Lebron James is far from his usual self. The injury still has an effect on him and limits his speed, and especially his jump. But even tho he can’t be as aggressive, the king is the ultimate mastermind so he wins games for the Lakers with his phenomenal passing and controlling the tempo of the offense.
Let me show you how James creates the easiest points for his teammates. What up everybody, my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it.
On this pick and roll on the wing, look at all the attention towards him. Lebron patiently gets out of the screen, goes to Ayton, to get him committed and away from the paint. So then, the quick bounce pass to Davis who sneaked in the paint, and you can see Crowder and CP are no match for his size and he lays it in.
Early offense right here, Drummond sets the high screen, but Craig gets out of it to stay in front of Lebron. James doesn’t like that so he calls for the re-screen. This bump is enough to get Torey behind him, so you see the 2 on 1 right here, he raises up and lobs it for the Drummond dunk.
And watch the big man as well in this situation. As Lebron and AD are executing this 2 man game up top, Lebron gets the driving space on the right side, and Drummond sneaks along the baseline to the other side so as James attracts 1, 2, 3 defenders on him, he finds flips it to Andre, and with smaller defenders on him he’s able to score of course.
But then check out some of these plays where the King is literally operating like a quarterback from the pocket, just watching the entire floor, and hunting for that small opportunity, that window for a pass, and when he sees it- boom throws a bullet right on the money for the easy layup.
Caruso is often the recipient of these, so he expects them and even looks for his opportunities. Right here he notices the wide open lane with all the attention on James, cuts inside and you got an overhead rifle pass on target for an uncontested layup.
In a tough playoff series, what more can you wish for?
In transition, patiently waiting, watching this thing develop, and all of a sudden you got Davis flying across the court, the defense makes a mistake, and James uses this small window to find AD under the basket for yet another easy score.
But watch his IQ in this situation. In transition, this is far from going full speed, James surveys the floor and look at how he’s gonna use the 2 big men running inside as a screen in a way, so he crosses to the left, and you can already see Ayton is inadvertently the screener here.
And once James gets to this area, Bridges has no chance of contesting this, and it’s a layup for Lebron.
The fact that the Lakers were able to get this many easy opportunities in game 3 is crazy, and even crazier is the fact that Lebron is doing all of this even while playing at a reduced capacity.
And he said that himself.
As James is recovering towards 100%, it sure is nice to be able to do that while getting a win and leading the series. Game 4 is Sunday, and an opportunity for the Lakers to take a commanding 3-1 lead against the Suns. Let’s see what happens.
That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.
