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Los Angeles Lakers: 5 Takeaways from overtime loss to Spurs

By Ronald Agers

LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 22: LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers shoots the ball against the San Antonio Spurs on October 22, 2018 at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 22: LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers shoots the ball against the San Antonio Spurs on October 22, 2018 at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /

 1. How did LeBron James do?

Let’s show the difference of the three games right now.  What’s the difference between all of these plays…

This happened against Houston…and these happened against the Trail Blazers…

NOW!…These dunks look great in very flawed, uneven and listless performances. Remember what I said before about winning time?…

"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."

How about this?…

"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."

Which led to my challenge to LeBron James who is supposed to be the Lakers franchise player!

"Superstars close games. Who’s the closer for the Los Angeles Lakers? They paid LeBron James $154 million dollars to do it. Where’s the production? Stat sheets don’t win games. Leadership and coming through in the clutch does. LeBron James did neither!"

Well let’s see shall we? Press play!

Well it seems that LeBron James shows up in the 4th quarter after all! James started slow in the first half and went off for 28 points in the second half and overtime AKA WINNING TIME! When the game was on the line, James was aggressive and made plays. But the James dominance that I criticized him about started right here…

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1054583803623104513

Let’s be clear here. LeBron James in my opinion is not the best player in the world, BUT nobody on the world can stop this guy on the block outside of Anthony Davis. Will somebody please remind LeBron that he was supposed to be down on the block ANYWAY?! This was the plan. He doesn’t have to work as hard to make plays with the young talent around him as this game shows. All of them will cut especially Kuzma and Hart to get easy baskets. Plus it ignited the aggressiveness that is required to send the Lakers to victories this season.

To all the people that will clown LeBron James about the misses in free throws and the last shot I say this…

SO WHAT?!!!!

This is basketball, players miss shots. But unlike the last two games, LeBron James was WILLING to take the free throws and the last shot. Did he do this in the first two games? No.

Plus he PLAYED HARD!

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