The Los Angeles Lakers improved their record to 12-8 to stay on pace to compete for the No. 6 seed in the West with a 105-104 win over the Utah Jazz tonight. LeBron James overcame a stretch of four games where he scored under 20 points with 27 points (12-28 FG) and 14 assists tonight. During his post-game interview, the forward reacted to his impact on the game on an off-shooting night.
“I just take what the defense gives me. Shot horribly from the perimeter tonight, but I had some great looks and they all felt good… I see a little bit of everything, one thing about me, if the shot is not going, I can still make plays and still make an impact on the game. I was able to do that, my teammates helped me out with a poor shooting night but I tried to make plays for them throughout the game.”
"One thing about me, if the shot is not going, I can still make plays and still make an impact on the game."@LakersReporter spoke postgame with LeBron James (27 PTS, 14 AST) about his performance and tonight's win. pic.twitter.com/CVjCDCmnDc
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) December 2, 2024
James ended the night with 27 points on 42.9% from the field, missing 16 field goals and going 0-9 from three. Despite that, James took the responsibility of being the point guard for the short-handed Lakers who were without both Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell tonight. His 14 assists really inflated the Lakers’ 23 assists on the night as a team.
He also had a game-clinching defensive possession where he blocked Collin Sexton’s shot to keep the Lakers’ lead intact.
LeBron slips, gets back up and blocks Sexton's shot.
Lakers walk away with a win on a WILD ending pic.twitter.com/n5pXoCeNfW
— Italo Santana (@BulletClubIta) December 2, 2024
This is the first season where we can conclusively say we’re seeing LeBron James go through a decline, averaging 22.6 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 9.4 assists. His scoring touch hasn’t been as prevalent as before, but he’s continuing to be one of the most impactful Lakers players through his playmaking.
Expecting James to consistently be a 25-point scorer had to catch up with a fanbase that’s seen him effortlessly do it for two decades. It’s a long season and James can easily bump his scoring averages back up to those levels, but it’s not as effective for the Lakers to rely on James as a pure scorer and tap into his playmaking more often, as they did in their title-winning 2020 season.
This wasn’t a pretty win for the Lakers, as one of the worst teams in the NBA pushed them to a last-possession situation and could have won it if their coach didn’t end up calling a timeout right before a game-winning bucket. A win is a win, so the Lakers will take the result and be happy with it regardless of the circumstances.
The team was very short-handed tonight and it’s becoming clear that they need to add reinforcements as soon as possible to not only reduce the scoring load on James but also give the roster better structure overall.
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