The Lebron '20 Thread (Pt. 5)

[JLei]

As unimpressive as LeBron has looked, he’s not their main problem. This team is shooting under 20% from three. Vogel is spotting the other team points at the beginning of each half with a clearly bad lineup. And let’s be honest - Dame is hitting half court threes. The whole thing is is a recipe for disaster.

3 point shooting is certainly a major problem, but 23 points on 20 shots from your best player is simply not going to cut it in the playoffs. If LeBron was still a 30+ scorer with superstar ability to create consistent offense (ala top players on other contenders), Lakers would've won this game.

What do you expect exactly? For him to just drive it into Whiteside and 2 guys stunting over? This drop scheme is pretty easily defeated if you make any shots.

He had 15 assists and they couldn't make a shot.

Now if they can just double and triple team him and build a wall at the rim and no one makes a shot. Yah they lose.

[Run DLC]

Vogel and LeBron have a lot of adjustments to make. The Lakers are obviously terrible at shooting the ball, but LeBron has to get out of this pass first mindset of over-passing the ball to inconsistent shooters. He needs to be more aggressive. He can’t rely on AD to be the best scorer in the playoffs. LeBron must set the tone and be aggressive from the get-go

[whitehops]

3 point shooting is certainly a major problem, but 23 points on 20 shots from your best player is simply not going to cut it in the playoffs. If LeBron was still a 30+ scorer with superstar ability to create consistent offense (ala top players on other contenders), Lakers would've won this game.

so if lebron got 30/17/16 he wouldn't have been the reason the lakers lost. got it.

EDIT: they lost by 7 so i guess he would've had to score 31 points.

[MisterHibachi]

93 points against this Blazers team is horrendous.

[primopastalove2]

Officially in panic mode, LeBron is struggling to score in the half-court he's aged so much since the break, none of their guards push in the transition to get easy points and the people you expect miss open look missed open looks who are they gonna trust hitting shots? Caruso? Kuz? Green? KCP?

[Heej]

LeBron was getting denied at the rim a lot this game. I remember in the 2012 playoff run he used a floater when he got into the lane that was very effective, almost specifically designed to deal with Hibbert. But I never saw him use it again tbh.

Wonder why. Feel like he could have gone to a floater multiple times instead of trying to attack Whiteside so much.

Nahhhh man, the Lakers bigs just gotta stop being little *****es and box out the help the way you see guys like Daniel Theis and Brook Lopez do. No excuse on AD letting Whiteside come over to block that KCP floater. Box out the big and let your teammate get the bucket instead of floating around hoping you can clean up scraps

If I'm Vogel that's the easiest adjustment you can make. And Dwight and Javale have done it plenty all season long. Just bury the shotblocker out of the play every time and let LeBron feast.

[Basileus777]

Whiteside actually seemed to deter LeBron a fair bit.

[RCM88x]

I think they'll be fine.

If they continue to shoot this poorly from three it'll be more impressive than a title tho IMO.

[dreamshake]

I understand the team shooting was terrible

He looked like he only wanted to score the ball if it was the absolute last resort. If that’s the case against Portland how he is going to score against LAC, Toronto, or Milwaukee?

I think you answered your own question. If the team shooting is terrible they won't win against those teams. The times he did drive he got swatted by Whiteside repeatedly, which is likely why he wasn't looking to score. The shooters just have to do a better job knocking down the open looks that are given up by packing the paint. And they have to be more willing to go small to punish Portland for playing Whiteside.

[Jurassic_Park]

So it's almost certainly Portland in round 1. Easy sweep and Lebron/AD putting up silly numbers. If Westbrook is indeed injured for the first round, I think the Lakers might be lucky and face OKC in round 2, another easy sweep.

Nice prediction.... any others you got for us???

[Basileus777]

I understand the team shooting was terrible

He looked like he only wanted to score the ball if it was the absolute last resort. If that’s the case against Portland how he is going to score against LAC, Toronto, or Milwaukee?

