LeBron James had his fingerprints all over the game as his Lakers were in full battle against the Nuggets down the stretch of the fourth quarter. He was scoring, defending Nikola Jokic, and making all the big plays throughout the game.
Of course, he also did some flopping when it mattered and was able to draw a pretty questionable foul on Jokic early in the fourth quarter.
LeBron 😅 pic.twitter.com/SA4YVSdJTN
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) May 19, 2023
There may have been some initial contact on James’ face, but there’s no doubt that the King did a little acting on the play there and fans had a lot of fun tearing him to shreds for it.
Next time LeBron complains or talks about not flopping pic.twitter.com/ZriES94dfj
— Kory Waldron (@FullAccessHoops) May 19, 2023
I’m so tired of all this flopping around. I wish the NBA would add fines to this nonsense. It looks ridiculous.
— Jay H. McCabe (@JayMcCabe) May 19, 2023
Flopped and bricked a 3 right after, and missed a wide open dunk. Senior home.
— 🗿 (@brotherbasco) May 19, 2023
Considering this is the Western Conference Finals, nobody should blame LeBron for doing whatever he can to give his team the edge, but his theatrics didn’t appear to work too well in the second half. Besides that play, James struggled in the fourth quarter and missed many shots that could have changed the game.
Nevertheless, the Lakers still had a chance to win this game and it’s clear that this series will be competitive for however much longer that it lasts.
Can Lakers Still Win This Series?
With L.A. down 0-2 against the Nuggets, this is not an ideal situation for LeBron and company. With Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Jr. showing their best, it proves that the Nuggets can go toe-to-toe against the Lakers at full power.
But if LA wants to win the series, they’ll need to find a way to contain Jamal Murray, who went off in the second half to almost single-handedly put the Lakers away.
“I know the game is won in 48 minutes but they set the tone in the first 24 minutes and we were playing catch up for the next 24,” James said after Game 1. “We have to play better, we have to rebound better. I thought we did a good job of not turning the ball over and that’s one thing we’ve been very conscious about in the postseason but we’ve been better in transition, tonight we weren’t that great.”
This series is already looking like one of the best of the playoffs so far and you can bet there will be some major adjustments for Game 3 in Crypto.com arena.
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