Los Angeles Lakers: 3 big questions following 2019 NBA All-Star break
1. Where is the sense of urgency from LeBron?
After suffering the first significant injury of his 15-year NBA career, many expected LeBron to return to the court as a man on a mission after the Lakers had slipped from a top spot in the playoff picture. They now face an uphill climb just to get the last spot available.
Since his return on Jan. 31 the numbers have mostly still been there, with averages of 23.2 points, 11.0 assists and 10.8 rebounds per game, but the usual attack mentality we’ve become so accustomed to seeing James play with has seemingly vanished before our eyes, with those numbers coming on a decreased field goal percentage of 47.3 percent compared to 51.8 percent pre-injury.
Whereas even just last season, he seemed in constant pursuit of the basket, LeBron is now content to defer to others and jack up outside shots to the tune of 7.4 3-point attempts per game in his five games since returning from his groin injury.
Maybe, at 34 years of age, James’ body just takes longer to recover. According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, there is a rumor floating around that the three-time champion is currently playing at a whopping 280 pounds, with the injury having disrupted his usual iron man-like conditioning program.
Such a truth would explain quite a bit about his “struggles,” with the answer likely being that James will continue to work his way back into his accepted standard of health in the coming days and weeks. However, in the midst of such an intense race just to sneak into the playoffs, the Lakers have kind of hit the panic button on their season.
They don’t possess all the time in the world to get their leader back to his best. L.A. is in the tightest of playoff races, where just a single loss can wind up being all the difference, and after already suffering a number of deflating losses to terrible teams, the stakes are even higher and the margin for error even slimmer.
We’ve been blessed to see the best version of James following what has become a yearly tradition of flipping the switch, where all the energy conserved over the course of the season is released in a historic run, usually ending in the NBA Finals one way or another. But whether or not he’s ready to do so isn’t up for discussion at this point. His team doesn’t really have a choice.
If LeBron wants to qualify for the postseason, he’s going to have to start them a little bit early this year. It’s what the circumstances have unfortunately called for. If that sense of urgency never comes, the move to Hollywood will continue to look worse than it already does.