The respective teams split the season series. But in retrospect, so did the MVP candidates.
If the NBA, owners, players and more importantly the Lakers fans get their wish, two things will happen.
- The NBA season will resume with more NBA basketball.
- The Los Angeles Lakers run through the postseason into the NBA Finals.
If these things happen, barring some unforeseen crazy injury problems to Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Lakers will probably be playing the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Finals.
In the regular season, the two teams split the season series winning their respective games on their home floor. Both games were hyped up and the games ended with major storylines for each superstar.
In the first game in Milwaukee, Giannis shows that he can hit a 3-point shot.
Both teams walked into the arena with 24-4 records. Only one team played like it. Before the game, it was hard to criticize the Lakers success. It was easy afterward as they lost to the Bucks, 111-104. This game was not as close as the final score showed.
It’s easy to forget that in the first game, Giannis was a dominant force that the Los Angeles Lakers had no answer for.
To the Lakers’ credit, the game plan for the “Greek Freak” was on point. The plan was to let Giannis shoot the ball and keep him out of the middle. If he shoots the 3-point shot, oh that’s even better. Either that or risked getting dunked on. With his performance in the playoffs, it would stand to reason that things would work out.
Oops.
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Giannis Antetokounmpo had a career-night, shooting five 3-pointers in eight attempts. One of the three misses was an air-ball. Did he care? No. The next time down the floor he knocked down a 27 footer in Alex Caruso’s face.
The “Greek Freak” cluttered the box score with 34 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.
Around this time, the Los Angeles Lakers were in the middle of their longest losing streak of the season. LeBron James had a triple-double but did not play well at all.
The Bucks dominated the game from start to finish and it would have been a blowout if Anthony Davis didn’t go nuts in the second half. After losing two games to the Clippers including on Christmas Day, the narrative was that LeBron didn’t show against the elite teams.
LeBron James accepts the challenge of media experts that claimed he shied away from top players.
By the time the teams had their rematch in Los Angeles, the Lakers weren’t being taken seriously as title contenders. LeBron was being challenged almost on a weekly basis by Stephen A. Smith to step up against the superstars. With the showdown against the Clippers coming 48 hours later, the spotlight was hot on the Lake Show and LeBron.
Mission accomplished on both fronts as the Lakers gained the season split in a win over the Milwaukee Bucks, 113-103. The win stamped the ticket to the postseason after six long years of being on the outside looking in.
In this game, it was clear that LeBron James had been paying attention to the chatter as he guarded the Greek Freak” head up and had a bunch of success.
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In this game, LeBron did something that hasn’t been seen since game one of his last NBA Finals appearance. He was on a seek and destroy mission and left everything on the floor. He started this debate by bringing his team out to beat the brakes of his chief MVP rival’s team. He took it back to the old school era of “Who’s better?”
Oh, he also found time to pass the 34,000 point mark during the game, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone as the only players to do so.
That’s the head to head matchups between the teams, let’s break down the individual players.