James vows to adjust his game
After coming up short at end against Miami, Lakers star working on a fix for his shorthanded team.
There’s a line of thinking that the most foolproof way for the Lakers to survive this stretch of games without starters Anthony Davis and Dennis Schroder is for LeBron James to save them in the way he’s redeemed undermanned teams throughout his career.
But at 36 and after the shortest offseason of his 18year career, questions about whether James should do it — or whether, under these circumstances, he still can — abound following a 96-94 loss to the Miami Heat on Saturday at Staples Center.
“Now it’s time for me to adjust again and see ways I can be even more effective to help this team win ballgames. Because that is the sport that we’re in,” James said on a videoconference. “We’re in the winning business, and I’ve always been a winner. So, it’s time to click into that.”
Against the Heat, James was incredibly aggressive offensively from the jump. He scored 15 points in the first half and helped inject life into the listless Lakers by pushing the tempo and playing with force.
It came with a cost. He was beaten off the dribble multiple times by 6-foot-11 center Kelly Olynyk, of all people, and in the second half, he was just two for nine from the field.
Although he scored only four points in the final two quarters, James still was a plus-14 in that span, but it was anybody but James taking the Lakers’ big shots down the stretch, except for when James launched a contested three-pointer that bounced off the side of the backboard.
Part of that equation was the Heat defense keying on James; another was the superstar’s shooting woes.
“LeBron is the best player on our team, and night in and night out you can see the attention he gets because he is,” reserve guard Alex Caruso said. “Like I said, with the guys that we got out, teams are going to load up against him.”
After James started the season shooting around 40%
from deep, his percentages have swung violently, falling below 20% in the last seven games. He was just one for eight against the Heat.
“The law of averages will even itself out,” James said. “And we [had] lapses last year. At one point we had it during the playoffs as well. We knew we were finding our rhythm, and we’ll do the same this year.”
James could’ve put the poor shooting and the quiet second half behind him with a game-winning shot after he and Caruso teamed up to force a steal off a Miami inbounds pass while trailing by two in the final seconds.
But an unexpected double team kept James from taking the final shot and put the ball in Caruso’s hands, with his shot — a two-pointer with his feet on the threepoint line — coming up short.
“The only bad thing about it is that he shot a long two,” James said. “I wish he would have shot a three, and make or miss, I’ll live with that.
“But other than that, it was a good look.”
Caruso said he was a little surprised the ball ended up
in has hands with a chance to tie or win.
“He made the right play with two guys on him,” Caruso said of James. “I was probably a little caught off guard because I was expecting them to stay with me and go one-on-one with LeBron, so I was a little late to get ready and then just shot the shot short.”
Deep thoughts
The Miami game was the sixth time in the last seven the Lakers shot less than 30% from three-point range, an almost unwinnable formula in the modern NBA. The Lakers also know they need to shoot from deep with more frequency.
Even though their percentage was sub-par, the Lakers took a season-high 45 three-point attempts. They missed 32 of 45 attempts yet they outscored the Heat by 15 from threepoint range.
“We’ve been hesitant, I feel, over the last few games,” coach Frank Vogel said after the loss.
The Heat’s inside-first defense contributed to the Lakers’ willingness to launch from long range, every
starter taking at least five threes.
Over the last seven games, the Lakers have been miserable from deep with only Marc Gasol (42.3%) and Wesley Matthews (37%) shooting well.
Seven other rotation players who shoot threes are under 30% during that stretch, including the remarkably cold Talen Horton-Tucker (8.3%), Caruso (18.2%) and James (19.6%).
TONIGHT
VS. WASHINGTON When: 7 On the air: Spectrum SportsNet, NBA TV; Radio: 710, 1330 Update: The Wizards (10-17) won their fourth consecutive game thanks to a secondhalf rally against the Trail Blazers on Saturday in Portland. Although All-Star guard Bradley Beal, the league leader in scoring at 32.9 points per game, and former most valuable player Russell Westbrook (19.3 points, 9.7 assists) are a formidable pair in the backcourt, Washington ranks in the bottom third of efficiency ratings — 22nd on offense and 25th on defense.