I’m trying to figure out how much blame LeBron James should get for this Los Angeles Lakers season. While I don’t think they where going to be a championship team just by signing him. I’m not sure how much he helped their cause this season.
It seems pretty clear that James doesn’t enjoy playing with young talent; so the Lakers brought in some veteran on one year deals to play with James. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was re-signed. While veterans Rajon Rondo, Lance Stevenson and JaVale McGee where signed to one year deals. The Lakers also added Tyson Chandler after he was waived by the Phoenix Suns. This may not of been the best group of players to sign, but James had won a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers with players similar to this group.
The issue may not have been bringing in veteran players, but the Lakers had some young players that appear like they had good futures ahead of them, but these signings made it tougher for them to get minutes.
Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball should’ve been allowed to develop alongside of James this season, but have had to share time with the veterans that James prefers to play with. To be fair Ball has been injured and has played in just 47 games this season. Kuzma is dealing with a mild ankle sprain that will cost him about a week, but he has played in 60 games this season. Ingram is listed as day to day with a shoulder injury and did sit out Monday nights loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. Ingram has appeared in 52 games this season.
I’m not sure how much of an affect this had on these three young players, but it was made perfectly clear by James that he was willing to have the team deal all three of them to acquire Anthony Davis. It seems like the trade talks with the New Orleans Pelicans for Davis had some affect on the Lakers and James did nothing to stem the tide of that happening. You would’ve thought a leader like James should be would’ve stepped in and spoke with the young players, but he seemed more intent about complaining in his interviews about the younger players even though he didn’t use their names.
James is clearly one of the best players to ever play the game, but it might be time to start questioning what kind of a leader he actually is. It may seem like a daunting task, but the Lakers are just 5 1/2 games out of the 8th spot in the Western Conference.
The Lakers have 18 games left this season, but the start to get into the playoffs isn’t going to be easy. Tonight they play the Denver Nuggets, but at least it’s a home game. The Lakers next game after tonight is another home game, but this one is against the Boston Celtics Saturday night. After these two home games the Lakers head out on a five game road trip; so the path to the playoffs isn’t going to be an easy one for them.
So do you think that the Lakers will make the playoffs? With the way the Lakers season has gone. How much Blame should James get for it?
I believe the Boston Celtics where 7 point underdogs going into last nights game against the Golden State Warriors. It seemed like that line made sense. The Celtics where 38-26 coming into the game and holding down the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference. They where also traveling across the country for this game and Boston had lost five of their last six games.
Golden State had some issues coming into this game at well, but being at home you can understand why they where the favorite. Golden State was 44-19 coming into last nights game and they had moved in the top spot in the Western Conference. After winning 16 of 17 games the Warriors have went 3-4 in their last 7 games. They where coming off of a win last Saturday night against the Philadelphia 76ers.
With everything set up for the game it looked like it might be a close contest that Golden State would end up winning. Well what actually happened? The Celtics ended up blowing out the Warriors by 33 points 128-95.
Gordon Hayward had what may of been his best game in a Celtics uniform. Heyward came off the bench to score a game high 30 points. Hayward went 12 of 16 from the floor going 4 of 6 from behind the 3-point line. Hayward also grabbed a team high 7 rebounds. Four other Celtics scored in double figures. Kyrie Irving had a double-double scoring 19 points and handing out 11 assists. Jaylen Brown had 18 points, Jayson Tatum had 17 points and Marcus Morris added 10 points.
Steph Curry led the Warriors with 23 points, but only two other Warriors reached double figures in points. Kevin Durant scored 18 points, but had a rough shooting night. Durant went 5 of 16 from the field and missed all 5 of the 3-point shots he took. DeMarcus Cousins was in the Warriors starting line up last night. Cousins scored 10 points and grabbed a game high 9 rebounds. Draymond Green led the Warriors in assists with 5.
Golden State played without Klay Thompson for the second consecutive game with a knee injury. Shaun Livingston was also held out of last nights game against the Celtics due to neck spasms.
The Warriors have a 1 1/2 game lead over the Denver Nuggets for the #1 seed in the Western Conference, but Golden State doesn’t seem to be as dominant as they have been the last few seasons.
Now the Warriors have been to the playoffs the last six seasons and have been all the way to the NBA Finals the last four seasons winning three of those. That’s a lot of extra games for a team to have to play even with the extra days off that have been added to the schedule. Are these extra games finally catching up to the Warriors? Or come playoff time will Golden State be able to find there groove and make it to another NBA Finals and win the title?
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