James, who seems to be on his way to yet another MVP season, has looked nearly unstoppable recently. But former Laker Robert Horry, who is the proud owner of seven NBA championships of his own, thinks that the Laker teams he was on from 2000-02 would have had some success containing LeBron, and ultimately could have defeated him.
“Everyone thinks that one person can stop a player. It’s a team that gets stops. I think all the teams I’ve played on we had great defensive schemes. We didn’t let one player beat us. Plus, you got a shot blocker playing back there, and I played with three of them, that’s going to deter a lot of things from going to the whole. We would have contained him. He may have got his, but we would have won in the end.
Horry was a catalyst on the Laker team that won three consecutive championships, and was one of their key defensive stoppers. Whether or not the Lakers would have been able to slow down James is obviously something we’ll never get the chance to see, but Horry seemed very confident in the team’s ability to slow down James enough to allow the Lakers to defeat the Heat.
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Next, Horry was asked if the Lakers could turn things around in the second half of the season.
“Man, it’s past the second half of the season.”
Well, that’s not a good start. But still, can they turn things around?
“They’re going to have to win out to make the playoffs and hope everyone in front of them is losing. I hate to see this happening, because I do Lakers TV and I have to say something positive, but I’m running out of positive things to say.”
Harsh, but accurate words from Horry. With just 28 games remaining the Lakers are running out of time and excuses to turn things around. With Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant participating in this weekend’s All-Star festivities, there won’t be a lot of downtime during the break, either.