Lakers: Unpacking A LeBron James Block Party
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With three Lakers now ruled out with COVID-19 ahead of the Los Angeles's contest tonight against the Mavericks in Dallas, and the perennially-injured Trevor Ariza and Kendrick Nunn still injured, it will fall to the LA's Big Three of LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, and a returning Anthony Davis to bear the brunt of the load on both sides of the ball.
Though the Lakers have been inconsistent this season en route to a mediocre 15-13 record, one undeniable reality has emerged about this team: LeBron James is still the man.
Russell Westbrook knew when joining LA over the summer that he would need to modify his game to defer to King James. What's really been surprising has been the somewhat lackluster play of Davis, who has notably been settling for jumpers and seems to have lost a bit of the mobility and assertiveness that made him so lethal as recently as two seasons ago. When the now-28-year-old Davis teamed up with the now-36-year-old James in the summer of 2019, it seemed that there would be a passing of the torch, that AD would replace LBJ in the team's pecking order at some point.
But that point sure isn't now, despite James playing in his 19th NBA season. Just this week, James was named the Western Conference Player Of The Week, boasting averages of 28.3 points, 8 assists, and 7.5 rebounds per game, while shooting 60.8% overall from the floor, including a stellar 41.7% from three-point range. LA went 3-1 in that span.
In his most recent game, a 30-point, 11-rebound, 10-point triple-double masterpiece against the Orlando Magic in a 106-94 win on Sunday, nothing stood out more than the 6'9" veteran's continually impressive athleticism in getting three awesome blocks. These weren't just run-of-the-mill swats. Two were his signature chase-down classics, and one was a "get-the-hell-out-of-here" denial that broke the heart of Magic power forward Chuma Okeke.
Let's take a look at what I'm going to go ahead and call the LeBlock-A-Thon.
The first block was an epic chase-down near the top of the second quarter, with the Magic leading 27-22, a swat of an R.J. Hampton layup attempt so nice that LeBron channeled Dikembe Mutombo with a cheeky finger wag:
The second block (captured in Rob Perez's second post in the thread below) happened with 5:26 left in the third quarter and the Lakers comfortably leading 72-56. This was the soul-crushing swat, as James got in front of Chuma Okeke on a driving layup look:
Finally, just a minute and a half later (with 3:53 left in the same frame), James offered up another come-from-behind chase-down block, this time against the Magic's best player, Most Improved Player candidate Cole Anthony. The poor point guard was no match for LeBron on this night:
My goodness. And the haters call this man a #WashedKing? I think not.
James remains a top-ten (maybe top-five?) NBA talent. The rest of this current Lakers roster could use some work, but let's just never doubt this guy ever again.
