With Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell and Cam Reddish all out for the Los Angeles Lakers’ game against the Utah Jazz, LeBron James took it upon himself to go back to his roots as a playmaker.
James got the opportunity to dominate on-ball duties and he reminded the Lakers and the rest of the league that he remains one of the game’s greatest passers and tacticians.
James helped lead Los Angeles to a close 105-104 victory over Utah, a solid start to the team’s road trip.
The Lakers were able to hold on thanks to Anthony Davis and James who controlled the offense in crunch time. James explained that he and Davis need to hunt for mismatches when the time comes for it, which they haven’t done much this season with JJ Redick’s new schemes, as seen on Spectrum SportsNet:
“Yeah, I think you have to have the ability to have that,” James said. “It’s something we haven’t done, but tonight called for that. Obviously we had a lot of our big guns out with AR and DLo so we had to go to something more of a two-man game with myself and AD, which obviously our team may not be as comfortable with, but AD and I are. So we just tried to put the other guys on the floor in comfortable positions where they could read and react if anything breaks down.”
James has had the ball in his hands less than ever before as his usage rate of 28.2 is the lowest mark of his 22-year career. He acknowledged that has taken some getting used to:
“I don’t know, maybe. This is the lowest usage rate of my career so it has definitely been an adjustment… Tonight felt a little bit more like normal. Obviously with AR and DLo out, the ball-handling responsibilities happens more and I had to do that today. It felt like normal for myself. But the way we want to play this year is a little bit different and I’m adjusting to it as well.”
Although James has taken a backseat to the likes of Reaves and Russell, it’s clear that the Lakers operate better when he’s handling the basketball. The team can do its best to manage his reps during the regular season, but come playoff time everyone understands James will need the ball to be at his best.
LeBron James believes Lakers need to lean on each other during four-game road trip
Getting a win against Utah was almost a must considering the remaining games on their road trip. With a difficult stretch coming up, LeBron James emphasized Lakers players must lean on each other.
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