Los Angeles Lakers: Is Charles Barkley right about LeBron James?

(Photo by Chris Elise/NBAE via Getty Images)
(Photo by Chris Elise/NBAE via Getty Images)
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Los Angeles Lakers
(Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)

Sure LeBron James had a triple-double against Dallas. But is it Fool’s Gold? 

Lakers fans are going to lose the entire point of all of this based on the performance of LeBron James Friday night against the Dallas Mavericks. It is totally understood that LeBron James went off on the Mavs beating out Luka Doncic in their personal triple-double showdown.

In the age of analytics, 39 points, 16 assists and 12 rebounds will tell the tale that James can lead the team running the point. Sports shows will lead to this play to back up their argument.

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Nothing against LeBron’s great play here, but it merely masked a problem that reared its head even in this game. Plus this play worked for two reasons.

Number one, the Dallas Mavericks have done some strange things since LeBron put on the purple and gold. Remember the ridiculous Wesley Matthews foul at the end of the game last year when the game was tied to send LeBron to the line for the win? This was just as close. Dallas doesn’t foul and then closes on LeBron James and leaves the shooters.

Number two, Dwight Howard held up Seth Curry slowing up his rotation.

LeBron James played an outstanding basketball game. It doesn’t mean that he played a great floor game as the point guard. Why?

The Lakers started out slowly again on the offensive end. Taking this further, the Lakers only scored 20 points in the first quarter which was a season-low. Things only started to pick up when Alex Caruso was in the game. Also, Anthony Davis was affected. He struggled for about three quarters before really taking off.

When LeBron James runs the point, it seems that AD is being force-fed in the post. With his shoulder injury, that is not the smartest way to run the offense through Davis and keep him fresh in the long run.

The Lakers took off when LeBron got his numbers in the flow of the game. He got on the break rebounding the ball and picking up the pace as Charles Barkley said in the beginning.

https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1190476944569069568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1190476944569069568&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flakeshowlife.com%2F2019%2F11%2F02%2Flos-angeles-lakers-lebron-james-saves-game-dominates-ot%2F

Now the question is, can he keep this up through the season into the playoffs. Now that LeBron James has shown that he is capable, now NBA fans can see for themselves.

The Los Angeles Lakers are 4-1 this season and the reason is that Frank Vogel is weaning the point guard duties off of LeBron James to Alex Caruso when he’s in the game. Since then, it has opened up the offense and LeBron James to new opportunities to succeed.