LeBron James Discussion: Not Returning To The Lakers

Thought he was really bad in the first half but was really good in the 4th both on offense and defense.

Ran out of gas

 

We are tied to Lebron...he's Jeannie's hero for God's sake!! Seriously though..if not Lebron then who...Austin and D'Angelo aren't ready yet IMO. AD can't do it by himself.

 

Uggggh, the turnovers. Slo-Mo was just scoring so easily over him.
That being said, without his scoring tonight, we lose big.

 

Stamina will always be an issue until he retires. He's getting old, he can coast on the court and still put up the minutes. The effectiveness,isn't going to ever be the same again, on both ends for full games. We have to roll with that and adjust. He's still going to will us to some wins, might be responsible for a few losses too along the way. It is what it is, still damn great for a 38 year old, 6'9 289 lb guard.

 

Lakers needs guys who can shoot 3's in the 4th bottom line.

The shot that should have won the game: look how open Shroeder was, that was like 4th or 5th that was wide open just like that and the Lakers missed all of them. You can't post Lebron or post-AD and you take away the rim running unless these guys can hit those 3's.

 

DLo was supposed to be one of the guys hitting threes for us tonight. I’m not even going to start with Beas…

 

Suck it up and do better in the next game.

 

Would love to ask him why he gave up more and more the midrange game as a Laker .. It's a weapon you need in the playoffs

James Harden isn't winning s***

 

We're missing that 2020 vertical spacing a lot aswell

 

8 games in 13 days has been catching up to him. This 5 day break should do wonders for him and the rest of the team.

 

Was he?

He was 5/14

Had a lot of assists, but who wouldn't when every 3 is going in

Lebron played some bad defense in the 1st Q, then a tough 3 or two got made over him, but he actually had a lot of very good defensive possesions in the 2nd half

Lebron was still a 12/21, went 3/3 from the line (feels like he never gets calls that other stars get anymore), and 3/6 from 3

Non Lebron 3s were 7/25....

Many were wide open

Dlo and Reaves need to be better on both ends. Can't get cooked by Conley and not make any shots

 

He had a terrible passing game with some of the worst turnovers you'll ever see from him but he was excellent scoring the ball. He kept the team afloat when things were looking dire.

He locked in late defensively but gave up too many open 3s early. I wouldn't say he had a bad game overall.

 

it was troubling that minny was trying to find him on defense. like, they iso'd taurean prince, who went around him like a parking cone. slomo got anywhere he wanted, but when we had AD or rui on him, he couldn't get to his spots. hell, AD forced slomo into a turnover when they acted like they were going to iso him up.

i'm guessing this is related to the foot injury as much as old age, but it doesn't change the fact that we now play two or three guys (lebron, russell, beasley) that teams will just test over and over again. ty lue would be salivating with his brilliant "find the bad one on one defender using one of my 11 capable iso scorers" scheme.

 

abeer you still hating on Ty Lue haha? For what it’s worth, he’s just made a defensive and offensive scheme that fits the pieces he has.

I hope Lebron has something left in the tank, because he can’t be a weak link defensively otherwise we’re stuck playing Schroeder, Reaves, Lando and AD to pick up for him and that kills our spacing.

 

yeah. average coach is average. my gripe with him is about perception vs reality more than anything. got tired of hearing how we dropped the ball by not paying him when he's just been meh. and we won a ring with our third choice coach.

if he's going to move like this going forward, he basically has to guard the opposing center, which he doesn't seem to like doing.

 

Hope he can fit a Miami or Germany trip in before Sunday. He NEEDS it

 

Some maddening turnovers and shot selection, a few plays early where he just stopped playing defense and gave up open 3’s…

But come on, dude had a great overall game and we don’t win without him. There was some question whether he’d even be back on the court yet as a 38 year old with a serious foot injury, yet here he was leading us to a must win playoff type game. Only one who showed up and didn’t shrink in the moment for much of the first half. Diving for loose balls, some stretches where he seriously did lock in defensively. Three point shooting has been looking much better lately including the clutch one with 2 minutes left to finally tie it. Showed the burst to attack the rim and make plays like on that Schröder shot.

Overall that was a very promising effort IMO

 

He's paid nearly half of our cap space, of course we will always have to win because of him, that's why he's paid so much.

I don't think what you wrote fits what LeBron and a superstar means. If that's written for Schroder, Reaves or wtv, sure, totally agree that's the bar.
But he's the superstar and he has to win games at will to justify his salary and status. I think he had an overall good game so I'm not here beating on him, just found it interesting the way you approached it

I do think he continue to make poor decisions down the stretch. In the clutch he gets 1on1 with KAT w/5 fouls and shoots two long jumpers instead of driving to the basket. Then he has that awful turnover and then goes too early making Rui commit an illegal screen.

But I also think he was really tired yesterday, I don't think he can play 40mpg this playoffs. And he's definitely not the same LeBron who can dominate a game. He can do it in stretches (he had one in the 2nd and another on the 4th quarter) but our consistent success definitely relies on AD now, more than ever

 

Since the RWB trade, we're 19-8 and... 12-2 (or something like that, when he plays), so let's not act, like he's bringing us down.
I still take rested and helathy Bron over 99% of NBA players. Especially in the PO.