LeBron James knows the Los Angeles Lakers — 11-11 after their 100-106 win over the Detroit Pistons at Staples Center on Sunday — are far from reaching their potential as a ballclub (to use a favorite term of his).

“We haven’t even scratched the surface of what this team can be,” LeBron said in his postgame remarks.

James dropped 33 points in 37 minutes, shot 12-of-20 from the field, drained 4-of-9 from three-point range, to go along with nine assists and five rebounds. In general, he played an elite floor game and correspondingly led the Lakers with a +14 in his rematch with Isaiah Stewart and co.

The Lakers have yet to find a groove as December fast approaches. They've won four of their last 10 games and are still not quite fully healthy. They have no distinctive identity and tend to offer a different experience from possession-to-possession and quarter-to-quarter.

However, LeBron believes in this Lakers group in the long run.

“It ranks right at the top of any other challenge I’ve had in my career, which actually brings out the best in me and I love that,” he said after the Pistons win. “I love trying to figure out how we can be better. Get through the mud, get through the adversity, and make it sweeter on the backend,”

Whether turning this Lakers team into a contender is a greater challenge than erasing a 3-1 deficit to the 73-win Golden State Warriors, winning a title in the bubble, or, you know, turning the Cleveland Cavaliers into a marquee franchise and perennial contender is a debate for the sports bar. Either way, James is clearly ready to ramp up the problem-solving.

“We’re going to continue to get better and better as we continue to learn each other more and more, continue to work into our system offensively and defensively,” he added. “We have nine new guys coming into a system they haven’t been in. I think that takes time. Obviously, you hate losses. You don’t want to lose. You get frustrated. We were mad as heck the other night after that Sacramento loss. We made it a point today to come in very focused on the game plan, learn from our mistakes and we got better. That right there lets me know that we’re a team that cares and we’re a team that wants to continue to get better throughout it all.”

LeBron's comments align with the marathon-not-sprint philosophy put forth by basically every player on the team plus Frank Vogel since free agency. In their introductory remarks upon signing, for example, both Carmelo Anthony and Russell Westbrook talked about looking forward to embracing the journey and the process of building a championship contender, as much winning as the title itself.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ZkB0Afb0eKhGDSO3sDGR4?si=6277797d8c7b4622

“Adversity is something that I think is great in life in general,” Westbrook said Sunday. “It builds character. It kind of shows who you really are. When things are not going your way, and you can kind of stick through it, the ups and the downs, which I think guys are just starting to figure out. Ultimately at the end, you’ll be happy with the result.”

For now, the Lakers just need to stack wins.

Fortunately, they have a favorable schedule for the next couple of weeks, beginning with a well-timed rematch against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday.