If you came into Saturday night not having watched the Lakers play a single game all season, you might find yourself thinking: “Man, what’s all this talk about the Lakers stinking?” They didn’t even have Anthony Davis and they just beat the Warriors, the team with the second-best record in the league. LeBron James scored 56 points and can still clearly carry even a flawed team to victory.
What am I missing?
Well, for one, the Lakers don’t get to play the Warriors without Draymond Green every night. That’s not to take anything away from LeBron’s performance. He was magical. He’s the reason nobody can fully give up on the Lakers, who are a pretty putrid NBA team otherwise. But the Warriors without Green? Whew. They’re pretty hard to watch, too.
In Green’s absence, Golden State’s defense has become a train wreck over the last month. Since Feb. 1, Golden State has been a bottom-10 defensive unit surrendering over 115 points per 100 possessions, entering play on Saturday, when they gave up 124 to the Lakers. Prior to Green’s injury, they were the No. 1 defense in the league giving up 102.2 points per 100.
You can talk about Stephen Curry’s shooting struggles or Klay Thompson’s ongoing re-acclimation process, but Curry, by his own standards, hasn’t shot well all season, and Thompson hasn’t played most of the season. The reason the Warriors were so good in spite of these things was their defense. It won them games. A lot of them.
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Now they’re undersized and down probably the greatest defender of his generation, and they are gasping for air. They are 14-13 without Green. Following Saturday night’s loss, the Warriors currently sit half a game behind the Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference standings.
The Lakers got any shot they wanted on Saturday. They made almost 50 percent of their looks, including 18 3s at a 44-percent clip. They got into the paint at will. When they did miss, they hammered Golden State with offensive put-backs.
And again, of course, LeBron was smoking hot. He finished 19-for-31 from the field, including 6-for-11 from 3. He made 12 of his 13 free throw attempts. He added 10 rebounds in 39 minutes. He was aggressive getting downhill all night, particularly in transition and early offense with a head of steam. When he got near the rim, he took his time and overpowered the Warriors.
Per StatMuse, James is the first player in history to record a 50-point game before the age of 21 and after the age of 35.
There’s also this:
If you came for the highlights, here they are.
After the Lakers lost to Dallas on Tuesday, LeBron said: “We still have games to play. Until you stomp me out, cut my head off, bury me 12 feet under, then I got a chance. So that’s my confidence.” He has earned that confidence to think he can work miracles. It is games like Saturday night that reinforce the danger in counting him, and by extension the Lakers, out of anything prematurely.
Yes, the Lakers are four games back of the Clippers for the No. 8 seed, meaning they’ll almost certainly have to win two play-in games just to get the No. 8 seed, which would in turn likely mean a first-round rematch with the Suns, who eliminated L.A. last season. But the possibility of Davis coming back in the nick of time and LeBron, well, being LeBron is enough to give life to the slightest sliver of hope.
