1. LeBron James is earning his money!
If you are new to this website, I will tell you that I was extremely critical of LeBron James about how he closed out games early in the season…
Los Angeles Lakers: Evaluating LeBron James in crunch time
The Los Angeles Lakers are now 2-5 pending the outcome of the Dallas Mavericks. The Lakers have lost a lot of close games. Do they have a closer?
Time and time again, I would watch the opposing team’s superstars take over the close games while James was passive and did not impose his will on the game and just take it.
This was a common write-up in my post games…
"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."
Well, not against the Jazz. The game was close. He decided to impose his will and surgically destroyed the Jazz in the fourth quarter. He did it by dunking the ball…
The 👑 throws it down!#LakeShow (📺: @SpectrumSN & NBA TV) pic.twitter.com/DbJEpZivsH
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) November 24, 2018
He did it from distance sticking a jumper in Alec Burks eye…
LeBron drills the DEEP step-back jumper!#LakeShow (📺: @SpectrumSN & NBA TV) pic.twitter.com/52VJ4wB2cu
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) November 24, 2018
Most importantly, LeBron James blocked a Burks layup on the other end on defense to seal the win for the Lakers with seconds left in the game.
https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1066207804606824448
A lot of credit will be given to the acquisition of Tyson Chandler for the improvement of the Lakers defense and he deserves a ton. No question about that.
But the key to this winning streak belongs to LeBron James. He has gotten better on the defensive end and has made stops where the opportunity has presented itself.
There was no way the Lakers young guys were going to improve without James giving a better effort. Chandler would have helped, but the issues would have still been there and would have surfaced again.
What do you think, King James…
https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1066206220657221632
Cool! Let’s move on then…