The Los Angeles Lakers held a "heart to heart" meeting in place of practice on Thursday.

"Just clearing up some things, what we can be better at, how we can hold each other to be more accountable, more accountable for ourselves, and how we can just get a better feeling for the game," Brandon Ingram said after the team's shootaround on Friday. "... I don't think you work through it in one day, but I think we put it out there about how each guy was feeling about how they play on the basketball floor, about how they're feeling about the business of the organization, how they want to be played or anything of that nature. I think they just put it all out there, and ultimately I would hope they felt free after they did."

Luke Walton noticed players "pouting" on the bench after a recent loss.

Andrew Bogut cited injuries, rotations and how "everyone knows what is going on with the salary-cap situation next season."

"We just really had a heart to heart," rookie Kyle Kuzma said. "We're just trying to get back on the same page. That happens at all levels. It's no different. Every team has problems. Championship teams have problems and whatnot. Meetings are always good. ... But, of course, everybody on the team said something about how they feel."

Lonzo Ball will out at least one week with a shoulder sprain in his left shoulder.

Ball will miss the Lakers' Christmas Day game against the Wolves.

Ball will be reevaluated in one week.

LeBron James was asked about his memories playing on Christmas Day.

James' teams have played in Los Angeles several times over the years. James has been linked to potentially signing with the Lakers during the 2018 offseason.

"Playing in the Staples Center is always a treat," said James. "I've never had the opportunity to play in the Garden, but playing in the Staples Center, I've been there quite a few times. It's kind of always fun to play in front of that crowd and have that atmosphere."

James and the Cavaliers have played against the Warriors on Christmas Day in 2015, 2016 and now 2017.

Brook Lopez, who was injured in the second quarter of last night’s game against the Golden State Warriors, had X-rays last night and an MRI on Tuesday.

Results of the X-rays were negative and the MRI confirmed a moderate ankle sprain in his right ankle.

Lopez will be reevaluated in three weeks.

Jerry West made a serious push to acquire the draft rights to Tracy McGrady one year after he acquired Kobe Bryant.

McGrady had an even more impressive workout for the Lakers than Bryant did.

“I don’t think anybody can look at an 18-year-old and say he’s a Hall of Famer,” Del Harris said. “You couldn’t even do that with Jordan. And Kobe was a young 18 in his first season. He was still in a pretty normal teenage body, compared to when LeBron James came in and had a man’s body.

“McGrady came in the next year with a more mature body and worked out so well that Jerry kind of tooled around with the idea that maybe we should just go ahead and make a deal for whatever it took to get this guy — even though it’d be a step back in the short term — to have two guys like this on the same team.”

The Lakers could have had a Big 3 of Bryant, McGrady and Shaquille O'Neal, though there's no way to know how those three players would have developed with each other, let alone exist off the court.

Jerry Buss shot down the idea of trading for McGrady as the fear was that it would take them out of title contention as they would have likely had to trade Eddie Jones. The Lakers eventually traded Jones for Glen Rice.

Rob Pelinka has been general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers for nearly a year now and he talked about how he's worked alongside Magic Johnson and Jeanie Buss.

“I knew (when I took the job) that the way that Magic and I flow together is he loves to cast the vision, and then my background is more to be the implementer, to be the chess piece mover," said Pelinka. "As a lawyer, as a Type-A personality, I love to come up with the strategy and the plan to affect the vision. And so being able to service and support that, and what Jeanie sees, to kind of cast the vision for the franchise, that's what I love.”

The Lakers are hoping to secure two max contract free agents in the 2018 offseason while also developing their core of Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma.

Pelinka talked about how Jeanie Buss broached the idea of having him join their front office.

“We were having lunch one day, just casually - and she (says), 'Well, Magic is amazing at casting the vision, and big picture stuff, but I need a cap expert; I need someone who understands the business of the NBA, someone who can implement his vision,' and she was like, 'Someone like you, Rob,'” Pelinka remembered. “From there, it was just like a light bulb went on for everybody and it just unfolded.”

Pelinka and Johnson are on the same page with Jeanie Buss.