I think you answered your own question. If the team shooting is terrible they won't win against those teams. The times he did drive he got swatted by Whiteside repeatedly, which is likely why he wasn't looking to score. The shooters just have to do a better job knocking down the open looks that are given up by packing the paint. And they have to be more willing to go small to punish Portland for playing Whiteside.

It's hard to play small when no one can hit an open shot.

[Jurassic_Park]

Come on, this will be a sweep, Lebron and AD will feast on Portland's awful defense, Lillard is just another undersized guard who can look like a GOAT in the RS but whose impact severely decreases in the playoffs. This is just your typical 1 vs 8 matchup, one team is clearly superior and expected to dominate.

The Lakers might be in luck too with Westbrook out, OKC have a real chance to advance, in which case it'd be two very easy series before the conference finals.

another funny one from you... keep em coming

[TheGOATRises007]

Blazers scored the least amount of points all season in a win.

Not sure if that bodes well for the Lakers.

[Fadeaway_J]

I think they'll be fine.

If they continue to shoot this poorly from three it'll be more impressive than a title tho IMO.

Honestly the shooting is what worries me the most because it's baked into the makeup of this team. Even at their best, they're still not where you'd expect a contender to be in 2020, and to make it worse they're persisting with a bunch of two-big lineups.

[Basileus777]

So it's almost certainly Portland in round 1. Easy sweep and Lebron/AD putting up silly numbers. If Westbrook is indeed injured for the first round, I think the Lakers might be lucky and face OKC in round 2, another easy sweep.

Nice prediction.... any others you got for us???

He'll disappear for a couple of days. He was just crowing earlier how one game suggests that Giannis isn't a top 2 player.

[IG2]

What do you expect exactly? For him to just drive it into Whiteside and 2 guys stunting over? This drop scheme is pretty easily defeated if you make any shots.

Dude, he clearly doesn't possess the ability anymore to put consistent pressure on the defense. This is not the first time LeBron's faced a packed paint in his career. But it's the first time he's 35, slow and can't jump.

[dreamshake]

I understand the team shooting was terrible

He looked like he only wanted to score the ball if it was the absolute last resort. If that’s the case against Portland how he is going to score against LAC, Toronto, or Milwaukee?

I think you answered your own question. If the team shooting is terrible they won't win against those teams. The times he did drive he got swatted by Whiteside repeatedly, which is likely why he wasn't looking to score. The shooters just have to do a better job knocking down the open looks that are given up by packing the paint. And they have to be more willing to go small to punish Portland for playing Whiteside.

It's hard to play small when no one can hit an open shot.

I agree but if no one can hit an open shot you just lose. No getting around that.

[MyUniBroDavis]

People acting as if they got outplayed and didnt just have a bad shooting night lol

Bron looked fine, ahoulda had like 22 assists, if they arent making threes and you have whiteside allowed to camp in the paint hes notngonna shoot 90% lol

Davis didnt look good

[Greyhound]

As unimpressive as LeBron has looked, he’s not their main problem. This team is shooting under 20% from three. Vogel is spotting the other team points at the beginning of each half with a clearly bad lineup. And let’s be honest - Dame is hitting half court threes. The whole thing is is a recipe for disaster.

3 point shooting is certainly a major problem, but 23 points on 20 shots from your best player is simply not going to cut it in the playoffs. If LeBron was still a 30+ scorer with superstar ability to create consistent offense (ala top players on other contenders), Lakers would've won this game.

This is exactly what I said before the game. People were talking about who was going to guard LeBron and I had to laugh. LeBron guards himself. I told people that he would not make a bad defense pay by looking to score. He would be content scoring in the 20’s and playing his all around game.

That is exactly what happened.

People said that they have nobody to defend LeBron and I laughed for another reason. They do... they have the best shot blocker in the league and a plethora of mobile bigs. LeBron is not stopped by on-ball defenders, he is slowed by bigs who protect the rim.

The Lakers could be in trouble.

[draftbarnes]

Kawhi screwed the lakers. held them up in free agency while a bunch of free agents shooters they could of used went off the board. This roster is just terribly built