Los Angeles Lakers: 3 stars in NBA play-in win over Warriors

First star for the Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron James

LeBron James suffered a high ankle sprain in late March and that injury sidelined him for nearly the rest of the season. When he did come back, he re-aggravated it and then rolled it again in the Lakers’ regular-season finale on Sunday. His status for the play-in game Wednesday night was up in the air.

He certainly looked less than 100 percent during the first half of the game against the Warriors. Andrew Wiggins, the oft-maligned and expensive wing, not only shut him down defensively but outplayed him offensively. The King, the reigning Finals MVP, could not will his team to keep up with the shorthanded Warriors.

Then suddenly James was firing on-target bounce passes through traffic to hit cutting teammates. He was bodying through slimmer defenders any time he got someone other than Wiggins matched up on him. And on one of the final plays of the night, he took a flaming bomb from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and nailed a crazy rainbow 3-pointer as the shot clock expired late in the 4th quarter.

James ended with yet another triple-double in a crucial game, even if the confused NBA isn’t logging it as a postseason accomplishment. James shot just 7-of-17 from the field and 6-for-nine from the line, but still willed his way to 22 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists and a +13 mark on the night.

Whatever you might think about the way the referees defer to his style of play, his dramatic postgame presser about “seeing three rims” or the massive amount of media coverage, LeBron James is one of the greatest players of all time still playing at a high level despite age and injury. He was a different player in the second half, and that brought his team a much-needed win, and made James one of the stars of the night.