Los Angeles Lakers: How big a cushion is enough for a scot-free win?

The Los Angeles Lakers are making it a habit to give away double-digit leads, owing to lethargic game-play once they acquire any sort of remote command over the game, only to end up scrambling in the dying minutes.

The most recent display of such carelessness was magnified when the Los Angeles Lakers hosted the East 5th seed Indiana Pacers, with no Victor Oladipo for the sixth straight game. LeBron James and his men came out all guns blazing and piled up a season-best 38 points in the first quarter itself, restricting the visitors to just 15.

Certainly, the game would have easily landed in their bag, had they just maintained the tempo and toughness on defense, keeping in mind that the cushion was of 20+ points. But, more often than not, that hasn’t been the case with the men in purple-n-gold in the recent past.

LeBron James sat down for the start of the second quarter as it seemed that the Lakers would coast to an easy win over the Oladipo-less Pacers. But the vicious cycle of surrendering leads was set in motion.

The Pacers cut the lead to 17 midway through the second period and by the time the halftime-buzzer was heard, they had staged a 35-18 redemption-run of their own.

It was just a two-possession game heading into the second half and everybody in the arena wanted an answer to ‘How much is enough for a struggle-free day at the office?’

The benevolent hosts let the Pacers cut it to a single-possession game late in the fourth. The game hung in the balance in the final few minutes of regulation, until LeBron willed the Lakers to a 10-0 run and set things right where they belonged.

LA won 104-96, but there were questions lingering all-around regarding the Lakers’ reliability in terms of maintaining a consistent mindset throughout the 48 minutes.

The Lakers are still getting used to the powers LeBron possesses and in turn, the Best Player on the Planet is trying to figure out a way to be dominant and include the young core at the same time.

"“That’s been one of the challenging things I’ve been battling with since the season started, How much do I defer and allow our young guys to try and figure it out and how much do I try and take over games? Tonight was one of those instances they looked at me and they wanted me to close the game.”"

The Lakers get over-ambitious when riding an advantage of any magnitude, something which was pretty evident when they missed 10 straight 3-pointers in the second period after making 3-of -5 in the first.

The King is bound to meet his tipping-point soon, going by the way the Lakers young brigade relies on him whenever push comes to shove (especially when the playoffs would be around the corner and Bron’s NBA Finals legacy would be on the line).

This just might be Cleveland all over again, unless people concerned with the Lakers group identify the anomalies and fix the environment for James to thrive without excessive pressure at clutch moments.

The Lakers host the Dallas Mavericks next. The Mavs have won seven of their last eight games and will also be desperate for their fourth straight win.