Yesterday, the Lakers won 117-112 at the Chase Center, the "home of the devil", but the victory was not enough,
The most important reason is:
LeBron James, shot 9 of 24 from the field, only scored 22 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists.
For James, the NBA's all-time scoring champion, who averaged 28.5 points, 9.0 boards and 7.2 assists in the career playoffs and 32.8 points, 12.2 boards and 9.2 assists in the Finals against the Warriors,
This must be considered a pull.
But an awkward fact is that
His last playoff 30+ was back on October 9, 2020, in Game 5 of the Finals, where he scored 40 points, 13 boards and 7 assists against Butler.
In the playoffs after that, neither against the Suns, Grizzlies, nor the Warriors scored 30 in the last game.
The 38-year-old James is no longer the "postseason James" and "all-out Zhan" who averages 30+10+10 per game.
But in this year's playoffs, the Lakers first cut the Grizzlies and then beat the Warriors on the road, and the team rarely suffered because of James' lack of firepower. On the one hand, the thighs of the team today are "thick eyebrows" Anthony Davis, and more importantly,
The clever LeBron, at the age of 38, is quietly changing his playing style and even his role on the court for his fifth championship.
People remember that the "all-round king" who has been playing for twenty years, from Duncan and KG to Curry and Durant, and now Evergreen, who has to face the challenges of Morant and Doncic, can no longer afford so much ball and shots on the court.
Since entering the playoffs,
James averaged 22.1 points per game (a career low),
18.7 moves (3rd lifetime number of defeats),
46.6% shooting percentage (fourth lowest in career),
The three-point shot fell to an exaggerated 18.4%,
Even when he was criticized for "not shooting from the middle and far range", his shooting was not so bad.
And some high-level data, it is even more exaggerated,
With 25.9% turnover, it ranks 24th in the league, on a level with the Clippers Highland, below Bane, Jaylen and Middleton.
With a shooting distance of 4.15 meters, the fourth longest in his career, he can no longer make it, or he needs to give up more interior space to his teammates.
His two-point range assists was 53.8 percent, up from a previous high of 41.2 percent.
It's already hard for him to create points by himself, but his teammates feed him bread.
Free throws accounted for 26.8%, a career low. "Shocking Kneeling" did not ask for a penalty for himself, and his ability to kill and injure opponents has seriously declined.
After all, the 38-year-old's body is not as good as that of 30 or even 35, and the rest of the regular season did not allow him to successfully "transform" in the playoffs.
The old man of time finally found him.
But the Lakers managed to reach the Western Conference semifinals and are currently leading the Golden State Warriors 1-0 on the road.
And amazingly,
Nowadays, I rarely hear voices questioning "James paddling" anymore.
In this playoffs, he has handed out 11 blocks, averaging 1.6 per game.
Grabbed 11.1 rebounds per game, a career high.
and averaging 3.1 turnovers per game, the second-fewest in his career.
With 6.9 disturbing shots per game, it ranks 10th among non-center players, higher than Leonard, Aaron Gordon, Adebayo and other defensive titans in our impression.
His commitment on the defensive end shocked almost everyone and made Coach Hamm dare to put him and Bushy Brow on the court for a long time playing the fourth and fifth positions.
The Lakers' interior line, which is composed of two, is the basis for the team's domination of both ends of the offensive and defensive ends.
On the offensive end, in addition to the "thigh" of thick eyebrows, the Lakers management also found "four calves" for LeBron.
DeAngelo Russell, a "pseudo-All-Star" who has been considered an overstatement in the NBA and cannot be looked down upon by the Timberwolves,
Austin Rivers, a village mamba who was initially thought to be unable to play the NBA at all, and the ceiling was a "Caruso stand-in",
Dennis Schroder, a small guard who had a failed marriage with the Lakers and was scolded for a whole season as "Hamgan's son",
Hachimura, a newcomer who was almost scrapped in four years with the Wizards, was completely squeezed out of living space by Kuzma, who is also a Lakers production.
These four "online rotation groups" that have been unfavored by most people for an entire season, but when the playoffs arrived, replacing LeBron became the "engine group" of the Lakers' overall offense.
They gained offensive dominance that neither Wade, Bosh, nor Love nor Irving cut out of LeBron, and for most of today's Lakers,
They are no longer the so-called "four-shots" around LeBron, but can complete the blocking and launching (top three) and the misalignment of the ball attack (especially Hachimura).
Take this ball against the Warriors in the first half as an example, in LeBron's heyday, Schroder's most correct choice after dribbling the ball was to give the ball to LeBron, and he decided whether to have a Thunder dunk or a flower job.
And now LeBron has only attracted the attention of Peyton, the most defensive among the Warriors' guards, and let Schroder force Poole to cause a foul.
And the all-time scoring champion even stuck Peyton Jr. behind him like a blue-collar collar and prepared to storm the rebound.
Today's James can watch Russell confidently arc a three-point shot, Rivers hit the box to fight free throws, and Hachimura plays a mid-range singles that should be enjoyed only by superstars.
These are supposed to be things he should do in the playoffs, he should have the rights, but now he will not hesitate to give young people opportunities, and even willing to build a wall for them.
You can say that he is old and cannot be moved,
It can also be said that he looked away, because the back wave pushed the front wave,
Or it can be said that "Coach Cephalosporin" is too good at thinking work, not only to persuade Young Master Wei to substitute, but also to make James serve the team like a large blue-collar worker.
Today's James, for most of the time on the court,
On the offensive end, like Jason Kidd in 2011, is responsible for plating the plates and directing traffic,
On the defensive end, like Scotty Pippen in the post-Triple Crown era, assist in defensive filling, check and fill gaps, even if it is not Michael Jordan next to him.
The most powerful and helpless thing about this is that you don't know when the Lakers won't play this set, and they have returned to the 20-championship mode dominated by James, and James has become the omnipotent "playoff Jen" and "all-out Jen".
Maybe never come back,
Maybe it's in the next one,
After all
Throughout the 2021-22 season, the Golden State Warriors, who ranked first in defense in the league and won the championship, scored the highest score by opponents in a single game, which was still the old man's 56 points
(On March 7, 2022, LeBron James shot 19-of-31 against the Golden State Warriors, scoring 56 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists.) ）
For the championship, let alone Pippen, James is even willing to be Rodman!