Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons in last-second loss to Miami Heat

LeBron James flat-out was not aggressive enough to steal this victory for the Los Angeles Lakers!

This page has nothing to do with the end of the game. That was already covered at the beginning. See, there are still the 46 minutes and 30 seconds BEFORE all of the drama happened at the end. Bottom line, LeBron James, for whatever reason albeit fatigue, the Heat defense double-teaming him or the narrative of“Making the right basketball play” finding the shooters, just didn’t play well enough.

When Anthony Davis got sidelined indefinitely with a calf strain it was assumed that LeBron James would have to up his scoring three to five points right? To do this, he had to be aggressive. He wasn’t.

This is what Lake Show Life means when LeBron has to be aggressive.

Attack the basket to put the defense on their heels and more importantly draw fouls and get to the free-throw line. This play happened after a few plays of crying for fouls to the officials.

LeBron James finished with 19 points (7-21 shooting!), 9 rebounds and 9 assists. Here’s the glaring evidence that he didn’t impose his will to steal this game. He shot 1-8 from behind the arc with only four free throws.

The worst part of his play was that he didn’t adjust to the Miami defensive schemes or the fact that his teammates didn’t have it. In the Finals last year, the Lakers faced zone defense almost exclusively. In this game, the Heat doubled teamed him almost every time down the floor in the clutch daring his teammates to make shots.

Now LeBron made the right reads picking on Duncan Robinson, who looked like he had a ticket to the G-League after the game playing pick and roll. However, at some point, he should have taken over and attacked the basket.

Now that’s just the end of the game. Now let’s discuss the beginning of the game.

The same rules Lake Show Life had for Anthony Davis applies to LeBron James. He has to be aggressive at the start to set the tone for the offense. He has to play like he is the number one scoring option (This just in…he’s the number one option).

There’s no shame in LeBron shooting 9-27 or 10-30 when the team is struggling to score and needs him to manufacture points.

There will be some readers that will be triggered by this analysis. Okay, that’s fine. But if LeBron James plays like this in the next two games, the Lakers will lose and yes the Washington Wizards are next on Monday.

While LeBron James did not start out the gate as quickly as the Lakers needed, this player was on fire in the first quarter. Read on to see what player Lake Show Life is talking about.