HIGHLY MOTIVATED
James, Lakers look to use regular-season setbacks as playoff fuel
If bitterness is fuel, LeBron James and the Lakers might be OK.
In the last few days, James has had plenty of it. It dripped out during his Sunday night postgame press conference as he dredged up old memories, after the Lakers had wrapped up a fifth straight win that ultimately meant little. It dripped out more on social media, when James finished his 17th consecutive season averaging 25 points or more: “And I’m a pass first guy. Always been. That’s why I’m never mentioned with the greats of scoring huh??”
James is most bitter of all about his injury
and the play that caused it. Atlanta’s Solomon Hill dove into his right ankle chasing a loose ball on March 20, sending the Lakers’ season and James’ own burgeoning MVP chances for a loop.
“I was playing some of the best basketball of my career before the injury and it was not — it wasn’t like a self-inflicted wound; it wasn’t something I could control,” he said Sunday. “Literally had a grown man diving at my leg for a loose ball and here’s the injury. You know, and so I had to pay the price of that.”
James can’t get the 26 games he missed, or the Lakers’ No. 2 spot in the Western Conference standings at the time, back. But he can take it out on the rest of the West this postseason — if his ankle holds up. And maybe all those “woulda, coulda, shouldas” are the motivation he and the defending champion Lakers need.
After all the years when basketball observers have spent wondering if King James’ time is running out, this season, that question has the most legitimacy. The best teams built around James have always sputtered when he’s not able to play among them.
That sense of wistfulness was the unspoken feeling as James waxed on about Steph Curry, his old rival, and why he should be the NBA’s MVP.
Aside from being the league scoring champion and knocking down a record 5.3 3-pointers per game, Curry helped lift a mediocre Golden State Warriors team into a top-eight finish: “If Steph is not on Golden State’s team, what are we looking at?”
The inference: Look what happened to the Lakers when I was out.
The Lakers were the No. 2 team in the Western standings behind the Utah Jazz on March 19, a distant memory. At the time, they had the fourth-best net rating in the NBA (plus 6.1) and were humming on a four-game winning streak out of the All-Star break. There was a clear sense of identity for the squad, which had found success even without All-Star big man Anthony Davis, and James’ buzz for his fifth league MVP award was building to the point that even he was willing to entertain it.
Said James the game before he was hurt: “It would mean an unbelievable thing for me, especially at this point in my career.”
Then, pow: Hill rolls into his ankle. Since March 20, the Lakers have dropped off in a big way offensively (106.8 offensive rating) and their net rating has flipped negative (minus-1.2). Defense kept them afloat, with a 14-17 record to finish the season. But it swayed them from what was expected to be another campaign with the Lakers near the top of the standings.
To the Lakers, it was telling that other teams above them in the standings (most notably the Clippers, who dropped their final two games) seemed to accept tanking games if it meant winding up farther away from the Lakers’ path in the playoff bracket. But Jared Dudley, who returned from an MCL tear himself only Sunday, said that strategy was the wrong kind of thinking.
“If I was another team, I would want to play us early,” he said. “I would want to play when LeBron James is coming off of an ankle injury. We’re trying to find our chemistry. You think that we’re going to be better later or better now? I mean, the more chemistry and the more games, the stronger we get.”
That’s the hope, anyway — that James and his teammates will develop the cohesiveness they need to win another championship the longer runway they get. But to get that chance at all, they’ll have to play their way out of the next game, or the one after that. Otherwise, the 2020-21 season will only be “what could have been.”
James took confidence in his burst on Sunday, which helped him drive home a handful of fast-break baskets. He wants the chance to see how much better his ankle can get a week from now, a month from now, maybe even a few series from now.
“Obviously we know we wanted to play a lot better this season, but the injuries took a toll on our team,” he said. “But we’re finally starting to get whole. We’re starting to feel a little bit better about our situation . ... It’s another challenge for me in the postseason. I’m looking forward to it.”