LeBron James tried for the Los Angeles Lakers! Man, he tried!
With LeBron James suffering from groin injuries, there’s no reason why he should have worked as hard as he did in this game with little support from the rest of the starting lineup. For whatever reason, he looked irritable at times and he had good reason.
But he balled out for the Lakers.
LeBron James came out engaged on offense, putting up a stat line of 31 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists. When the Pacers raced past the Lake Show behind T.J. Warren and monster back to back dunks by Jakarr Sampson.
https://twitter.com/Pacers/status/1292227749881556992
LeBron James got his motor running and dropped 17 points in the first half to personally lead the Lakers to the lead by halftime. But this team is not built for LeBron James to have to take over and will his team for the playoffs. He was the only starter with a positive plus/minus ratio with +13.
Furthermore, it shouldn’t take back to back dunks from a player most NBA fans (and writers outside of the state of Indiana!) don’t know for this team to wake up or for LeBron to make a decision to take over. Adding up the numbers, the starters not wearing uniform number 23 shot 10-of-32. That’s less than 30%.
For the third straight game, Anthony Davis disappeared for long stretches. LeBron James may have to gauge when to abandon the game plan early of getting AD established if Davis keeps this string of listless games going.
Speaking of Anthony Davis. Boy, will he be a topic of discussion next week!