What makes Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James truly one of the greatest players to ever step foot on an NBA floor is his versatility. There is nothing on the court that he can’t do, and he is able to control and dominate a game in a number of different ways.
Oftentimes, this has meant that he needs to have the ball in his hands every possession and orchestrate everything, but that hasn’t been the case since returning to the Lakers following his injury. LeBron has been able to ease his way in, sometimes scoring, sometimes facilitating, but always making an impact.
And James chalks that up to this Lakers roster, noting that each game is different and he can zero in on what the team might need that night and make that his focus. In the victory over the Houstin Rockets, it was more about facilitating, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“For me, each game can be different. If my scoring is needed then I can look to score more. Tonight, I felt like it was more of a facilitating game, especially with DLo being out in the second half, but we got it going early. My guys was running the floor, they was making big time shots, I wanted to find AD early and often. So I kind of focused my game on just getting guys available, getting guys passes on time, on target, try to rebound out of position, make a couple buckets as well, but definitely was a facilitating game for me just reading the game the right way.”
With both Anthony Davis and Rui Hachimura having excellent offensive games, LeBron could simply work on getting them the ball to keep that rhythm going. But if the team is having an off-night offensively, he still has the ability to take over scoring-wise as well.
In the end, however, the goal remains the same for the Lakers and that is to compete for and win an NBA Championship. The team believes they can compete with anyone right now and James loves the chemistry that is forming with this group:
“We just want to put ourselves in position to be able to compete for a championship. But it’s a journey and obviously we don’t have as much chemistry as a lot of other teams that’s trying to compete for a championship or have aspirations to win a championship. But I like what we’ve been building over the last month or so. Even when I was out for the four weeks, I liked what we we were building and happy to be back in the mix, and we’re still building. These last few games, four I believe? Yeah, four games are very important for our team. Not only wins and losses, but like the chemistry side of it as well. We want to continue to build what we’ve been building over the last month or so. So we’ll see what happens.”
The Lakers are right in the thick of the playoff race and are playing their best basketball of the year at the right time. If they can continue to build that chemistry and come together, no one will want to face them come playoff time.
Lakers currently tied for seventh seed in Western Conference Playoffs
The Lakers have now won three straight game and six of their last seven which has them in prime playoff position. The team currently is tied for seventh in the conference with the New Orleans Pelicans, but are just a half game behind both the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers.
All four teams have 38 losses so every single game is absolutely crucial to these standings. And with the Lakers and Clippers set for a showdown on Wednesday night, it will be a must-watch contest.
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