“We're incredibly excited. Magic was talking about this, just having coffee this morning. If you think of where we are right now, we feel like we have one of the best young cores in the league. …We have as much cap flexibility, or cap health, as any team in the league. We know that this is a destination city for players to want to be in. We have a legacy with our franchise that really can't be duplicated, and we've got a pass-first, ball-sharing point guard (in Ball), which players want to play with. So I think the culmination of all those forces is, like you said, we feel like we've become a destination again. Now it's going to be Magic's job, and my job with Jeanie's guidance to complete the puzzle with the right pieces as we move forward.”

One thing the Lakers are doing to develop their players off the court is to take them to "Genius Talks."

So far, the Lakers have heard private talks with Elon Musk, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Kendrick Lamar.

“Magic and I wanted to identify geniuses in their space,” Rob Pelinka explained. “Our core belief is that more developed men make better basketball players. I think Magic, if you look at how diversified he is with his interests. Kobe, the guy studies everything under the sun. I'm reading a biography right now on Leonardo da Vinci, and he has the ultimate curiosity of all things. If he's painting a hummingbird, he wants to like take its tongue and see what it looks like so he can paint it. So geniuses in life, right, can inspire us on how to be better. 

“So once a month, we try to do that, and the reason that it, to me, is important, is it shows the way we're really trying to do things differently, and it gets back to what I said at the beginning: Support and service. How can we bring things to the guys to make them better human beings and better Lakers basketball players?”

Pelinka is conscious of the message this type of development sends to free agents.

“Players know if you come here – like happened for Magic, like happened for Kobe – and you succeed as a Laker, the doors that being a star in this city opens around the globe just can't be matched,” Pelinka acknowledged. “I think it's an example of that.”

On the eve of his double jersey retirement with the Lakers, Kobe Bryant was asked whether he prefers the career he had as No. 8 or No. 24.

Bryant won three titles wearing No. 8 but he won an MVP and two titles wearing No. 24.

"It's the season where I ruptured my Achilles, actually," Bryant said. "Because I felt like I was playing the best basketball I've ever played in my entire career."

Bryant is referring to the 12-13 season in which the Lakers acquired Dwight Howard and Steve Nash. The Lakers entered that season as title contenders but Howard and Nash both had injury issues.

After the Achilles injury, Bryant was never the same, suffering season-ending injuries in each of his next two seasons.

"That was one of my favorite times, yeah," Bryant says, smiling. "It almost killed me, but it was fun."

LeBron James and Lonzo Ball had a conversation following Thursday's game, which was the first meeting of their NBA careers.

James held his jersey over his mouth as he spoke to Ball, and Ball did the same nodding along with James.

James was asked what he said to Ball by reporters.

"None of y'all business," James said.

Ball followed suit, replying that James "didn't tell me anything."

James has been a mentor to Ball from afar as he sees the rookie as a similar type of player.

James says he ignores the speculation that he could join the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2018 offseason.

"I don't see the reaction because I don't get involved in it," he said. "I don't do it to get a reaction. I do it because he's said over and over since he was growing up who he modeled his game after, who was his favorite player. It was me. I was humbled by that. Me wishing him happy birthday [on Twitter] was kind of the salute back to him. I see all the stupid noise that happens. I can't buy a place in L.A. I can't live in L.A. It's funny noise. But I don't get involved in it. When I post things, I don't look at comments. I'm so far removed from the white noise, and the noise, it doesn't matter."

While speculation connecting LeBron James to the Los Angeles Lakers has been rampant, sources describe it as a long shot as of now.

The Lakers are widely expected to have enough cap space to sign two players to max contract deals provided they unload Luol Deng's contract.

James has been a free agent four times in his career and has changed teams in 2010 and 2014.

Before the season James said he "won't ever cheat my teammates or cheat the franchise ... by talking about free agency all year long, because I'm not gonna give energy to something I can handle in the summertime."

"LeBron is focused on this season and winning a championship," agent Rich Paul said. "At the appropriate time, we will explore all the options. Now is not the time."

After taking a discount with the Heat, James has sought max money since 2014.

The middle of the regular season is not the time for final decisions, but James' position on maximum contracts hasn't changed, sources said.