LeBron James‘ stated goal of playing 82 games this season ended Sunday night, but the Lakers got contributions from plenty of other players, writes Khobi Price of The Orange County Register. With James sidelined by soreness in his left foot, L.A. snapped a three-game losing streak by beating Portland.
“Next man up,” Anthony Davis said. “That’s why we have a team. Other guys had to step up. Guys know have to step up when we have a guy like Bron out. Guys took on a challenge and, even though it was a last-minute scratch this is what guys prepared for and guys got a chance. Some guys got a chance to come in and play in a little bit more minutes than they probably normally would, and they did what they were supposed to do.”
With James and Austin Reaves both unavailable, D’Angelo Russell took on a larger role in the offense, posting season highs with 28 points and 14 assists. He had 13 points and six assists in the fourth quarter as L.A. broke open a tight game, but he declined to speak to reporters about the performance. Rui Hachimura also hit a season high with 23 points, along with four steals.
“I was just trying to be aggressive,” Hachimura said. “Especially defensively, we have been traveling, but [Sunday] I think we were playing more with Gabe (Vincent), Cam (Reddish), Max (Christie), it made it easier to kind of be more aggressive because I can trust them. They’re always making plays defensively.”
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- On the latest Hoop Collective podcast, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said rival teams continue to monitor whether James would consider asking the Lakers for a trade (hat tip to RealGM). Windhorst offered a reminder that the Warriors called about LeBron at last season’s deadline, but the talks never progressed because he wanted to stay in L.A. James has a no-trade clause in his new contract, so he can’t be moved without his consent.
- Warriors guard Buddy Hield benefited from a lineup change Sunday night, per Anthony Slater of the Athletic. Making just his third start of the season, Hield responded with 27 points and seven made three-pointers while playing a season-high 35 minutes. It was his first 20-point game in more than a month. “(Coach Steve Kerr) did a good job of just letting me stay out there and letting me figure it out,” Hield said. “Sometimes, you need to get settled in. If you know what I’m talking about as a basketball player, you sometimes get locked in and you’re just running around all the time and you don’t feel comfortable.”
- Malik Monk‘s move to the starting lineup has left the Kings short on bench production, but Kevin Huerter may be the answer, notes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Huerter scored a season-high 26 points in Sunday’s rout of Utah after coming into the game averaging a career-low 9.3 PPG and shooting a career-worst 29.7% from beyond the arc. “Sometimes it’s just a numbers game,” he said. “You’ve just got to come back, you’ve got to trust it, continue to put the work in every day and just trust that it’s going to come back at some point.”
Here we go again about Lebron getting traded. The warriors can’t fit LeBron under the cap now that Thompson is off the books. LeBron wants to stay on teh Lakers to be with Bronny. I just wish these trade rumors would go away and stick to ones backed by facts.
Where did it say LeBron is being traded?
Been going around the internet lately. So many sites are claiming LeBron is getting traded.
You can create a bunch of websites and social media posts for free. Submit it all to Google Search and it goes viral like a pandemic. Do any of these people have an actual connection to the NBA.
Giants74, you’re right about the quality of the reports — garbage.
But It’s more than websites. The leading nationally televised sports talk shows, like ESPN and FoxSports, have raised it again in the last few days — Mike Wilson and Steven A. Smith, Cowherd, etc
The talking heads aren’t saying a deal IS happening, only that it SHOULD because.
1. Lakers’ run is over, they should trade LeBron while he still has value, AND
2. GSW proved its interest in LeBron last year, and LeBron would be willing
That’s a lot of networks. A lot of airtime. And not a lot of content. They got to come up with something to keep eyeballs glued and satisfy their advertisers. You can only talk about the same game so many times.
So I guess ESPN is fake according to you and NBA today has no connection.
arc89, I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear. I have seen no credible report indicating that GSW is CURRENTLY interested in LeBron.
1 . Windhorst said “teams” were monitoring the LeBron situation. He didn’t say GSW, although he reminded us that GSW was interested last season.
2. Wilbon and Cowherd said that the Lakers SHOULD trade LeBron. They didn’t state that the Warriors are interested at this time.
For now, I take LeBron to GSW stories as clickbait.
I didn’t say they were fake. Well, some are. They got to fill up all that empty programming somehow. The NBA is not like MLB. There is much more to talk about.
