With LeBron James out since his Christmas Day injury, the Los Angeles Lakers have struggled mightily, most recently falling to the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers. The loss was certainly demoralizing in its own right, but it’s also their seventh loss in the last 10 games since LeBron’s injury.

More importantly, Paul thinks that this recent string of play is showing how far the Lakers are from being a true title contender.

“This has to be very demoralizing. This shows you how far they are away from actually being a contender,” Pierce said. “Before LeBron got injured, they were a top-four-or-five seed, so it has to break this young team’s confidence.”