Lakers: LeBron James Reveals the Key to LA's Success Moving Forward
LeBron James returned to the court for the Lakers on Saturday night, but it didn’t seem to change the Lakers fortunes. For the first half that is. The visiting New York Knicks took a 71-56 lead into halftime. LeBron and the Lakers looked disjointed on offense and lifeless on defense.
In the final two quarters, and overtime, the Lakers were a different team in the 122-115 win. LeBron believes the team’s turnaround came down to one thing.
“It’s all about taking accountability for your own actions to begin. If you want change, you got to look yourself in the mirror and demand more of yourself. That will trickle down to everyone else in the ball club.”
The Lakers held the Knicks to a 33.3% field-goal percentage and just 2-for-15 (13.3%) from three in the second half. Offensively, the Lakers committed just three turnovers and converted 47.7% of their field-goal attempts. They did cough up a nine-point lead to send the game to overtime, but sealed up a much needed win with an encouraging overtime performance.
LeBron finished with a triple-double: 29 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists. Not bad for an “old guy” nursing a knee injury.
LeBron also unintentionally quoted the motto of legendary New England Patriots coach Bill Belichik in his post-game interview.
“For everybody to come out and do their job. Go out, play offensively and defensively the way that coach and the coaching staff want us to play, we give ourselves the best chance to win. We did that tonight, [pauses] we did that in the second half.”
Half time adjustments are usually a cliché, but whatever was said in the Lakers locker room on Saturday night worked.
The 26-28 Lakers have plenty, plenty of work to do to elevate their playoff positioning. One dicey win doesn’t turnaround a season.
The good news is, for LeBron and the Lakers, there’s plenty of mirrors in the locker room.
