2. The Los Angeles Lakers are already up 2-0 despite not getting a dominant LeBron James showing yet
You could chalk this up to the exact same reason that we used in the first slide. LeBron James has not had a dominant game yet because the Nuggets have the solution to him, much like the Lakers have the solution for Murray and Jokic.
That argument does not really apply here, though. This is not the same situation. LeBron is not being stopped by Anthony Davis or great team perimeter defense — he just has not had the typical dominant game. He hasn’t been bad, he just has not had one full great game.
James was really good in the first half of Game 2 but then was kind of bailed out by Davis in the second half that allowed the Nuggets to get back into the game. He finished with a good box score, but he was tracking to have one of those vintage LeBron James playoff nights.
He took a backseat to AD in Game 1 as well. While AD dropped 37 on the Nuggets, LeBron put up a modest 15 points with 12 assists and six boards. He only played 31 minutes.
That has to be terrifying for Nuggets fans. The team is down two games to zero against the number one seed in the West and the best basketball player on the planet has not even had his best game yet.
Not just his best game, but he has not had his typical game yet. If you are down 2-0 against this version of LeBron — which don’t get me wrong, is still fantastic — then how are you going to fair when he really gets rolling?
Terribly. That is the only answer. Los Angeles Lakers in four.