LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers have often found themselves being too overwhelming talent-wise for most teams in the NBA and that has led to some uninspiring wins.
Against the Phoenix Suns and New Orleans Pelicans, the Lakers went into the second half with large leads only to see them cut to single digits late in the game. They ultimately won both matchups, but it is worrying to see Los Angeles allow other teams to come back on them after dominating the first few quarters.
In their most recent win against the Detroit Pistons, the Lakers took an early lead behind their defense but later found themselves in a back-and-forth struggle as the Pistons never gave up.
LeBron James discussed how he approaches opponents clawing their way back into contests and reflected on the win against Detroit.
“Listen, you just try to execute every possession. Every possession is its own game, offensively and defensively. You don’t never get… I don’t get too high or too low. You get excited about plays, you get down sometimes on certain plays when you know you made a mistake but I always stay even-keeled with the game and wait until the zeroes and then assess the game from there,” James said.
“But I think we played a heck of a game. This team came in and they played extremely hard. They’re super well-coached and they did a heck of a job of taking us out of a lot of things that we wanted to do offensively and we just tried to do the same with them.”
James was stellar on the court, recording another triple-double and providing plenty of highlight plays that got the Staples Center crowd going. Despite the great performance, the Lakers proved once again just how vulnerable they are when James heads to the bench as both of their major runs came with him off the floor.
It is no secret the Lakers roster is flawed as they lack another scoring threat and playmaker off the bench to help buoy the offense when James takes his rest. Kyle Kuzma and Rajon Rondo are supposed to fill those roles but both have struggled and as a result, James has had to play more minutes.
Still, there is optimism given that the purple and gold can address those needs either via the trade or buyout markets. For now, pulling out wins and giving themselves cushion atop the standings should suffice as the 2019-20 NBA season wears on.