Los Angeles Lakers: 3 Lessons from return win over Clippers

LeBron James coasts along, but placed the stamp on the game for the Los Angeles Lakers late!

For most of the game, Lake Show Life had a totally different post-game report for LeBron James. He wasn’t good. It was a carbon copy of the listless performance on opening night. Even though he came out early with 5 assists in the first quarter, he wasn’t scoring. He wasn’t even looking at the basket. This was LeBron’s first points of the night!

James struggled on offense, as he scored just 16 points on a lowly 6-19 shooting  (2-7 shooting from the 3-point line). He spent most of the night complaining over fouls and wasn’t aggressive on the offensive end.

Even Kawhi defended him and called “all ball” as his shot was deflected. But as true ballers know, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. With less than 25 seconds left in the game, James hit the game-winner.

After Paul George hit a 3 point shot the previous possession, LeBron James didn’t rest on the fact that he put the Lakers ahead, he took the defensive challenge of defending not only Kawhi Leonard but Paul George’s last-second shot!

• Up until this point, Kawhi Leonard was killing the Lakers scoring 28 points while getting to the line (11-13). Watch how LeBron defends him with discipline and control without fouling or going for the pump fake.
• After Leonard is forced to pass the ball to Paul George, LeBron immediately switches and pushes George back towards the halfcourt line. Then he stayed on George’s hip and made him take a difficult shot. Sure he had his forearm on his hip, but so what? The referee didn’t see it.
• When you can defend two all-stars in the same play after hitting a game-winner, you can take a stroll off the floor like you own it.  

Enough about the stars. There are two guys off the bench that deserves a ton of Lake Show Life shine!