Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Takeaways from loss to Denver Nuggets

LeBron James made history and should be celebrated

LeBron James did not leave things up to chance with those 13 points needed to pass Michael Jordan and finished with 31 points to leapfrog into 4th place all time in NBA history.

To anyone that wants to dazzle your friends with Jeopardy knowledge on who made the assist, it was Rajon Rondo hitting James on a cut to the basket. The real shame about this moment was the Lakers were in the middle of getting blown out of the Staples Center.

What Bill Plaschke was mentioning with the crowd could be shock. No one saw this season going down the pot like this. The front office missteps, the coaching issues, the Anthony Davis saga, the finger-pointing in the locker room all played a part in sapping the energy of an event that really should have been more special.

The game for LeBron James was a microcosm of the entire season playing for the Lakers. He got his statistics, but it always seemed that he could never get the Lakers over the hump when the team needed him to put it all on the line.

To his credit, he was on the floor with the “Summer League” bunch that made the comeback. He did some damage in the last quarter.

He did damage in the post, something he should have been doing all season. If you get anything out of these post game reports, know that no one in the NBA can stop this dude down low.

He found the mismatches when switched on Nikola Jokic and destroyed him on the perimeter blowing by him and dunking on the Nuggets. He even made the Nuggets sweat smoking Paul Millsap and drawing the foul to start the furious run in the 4th quarter.

For every exciting highlight he gave the crowd, he would shoot himself in the foot with bad free throw shooting (He missed five) and poor defense. The criticism of his defense has affected him and his teammates.

That’s leadership folks.