No offense to the writers on this platform, but the Lakers “news”/rumors are boring as hell. The Lakers have been known to play exceptionally well WITHOUT Brawny Sensation, and no one – aside from Jeanie and Rob – wants Brawny Sensation on their team at this stage of his career.
Some of these sports writers just add in Bronny into the column for clicks. Once LeBron retires Bronny is gone.
Your statement would make sense if Bronny were actually playing for LA.
He’s talking about LeBron, as his username and would-be-funny-if-it-wasn’t-sad bias would indicate.
One NBA site said AD and Bronny got the Lakers a win when he only played 3 minutes scoring 0 points last night.
Oh, I was talking about TCD.
Any team would love to have LeBron on their roster. The NBA is a business and LeBron’s is still the most marketable player in the league and one of the most popular athletes in the world. On court his skills have obviously declined but he’s still a top forty player, when he’s engaged he’s still one of the very best players in the game and he’s still worth far more than his salary to any franchise.
Doubtful, Tacocat1331, unless another team were to hire as their next head coach….DWade maybe? Carmelo? Probably not him after he seemed to paint “The Heatles” in a negative light when he discussed a time when they were recruiting him for more super-team additions. Who else is out there – either coaching right now or with a realistic shot at soon becoming a first-time head coach – that would want to coach Brawny Sensation, besides JJ?? Ty Lue had a chance again this past offseason – he didn’t even need to change his in-season address! – but he instead decided to stay with a team he KNEW was likely going to lose one of its star players (PG-13) AND he knew it would probably be without the services of ANOTHER one of its stars for a good chunk of the season because of injuries/load management (Leonard)! Despite all this, Lue chose the Clippers over the Lakers?!?! The Lakers, with a top 3 all-around player, when healthy, and one of the greatest players of all time, whom he previously coached to a championship….and Lue said “nah”??! If not Lue, then WHO, Tacocat1331??! A guy who was never a basketball coach leading up to this season is the only person left who wants to deal with…I mean COACH LeBron James??????
Lue got offered a pay cut, a short contract and no say over his coaching staff. I can’t imagine why he said no.
What do you think is the main reason a prestigious franchise like the Los Angeles Lakers – an organization unlike most in the league in that its perceived AND realized championship aspirations span just about EVERY DECADE of the NBA’s near 80-year existence – having been just ONE YEAR removed from a conference finals appearance, while boasting a top-3 all-around player (when healthy), decided the best it could do was hire a guy with no previous basketball coaching experience in the SAME hiring period another team with ZERO championships was able to bring in a former NBA coach with an NBA title to his credit?!
Chosen Dud,
Here’s the stock 2-part answer to any question about the Lakers organization from those that follow the business of pro sports.
1. The ownership/front-office is a mom-and-pop operation that employs under-qualified “C” players who routinely screw up.
2. Unlike the 29 other NBA teams, it doesn’t matter that the organization screws up. As with the Cowboys and Yankees, the Lakers enjoy innate market advantages that will always compensate for organizational buffoonery.
Being in the largest media market and having 80 years of transcendent brand equity means this: there will always be another Shaq, LeBron, etc to fall from the sky. For free.
Painfully for the rest of the NBA, every major player representative agency has plans around LeBron’s departure, aiming to stick their superstar client into his vacated slot. As free agents, Luka, Giannis, SGA, Edwards, etc can increase their expected career sponsorship income by $250M if they go to the Lakers. Celtics, Warriors, Knicks, and Nets can be the best run businesses in sports, but that’s irrelevant.
The ownership/front-office is a mom-and-pop operation that employs under-qualified “C” players who routinely screw up…Huh?
That mom-and-pop operation has produced 10 NBA Championships. I would hardly call Phil Jackson, Jerry West, Pat Riley etc. “C” players.
I said “Bron, Bronny and cash for Wiggins and Podziemski” long ago on here and I still believe its the best move for all parties.
Nobody wants your boy Podz or even your takes.
I love Davey J’s trade. Bron, Bronny and Cash for Wiggins and Podz. To make that trade work, you would have to throw in Moody and Melton. What a stellar trade idea. Since LeBron will probably retire next season, the Warriors will have to add 5 GLEAGUE players. You really think Curry and Green will stick around for that. NO. That’s 2 more GLEAGUE players. Kuminga’s budding career will make him want to bolt…Let’s just rename the team the Santa Cruz Warriors.
Davey doesn’t understand basic concept of NBA Cap rules and trades.
Probably plays 2K and takes salary cap off and force trades on. You can tell lmao
Someone who really understands ball.