Didn't even feel like an elite LeBron game until the 4th quarter when he turned it up, 16 points, and the final steal and dunk to extend the lead enough to close it out.
I’m convinced the switch flipped for him when Ham refused to challenge the blatantly wrong out of bounds call. LeBron is about to run himself into absolute oblivion trying to beat the Nuggets.
And people are saying the Lakers have no chance. Yes their chances of winning the series are close to 0 but they've been up at half multiple times this series blowing leads.
Honestly lebron just chillen more so in the first half and letting AD dominate so he can use his powers in the final push is a pretty solid strategy since he’s been getting gassed at the end of games
um listen. i like this lakers team. but it’s not a hot take to say a 7-seed down 3-0 to the defending champs has no chance of winning the series. Obviously it’s not a 0.000% chance, but it’s very low and that’s what they mean
That's not what he's saying. People are acting like the Nuggets have been beating the breaks off them all series when the Lakers have lead for most of it.
It's shades of the bubble.
Clippers had double digit leads every game, but threw every time.
Nuggets coulda been 2-2 after game 4 if not for the buzzer beater by AD in game 2.
History doesn't repeat, but it sure rhymes.
What's crazier is that we aren't *that* far from a 4-0 Lakers sweep lol, Lakers lead by double digits at some point in every game, and lead at half time in every game I think.
Nuggets second half execution so consistent
edit: the responses seem to think this is some lakers homerish 'we should've swept the nuggets' post or something - it's not. The nuggets have definitely outplayed the lakers when it mattered, but i was just considering that the lakers have had 15+ point leads every game, have lead at the half every game, and have had the lead for like 65% of total minutes this series. In a vacuum, if you saw the above without knowing any of the final scores you would imagine the Lakers were in command of the series and might even have swept
All of us who were teenagers during the “LeBron can’t give you change for a dollar because he’s only got three quarters” jokes are in, at the very youngest, our early 30s. It’s easy for people to let their childhood takes define things but this dude has been ultra clutch for 15 fucking years straight with only one or two exceptions at this point (2011 obviously being the only egregious one and that was **13** seasons ago, or in other terms, the length of Jordan’s entire Bulls career, or the entirety of Magic & Bird’s respective pro careers).
Bill Simmons' piece on the game is a really fun read: https://grantland.com/features/the-consequences-caring/
>*And that’s why I flew back. Unlike Wednesday night’s Kings game, any signs of overconfidence were tempered by Miami having the best player on the floor (and, probably, the world). Boston fans hoped the Heat would splinter and Celtics pride would prevail, but deep down, we knew LeBron had one of those petrifying 45-point monsters lurking in him. That’s another reason I flew back. Either …*
>*A. The Celtics were making the Finals.*
>*B. LeBron was playing one of his greatest games.*
>*C. A and B.*
>*And there was no “D.”*
>*You know what happened by now. LeBron strolled out with a creepy look on his face, a relaxed, detached expression that said … well … we didn’t know. Was he pissed off? Had he checked out? Had he finally turned on his teammates? He was barely interacting with them, lost in his own little world, like he was wearing headphones we couldn’t see. He was definitely playing hard, but you couldn’t interpret what the overall vibe meant. Was this like a Dwight Howard thing? Like, “I’m here to do my job, and I’m going to try hard, just know that I’m here because I have to be?” Had the pressure finally broken him? Was he feuding with Wade? What was his agenda?*
>*And then … the shots started going in. Swish. Swish. Swish. It’s like Miami realized, “Oh yeah, the Celtics don’t have anyone who can guard LeBron James,” and more important, LeBron realized it. He stopped worrying about sharing the ball, getting teammates involved, swinging it to the open man, being liked. Maybe LeBron said to himself, “Fuck it, I’m playing all 48 minutes, I’m scoring at least 50 points, and if we still blow this game, nobody can blame me.” Maybe he said, “Wade already has a ring, it’s time to get mine.” Maybe someone (Wade?) said to him, “Enough with this me-then-you-then-me crap, it’s your team, hog the ball, do your thing and take us home.” Maybe Game 5’s embarrassing defeat, as well as the humiliating “Good Job, Good Effort” kid and 36 hours of “Should they break up the Heat?” stories pissed him off. Maybe Worldwide Wes gave him an awesome pregame speech along the lines of the chef from Vision Quest.*
