Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons how LeBron and the bench buried Denver

LeBron James changed the record books again while leading the Los Angeles Lakers in the second half! 

Take a look at the picture above. With this finger-roll layup midway through the first quarter, LeBron James collected his 12,682nd career field goal, passing Wilt Chamberlain for third place in NBA history.

Now LeBron is setting his sights on “The Captain” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 15,837 field goals and Karl Malone with 13,528. LeBron James became the third-leading scorer in NBA history around this time last year, trailing the same respective players in that order.

Now that the history is taken care of…let’s deal with present times!

Lake Show Life has a mandate on the superstars to be the best players on the floor. Man, did LeBron hold up his end. This game probably would have been a blowout for the Denver Nuggets had it not been for two extended James explosions.

• He scored 9 points in the first quarter alone setting the tone on the offensive end.
• In the second half, not only did he go off scoring the basketball, he set the table for the bench players to have great games as well (More on them later!).
• The Denver Nuggets 12 point lead evaporated in the second half on the strength of defense and LeBron carving up the Nuggets defense with pin point passing to Talen Horton-Tucker.

LeBron collected his second triple double of the season with 27 points (12-19 with two 3 pointers!), 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Even better, he took care of the ball and only had 2 turnovers.

The LeBron narrative of being in his 18th season on NBA broadcasts will get old in a month or two, but to see this guy literally dominate teams on some nights cannot be ignored. With the Dallas Mavericks falling off a cliff in the NBA standings (Including a second half performance that was worse than Denver’s!) and barring Joel Embiid continuing to raise his level of play or a storyline of a Kevin Durant comeback, LeBron James should firmly place himself as the leader of the MVP race.

Now let’s clear up the game for anyone (Especially on the East Coast!), that was not going to waste potential rest for the way the Los Angeles Lakers were playing in the first half. Even then the defense probably had you tossing and turning wondering why Denver was killing the Lakers up until halftime.

Before you start thinking Marc Gasol, READ ON! Some of you will understand and others? Well…they’ll never get it.