It is now all up to LeBron James and the rest of available Los Angeles Lakers.
The team has been hit with one devastating injury after another just as a promising season was beginning to unfold. The Lakers made it up to the third-seed in the Western Conference behind a steady diet of Luka Doncic’s gargantuan scoring and Austin Reaves’ expertise as the second-fiddle.
Doncic and Reaves incurred a pair of soft-tissue strain in L.A.’s 43-point beatdown at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder last Thursday. The Lakers were not only crushed on the court, but also crushed in spirit watching their two best scorers go down.
So where does that leave them?
In the hands of the 41-year-old James, the timeless wonder himself. Is he up for the tall task?
GettyLeBron James recorded a 30-point, 15-assist night in Dallas on Sunday night.
James has already made even the height of tall challenges look easy in his 23 years. Heck, just the other night in the first game after Doncic and Reaves’ injuries were announced, James logged a ballgami with a nearly 30-point triple-double.
The guy will be 42 in 267 days, by the way.
LeBron James opens up on first major roadblock of the season
Sticking to the topic of James and challenges, it started as difficult as it could possibly get this season.
James was coming off a Sciatica injury he dealt with the entire offseason. It delayed the start of his 23rd season and, when he returned to the court, much was asked of him in the sense of adjusting his role.
Everyone, even James, knew Doncic was the best player on the team and would be moving forward. James, ever the basketball savant, saw the growing connection on the court between Doncic and Reaves. He knew his insertion into the lineup would cause things to get hairy for a while, which is exactly what began happening.
The Lakers stumbled for a while as they tried to dissect a way to incorporate the four-time MVP into the offense. To James’ credit, he made it known that he was trying to do everything in his power to ensure L.A. was even better with him on the court. He even made sure to communicate that verbally to his team.
“I texted [Lakers coach] JJ [Redick], I texted one of our assistant coaches, and told them I want to talk to them, too, and I told them, ‘I will figure it out,’” James said on the “Mind the Game podcast.”
“I’m a winner, and I know what I can do for this ball club for us to win and for those guys to be the best that they can be … I guess I’m not an idiot.”
James wanted to avoid stepping on his teammates’ toes
Yes, it may seem easy to argue that James had to have done this anyway. After all, there is no justifiable way he could argue to take command of the team over his two star teammates who are nearly 15 years younger.
But James is a juggernaut on and off the court. He cares about his brand. He went 21 ½ seasons knowing the front office of the team he was on would do any and every thing possible to keep him happy and retain his services long-term. James was used to all of that, and seeing him sacrifice his role and making it known verbally and physically surely took some spunk.
James coming forward and informing his team that he would do anything asked of him to maximize himself while not disrupting the flow between Doncic and Reaves may have been the single biggest reason the Lakers took off midseason.
“When I was making my way back and coming back to the lineup,” James expressed, “I went to both [Doncic and Reaves] and said, ‘Listen, don’t worry about me on the floor. Whatever mindset y’all been in while I was not playing, just stay there. Be aggressive, y’all got the ball in your hands, I will figure it out, don’t confuse it.’”
That courage powered L.A. to a dominant stretch from mid-February to the end of March. Entering Thursday’s game in Oklahoma City, the Lakers won 16 of their last 18 games.
In wake of the injuries to Doncic and Reaves, James has another challenge: hit the undo button and be the old LeBron.
It took him some adjusting to get to his role as the third-option, so what approach will he take to go back to engineering the vintage “LeBron-centric” offense?
That’ll take some experimenting on the part of James and the Lakers coaching staff as the playoffs march closer.
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This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
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