If anyone still thought LeBron James was the greatest basketball player of all time, last night should have slammed the door closed on that argument for good. In a must-win scenario in the NBA’s Play-In tournament, the King almost cost the Lakers the seventh seed and nearly single-handedly handed the Minnesota Timberwolves the game despite being on the road and without two starters, Ruby Gobert and Jaden McDaniels. While the mainstream media platforms will continue to push the narrative that LeBron James had anything to do with the Lakers coming out victorious last night, they would have been better off without him, at least for the fourth quarter and overtime periods.
While the headlines this morning all read, “LeBron drops 30-point double-double and plays season-high 45 minutes at 38 years of age, leading the Lakers to an overtime win over the Timberwolves”, they should be highlighting just how abysmal the King was down the stretch. In the fourth quarter and overtime, James had as many turnovers as he did points, also committing two fouls late that awarded free throws to the Wolves. In a recent report that he led all NBA players in media searches, the league could not afford to shed a negative light on their most popular star.
If the largest sports media sites in the world were more truthful than click-chasing, they’d post headlines along the lines of how James almost cost his team the seventh seed in the Western Conference and should have conceded to his teammates down the stretch. While many argue his attrition is impressive, the counterargument can be made that he should be taking a lesser role for the sake of the team’s success.
James was a respectable 12-for-21 from the field with 30 points, but when you look beyond the scoring, everything else was sub-par and certainly not All-Star caliber as expected and projected by the masses. He only had six assists, countered by five turnovers, which is horrendous for a player known for his playmaking.
His five fouls led the team and hindered them down the stretch. His team-low -14 plus/minus shows that more time on the sidelines and fewer minutes for an exhausted version of himself would benefit himself and the Los Angeles Lakers, but mainstream media won’t cast that truth. Skip Bayless may occasionally have some outrageous opinions, but this morning he was spot-on with his assessment of the King’s performance.
Interestingly enough, LeBron James and the Lakers will face the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round. As one of the league’s youngest and most exciting teams, the Grizzlies draw huge crowds of attention and are plastered on social media whenever they play. With controversial players like Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks, headlines write themselves in Memphis. Rewinding a few months, things have been chippy between these two teams for months, and the storylines will only skyrocket throughout this best-of-seven series.
Last night’s game featured a 17-to-3 free throw disparity in the second half and overtime periods. Even so, that number would have been 17-to-0 if it weren’t for an Anthony Davis foul with 0.1 seconds left in regulation, giving Minnesota their first free throw attempts since the second quarter. The massive difference in free throws surely fueled the Lakers’ second-half run and capped the 11-point comeback in the final two quarters. This isn’t the first time the free throw discrepancies in favor of the Lakers have been questioned; as seen below, it’s been head-scratching all season long.
LeBron’s playoff run will soon be over, as his Los Angeles Lakers are simply overmatched and not suited to compete with the gauntlet that the Western Conference presents. It’ll be an interesting storyline to watch, as ever since the King was in danger of missing the postseason, things have strangely shifted in his favor. Still, ultimately more embarrassing performances from him in the clutch similar to last night’s will land him and the Lakers on a fast track to the couch.
