven games. James has now gone four straight games without making a three-pointer, and the Lakers’ offense has failed to score 110 points or more in five of the last six games.

It’s been a miserable stretch of offensive basketball for James, especially from the perimeter, where he’s now missed 19 three-pointers in a row. He was also remarkably careless with the ball, turning it over six times on Monday, including a pass that perfectly separated D’Angelo Russell and Gabe Vincent on the counterattack without either player coming close to stopping him. to go to the seats.

James has turned the ball over at least five times in 11 of the Lakers’ 21 games.

Russell, who missed Sunday’s ugly win at Utah, led the Lakers with 20 points.

Slightly less concerning than James’ problems is Anthony Davis’ poor week. On Monday he scored just 12 points, a season low. He went under 20 in three of the Lakers’ last four games.

Before the game, coach JJ Redick said he and the players believed the best version of their team was one based on movement.

“I think everyone I’ve spoken to, and these are our seven or eight key guys, they all feel the same way I do, because the best version of us is when we have body movement and ball movement. I think we’ve seen that that’s a fact,” Redick said. “I think everyone agrees with it. I had conversations with them and they all agreed with me. And I think if you look at the quarterfinals and games where we faltered, we didn’t experience that.”

The team didn’t move much on Monday as it endured the organization’s worst offensive game since 2017.

The Lakers play again in Miami on Wednesday and finish the trip in Atlanta on Friday.