The Lakers’ play on the court versus the Hawks on Tuesday was bad, but, in some ways, their performance off the court was even worse.

First, we had Christian Wood possibly subtweeting Darvin Ham. He tweeted out “Lol” ten minutes after the starting lineups were announced and bench warmer Jaxson Hayes got the start over him with Anthony Davis out.

In his postgame availability, he clarified that it was an accident and that he meant to retweet something and didn’t. So, is this much ado about nothing or just a lie no one can disprove? I wonder what he wanted to retweet?

One thing that was clear was LeBron James’ comments after the game. “I don’t have any message for my teammates just go out and do your job,” James said. “Way to cut me off because I was about to…”

James didn’t finish his thought, but clearly, the frustration had mounted. He made other brutally honest comments about the Lakers and later that night, he shared an hourglass emoji on Twitter, which sent the internet ablaze.

What does this mean? Is the time up on his teammates? Is his time with the Lakers coming to an end? Time to make a trade? Or is James contemplating time itself, having a philosophical moment thinking about how all our time is running out and we don’t know when the sand will run out on us all?

See how quickly you can drive yourself into madness trying to interpret an emoji? We have all done it, but we should all know better.

Ultimately, the Lakers organization is in charge of all moves and if James has something to say to the people in charge, I’m sure he has the access and ability to do so. An emoji isn’t going to speak volumes for him more than he can do himself.

This happens when losing becomes commonplace for a franchise used to winning. The noise and distractions get louder and the only thing that can truly put it to rest is winning or the Lakers making a trade.

The Lakers will have to continue to work through this self-inflicted adversity on the road.

We’ll see if they’re able to rack up some more wins during this trip or if this is just the beginning of the off-court drama fans will be in store for until the Feb. 8 NBA trade deadline arrives.