This season has not gone according to plan for the Lakers. Anthony Davis hasn’t been able to stay healthy, Russell Westbrook is having the worst stretch of his career, and LeBron James has been left to shoulder the burden of it all.
Still, the King is not ready to wave the white flag. With the Lakers 10th and just a few weeks away from the playoffs, James is more committed than ever to turning things around.
(per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin)
“To me, I found LeBron finding a beauty in the struggle of this season, finding a way to find love for this game despite the team’s struggles. Finding a way to find love for the game despite this team’s struggles. And guess what? He hasn’t given up on where this season can go. Based on what you saw with the big win in Toronto on Friday, he could have sat out on Saturday but it was important to him to come back and show he’s still committed to what this team can accomplish with the time that’s left in the year.”
By all accounts, the team’s morale is at an all-time low. They came into the season with big expectations and have fallen short of them all.
James, in the best year of his career so far, is seemingly immune to that state of mind. After Friday’s win over Toronto, he shed some light on his mentality.
“We followed the instructions from our coaching staff, we said if we could get him on the sideline, we wanna try to trap them first, see if we could force a turnover,” said LeBron. “We were able to trap Precious over there on the sidelines, Russ got the steal and went down. Stepped on the line and then had the mind frame to put his foot back behind the line and knock that thing down with .4. It was big-time from him.”
James, 37, is having his best season in years. Through 53 games, he’s averaging 29.8 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 6.2 assists per game on 52% shooting.
With a 30-41 record, the Purple and Gold face a tough path ahead, and there’s no telling how they’ll make it out. But, with James, there is still hope of shocking the world.
