Los Angeles Lakers: 3 things to watch for vs Houston Rockets

3. LeBron James had better play 48 minutes!

There is a disturbing scenario that if I am reading this right from the Blazers game that will be troubling for the Lakers playoff chances. LeBron James, in my opinion, did not impose his will to dominate the Blazers when the Lakers needed it in crunch time.

Here’s what is said about the situation with eight minutes to go in the fourth in the post-game report…

"Lonzo Ball dropped a three to cut the Blazers lead to 101-100. This is what Magic Johnson called winning time. Only McCollum and Lillard had their Rolex’s on. They both combined to set off a 18-6 Portland run to put the game out of reach. They both combined to score 20 points in the 4th to lead the Blazers to victory. Anybody remember anything of note from James at this time? That’s the issue here. This is what the Lakers need from James. If he is the best player on the court, the last eight minutes is when he has to impose his will and lead his team to victory. He has to be as dominant or more so at THIS time in the game. This game was winnable but a scenario that Lakers fans need to watch throughout the season occurred. LeBron James played well enough to fill stat sheets, but not well enough to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to victory."

This is what I mean…Lakers fans, the sports shows will show you this…

and this…

But guess what? It was in the first quarter of the game and James disappeared in the closing moments of the game.

If you did not get a chance to watch the highlights of the Warriors and Jazz last night, the Jazz came out like gangbusters and ran 81 points on the champs…81!

But in the second half, Golden State started executing down the stretch and the STARS, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, led them to victory 124-123.

Before we go into this KD, Steph superteam stuff, don’t miss the point. They did what stars are supposed to do. Just like Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum did for Portland on Thursday night.

The Lakers NEED LeBron James to take on this mentality. When the game is on the line and close, he needs to take over and make plays. He needs to be aggressive! On Thursday he was passive and did not do what stars are supposed to do to close out games. Thursday’s game was winnable. LeBron did not take advantage.

If he plays like he did Thursday, he’ll have the highlight dunks but it a 30 point blowout if he is not careful.