In the career of LeBron James, he’s never been swept in the second round of a playoff series. He’s been swept three times in the past, twice in the NBA finals, 2007 by the San Antonio Spurs, 2018 by the Golden State Warriors, and 2023 by the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals.
Many sports analysts and Michael Jordan fans will say this is another stain on James’ legacy when it comes to the GOAT debate. The question that won’t get asked or come up is did Jordan have to worry about the Bulls organization drafting or signing free agents that would be a good fit for the team once they started winning championships?
If the answer to that question was ‘no’, you’re absolutely correct. James started his career in Cleveland, dealing with an organization that didn’t sign free agents or draft players that would make the team competitive to get them over the hump to win a championship during LeBron’s first stint in Cleveland. If things end up going the way they are looking once they play the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night, it can definitely be said that the Los Angeles Lakers have wasted the final years of James’ career. The Lakers’ inability to draft or recruit free agents to play for the purple and gold has been a total travesty.
The Buss family sold the team, and general manager Rob Pelinka’s inability to draft or recruit free agents to the team is the reason why the Lakers are down 3-0 to the Oklahoma City Thunder. James, playing in season 23, has been better than some of the NBA’s best players this season.
The Lakers wanted to get young, which was the reason they brought Luka Doncic to the team, but he hasn’t been any more healthy than Anthony Davis and shrinks in crunch time looking for someone else to bail him out. The experiment of making Austin Reeves the No. 2 scorer of the team has shown that he isn’t ready for the bright lights, because he is more concerned with scoring than getting the others on the team involved when his shot isn’t falling.
The Lakers have led in the first half of all three of the Oklahoma City Thunder games to walk away with double-digit losses when the game is over. The Lakers’ depth is no comparison to OKC, and it’s night and day. The Thunder team can go 10 deep in rotation, while one of their main contributors, Jalen Williams, is out due to a grade 1 hamstring injury, has yet to play, and OKC continues to beat teams without breaking a sweat.
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Lakers Head Coach JJ Reddick is trying to find a lineup that can sustain OKC’s suffocating defense that has the Lakers turning the ball over in the third quarter, but their inability to score points isn’t much help that would lead to the Lakers winning a game in this series. The Lakers’ bench has scored 32 points, compared to 85 points for the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Lakers’ centers are getting pushed around and forgetting their assignments on the defensive end of the court.
Pelinka thought DeAndre Ayton and Jaxson Hayes would be the answer to protect the rim, but he was sadly mistaken. I hate to say this, but Dwight Howard would have given them more than what we’re seeing against Oklahoma City. The Lakers will need to find some answers to win Game 4 in this series. We will see if the players have any pride about the name on the front of the jersey and what they are playing for or if they have already packed it in to go on vacation.