Post#1331 » by IG2 » Mon Oct 12, 2020 2:10 am
For most of the year LeBron was devoid of explosiveness in the half-court. Struggled taking anyone off the dribble. Struggled finishing at the basket. Couldn't finish games (brutal in the clutch). I kept talking about how he simply wasn't good enough to lead the team to a championships in that physical state. I had 0 optimism.
Something changed around the AS break. He finally started looking better physically. Actually went into the pandemic looking terrific. But that damn pandemic. 4 months off and all the improvement he had shown went down the toilet. Looked awful to start off the bubble and through the first 2 games of the Portland series. It was like the beginning of a whole new season and I had 0 hope again.
Miraculously enough, all changed starting with Game 3 of the 1st round. No clue where it came from. Suddenly began looking explosive again. Breaking guys off the dribble. Finishing strong. Impacting the game simply by trying harder. And make no mistake, Lakers would've had 0 chance of winning the championship if LeBron of the first 50-odd games of the regular season had shown up in the playoffs too. 0 chance. But thankfully he didn't. And he was as consistent this postseason as any his whole career. Pretty much 0 off games.
Making ring #4 as sweet as any of his other 3 rings, if not sweeter. The level of play was just so high.