Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons in LeBron’s takedown of the Warriors

LeBron James was terrible at the start, but BOY did he bail the Los Angeles Lakers out at the end!

As stated on the first page, this was two separate games in one. LeBron James’ performance illustrated that point to the fullest. To start this game, LeBron was being handled one on one by Andrew Wiggins. Instead of beating him up in the post and attacking the rim, he depended on fadeaway jumpers (That got stuffed!) and attempts at the rim that lacked explosion.

By the half, LeBron was shooting 1-7 from the field for 6 points and it looked like he was thinking more about his ankle than the task at hand. Then there was the second half…

James exploded for 16 points in the second half to finish with 22 points. But it was how he dissected the Warriors defense in the third quarter setting up his teammates for timely buckets on backdoor cuts that got the Lakers back in the game.

But the sequence that will be added to the folklore of LeBron’s legacy was when he was poked in the eye on a layup attempt that was looked at for a flagrant foul. While he was getting eye drops, the referees called the foul a common one instead of flagrant.

These three things LeBron did afterward were everything for the Lakers and turned the game around without anyone noticing.

1. When the foul wasn’t called a flagrant, he did not complain (Both teams were whining all night long!) and kept his cool. As Shaquille O’Neal says all of the time… If the General doesn’t panic, neither will the troops.
2. He knocked down the first free throw to tie the game.
3. Then there was that 30 footer at the end with Steph Curry near him (To old school players that have injured their ankles bad enough, not worrying about your landing is a feat within itself!).

LeBron James ended with a triple-double with a stat line of 22 points (7-17 shooting, 2-4 from beyond the arc!), 11 rebounds and 10 assists with only ONE TURNOVER!

A special shout-out goes to Jason Reed who basically foreshadowed this feat.

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Another safe bet is not trolling staff writers in the comment section. You can end up looking really bad at times.

Even though LeBron has to play better going forward, it was his night. As Stephen Curry shows here, game recognizes game.

LeBron James put on the Superman cape at the last second to bail the Los Angeles Lakers out at the end, but if you watched old DC cartoons as a kid, you knew he was a part of the crew called the “Super Friends”. Sure Superman was important, but there was times that he needed Batman. In the second half, Anthony Davis put on his cape as well, but in the first half Laker Nation saw a lot of Bruce Wayne. Read on to see how AD did!