They’re doing much more than surviving, winning the first two games of their first-round matchup and leaving the Rockets looking overmatched and shell-shocked heading into Game 3 in Houston on Friday. There are many reasons for this: Kevin Durant missed Game 1 and the Lakers harangued him into committing nine turnovers in Game 2; Luke Kennard, Rui Hachimura and Marcus Smart shot a combined 19 of 33 (57.6%) from 3-point range in two games; Deandre Ayton limited Alperen Şengün to just 5 of 19 shots when paired; etc
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But one of the greatest? It turns out LeBron James still knows how to take the reins of a playoff series and, even at 41, make sure it gets played. his terms and in his passed.
“We all have to get back to our game,” James told reporters after the Lakers’ 101-94 Game 2 victory. “When you have two big guys like us, we all have to pick up our game. And that’s what it’s all about. We’re all just trying to contribute, make contributions in all facets of the game, pick up our game.”
One way LeBron has been picking up his? By destination above.
As my colleague Tom Haberstroh pointed out on this week’s episode of The Big Number, in two Lakers-Rockets games, James has finished 16 possessions outside the post, either with a shot attempt or a committed foul. According to Synergy Sports tracking data, that not only means more post-ups than any other player (no one else even has double digits); It’s more than all the non-Lakers equipment in the postseason field.
Left block, right block or on nail; Josh Okogie, Tari Eason, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr. or Aaron Holiday; backing them to the rim, throwing a pass to a cutting big man, or rolling over either shoulder for that patented baseline jumper. LeBron is taking advantage of every tool in his toolbox (I guess “every stick in the bag” is more appropriate these days) looking for ways to compromise the Rockets’ defense, draw attention away from players like Kennard, Smart, Hachimura, Ayton and Jaxson Hayes, and create advantages that allow the Lakers to play on their terms instead of Houston’s.
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Including plays where he passed to a teammate who shot the ball, the Lakers are scoring 1,053 points per possession in these post-ups, according to Synergy. That’s not elite efficiency; He would have ranked 39th among 76 players who recorded at least 50 post possessions during the regular season, between Jalen Johnson and Day’Ron Sharpe. However, considering the Rockets gave up 0.94 points per possession on post-ups and 0.99 points per possession on post-up passes during the regular season, that’s not bad at all. Especially considering that a Lakers team that has struggled with ball security without Dončić and Reaves (a 19.3% turnover rate through two games, third-worst in the playoff field, including 21 coughs of the most damaging live-ball variety) hasn’t lost it. once in those LeBron post-ups, shooting on goal or committing a foul every time.
(Adam Pantozzi)
Thanks in part to those methodical trips to the low post, the Lakers have the slowest average time to shoot on offense (14.6 seconds, more than 60% of the shot clock) in the postseason, per Inpredictable, and have slowed the pace of their series to 91.8 possessions per 48 minutes, the slowest series in Round 1 so far. Several series in recent years have operated at a slower pace, mostly with teams that were already playing at a snail’s pace (Joe Mazzulla’s Celtics, Tom Thibodeau’s Knicks), were revolving around a low-post monster (Nikola Jokić, Joel Embiid) and/or entered the series as underdogs and were adopting the underdog strategy of trying to suck the air out of the ball by limiting the number of possessions. offensives of their favorite opponents. had, and with it its ability to build and extend an advantage.
The current iteration of the Lakers checks all three boxes: 22nd in pace during the regular season, built around the post game that LeBron has worked tirelessly to perfect over the past 15 years, and an underdog heading into the series due to the absence of two of their three best offensive weapons. Given that, we probably shouldn’t be surprised that James approached the start of the series by hitting the brakes and dragging the play into the post. After all, he’s been here before.
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I don’t just mean that in a general and metaphorical way, in the sense that over 23 NBA seasons and more than 1,900 games, he has seen almost every scenario and situation a player can experience in this league. I mean, specifically, he’s had to figure out how to get by in a playoff series against a favored opponent who is younger, longer, more athletic and without his two best teammates.
LeBron James is turning back time
Go back, so to speak, to the distant June of 2015. “Mad Max: Fury Road” was blowing up at the multiplexes. People really liked Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again,” in part because of its inclusion in “Furious 7,” which surprised multiplexes. There was a huge corruption scandal at FIFA, which I realize doesn’t limit things much, but stay with me. And LeBron was nearing the end of his first season in Cleveland, where he teamed up with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love on a Cavaliers team that won 53 games and went 12-2 in the East playoffs en route to an NBA Finals showdown with the upstart Golden State Warriors.
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Along the way, however, the Cavs lost Love to a dislocated shoulder against the Celtics, and then lost Irving to a fractured left kneecap in overtime of Game 1 in Oakland. The Cavs’ other four starters for the remainder of that Finals series: Timofey Mozgov, Tristan Thompson, Iman Shumpert and Matthew Dellavedova.
Playing without another shot creator, with two plodding, grinding big men and two 3-point shooters who were only slightly good, James surveyed the scene and saw only one potentially feasible path to victory against a Warriors team that had more talent, depth, shooting and speed across the board. The goal: Prevent Golden State from running the game at a glacial pace by hunting for mismatches and bulldozing all the way to the post, where it could dominate the Warriors’ smaller defenders, draw defensive attention and set up shooters and cutters, or simply create opportunities for Thompson and Mozgov to create second chances.
It worked…
…at least for a while.
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However, the Cavs forced the Warriors to play at their pace; Those six games averaged just over 93 possessions per 48 minutes, which is slower than the NBA’s slowest team has played in each of the last nine seasons. And they did it, in part, thanks to James’ control of the game from below. In that series, including possessions in which he moved from the low block to a teammate who shot the ball, he averaged 9.8 post-ups per game, according to Synergy. (In two games against Houston: 9.5 such possessions per game).
Both teams scored fewer than 100 points in the next two games of that series (both Cavs won) before the Warriors adjusted their plan of attack, changed their starting lineup for Game 4, and reeled off three straight wins to win the first title of what would be a dynastic run.
It’s possible the Rockets could also wrest control of the series from LeBron as the scene returns to Houston. However, there are some notable differences. For one, these Rockets (obviously) don’t have the same type of shooting and offensive firepower as those Warriors, or a supply of high-end two-way players capable of punishing Los Angeles on both ends of the floor. On the other hand, LeBron could receive some reinforcements before long.
However, wherever the series goes from here, the Lakers (midway to four wins, with home-field advantage still intact) enter Game 3 firmly in control, due in large part to James still being able to set the terms of engagement after all these years. May the fucking never stop.