At one point during overtime of the Los Angeles Lakers’ Game 4 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies, a clearly exhausted LeBron James dribbled up the court before calling a timeout. It was a much-needed break as players from both teams were running on fumes after logging heavy minutes in an extremely intense, back-and-forth playoff contest.
After getting that quick break the Lakers would eventually get a huge tip-in from Anthony Davis before LeBron iced the game with a three-point play, finishing the layup through contact from Dillon Brooks. The win gave the Lakers a commanding 3-1 series lead as the teams now head to Memphis for Game 5 on Wednesday.
Once again, James continued to defy what a player in his 20th NBA season is capable of doing, even when exhausted late in the game. When asked how he deals with the exhaustion late in games, James gave an answer that should motivate many.
“Just dig deep and understand that you’ll be able to sleep at some point, just not right now,” LeBron said after the contest. “This is not the time to rest or forget about an assignment. You have more than enough time after the game the next day to kind of rest and try to decompress as much as possible, so I just dig deep and just try to make plays.”
It is that heart and desire to just keep pushing through that sets the example for the rest of the team. If LeBron is still out there taking charges and battling for rebounds, there is no excuse for anyone else on the court not to do the same. And in Game 4, the Lakers were able to dig just a little deeper than Memphis.
As James noted, the Lakers were able to get a little rest that night and the next day, but in the playoffs, you just can’t slack off on any possession. The end result was the Lakers putting themselves in a position to advance to the next round of the playoffs if they can just get one more win.
Lakers’ LeBron James admits to being impressed with 20-20 game
At this point, James has done just about everything there is to do on a basketball court. But a 20-point, 20-rebound game was something he didn’t have on his resume until Monday’s Game 4 victory for the Lakers. And LeBron wasn’t even sure how he did it but knew he had to attack the glass against a great rebounding team in the Grizzlies.
“I don’t know where I found the legs, honestly,” LeBron said. “But understanding how great of a rebounding team they are it’s very important that we try to try to clean the glass when they miss. And we still gave up 16 offensive rebounds for 24 second-chance points. So we still got to do a better job of that, but just trying to do my part.”
James would then admit that it’s a pretty cool accomplishment. “When my teammates told me I had 20 and 20, I had no idea that I had 20 and 20,” the Lakers star added. “The first time I’ve done it in my career. I’ve done some pretty good, cool things in my career. I’ve never had 20 and 20 before. So that’s pretty cool, I guess.”
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