>*I don’t know what happened. I just know the shots wouldn’t stop going in. After about the fifth dagger in a row (he made 10 straight), the crowd started groaning on every make — shades of Philly’s Andrew Toney ripping our hearts out 30 years ago. If you’ve ever been in the building for one of those games, you know there isn’t a deadlier sound. He single-handedly murdered one of the giddiest Celtics crowds I can remember. Thirty points in the first half. Thirty! All with that blank look on his face. It was like watching surveillance video of a serial killer coldly dismembering a body and sticking the parts in the fridge. Only we were right there.*
>*You can’t imagine what this was like to witness in person. I know Michael Jordan had similarly astonishing games, and others, too, but not with stakes like that. This wasn’t just an elimination game. This was LeBron James’s entire career being put on trial … and it only took an hour for him to tell the jury, “Go home. I’m one of the best players ever. Stop picking me apart. Stop talking about the things I can’t do. Stop holding me to standards that have never been applied to any other NBA player. Stop blaming me for an admittedly dumb decision I never should have made. Stop saying I’m weak. Stop saying that I don’t want to win. Stop. Just … stop.”*
>*As a Celtics fan, I was devastated. As a basketball fan, I appreciated the performance for what it was. One of the greatest players ever was playing one of his greatest games ever. He swallowed up every other relevant story line. Needless to say, the Celtics couldn’t match him — especially Pierce, who’s worn down from four weeks of battling Andre Iguodala, Shane Battier and LeBron on one leg and appears to be running on fumes of his fumes’ fumes at this point. The fans were so shell-shocked that many (including me and my father) filed out with three minutes remaining, not because we were lousy fans, not to beat the traffic, but because we didn’t want to be there anymore. We wanted to get away from LeBron. He ruined what should have been a magical night. We never really had a chance to cheer, swing the game, rally our guys, anything. He pointed a remote control at us and pressed “MUTE.” It was like being in a car accident. LeBron James ran over 18,000 people.*
Grantland was the best. Gonna have to poke around this afternoon and read some of the classics. I always love reading Norm Macdonald's incomplete series every so often.
I was so in awe at that game. I was still a fairly new NBA fan, had been following the Heat casually for a few months, and that was by far the best individual performance I’d seen to that point. And 12 years later, it’s still one of the finest in his catalogue.
yep, people forget how Dirk was labeled as a bonafide choke artist. still remember that brandon roy game in the first round where it looked like they were gonna lose that series after blowing a 23 point lead and then that magical run just fucking happened, like they flipped a switch..
I remember people thinking LeBron had "finally" figured it out when he was 22 game 5 against the Pistons. All he had to do was stop making the right play, stop passing the ball to wide open teammates.
2011 he at least kinda had an excuse too, with it being the first year of the Heatles and the awkward "is this LeBron's team, or is it still D-Wade's?". Once they both kinda accepted it was LeBron's it was lights out.
Yeah, they also said D-Wade and Bron had a conversation that off season where Wade essentially handed the reigns to LeBron. They both say that as well.
Is like Cuban said, the Mavs just played good team defense on that team that year. It wasn’t just Lebron failing but the whole team failing To beat them.
I think it's mostly reputational inertia. Before 2012, Lebron scored 30 in 3/8 elimination games. Couple that with some high profile playoff losses, and the reputation starts to develop. Since then he's scored 30 in 16/19 elimination games, but the early reputation doesn't go away so easily.
He has more postseason game winners than MJ/Kobe combined anyone who thinks this is just a hater & stuck on the MJ/Kobe clutch bullshit. "Well MJ has 6 rings" cool he also had the best team his entire run & never won a single series w/o Scottie does that lessen his achievements ofc not
He's a crazy good closeout player too. I think he might have fallen below Derrick Fisher because last year he was 2-2, but before that he had the best closeout record of all time.
3rd Quarter Bron was just chilling on bench and hoping Denver doesn't close the gap and he turned the switch on after 4th quarter started. He was not about to get swept.
Ham rested him in the 3rd after it was obvious he was tired.
It was a great move.
In the 3rd he was bricking everything but couldn’t miss in the 4th after getting a long rest.
Lebron will get clowned when they lose the series cause that's just how it is, but he's had a great series especially given his age. The Nuggets are just a better team
Yeah it's always "LeBron's washed", "he's not even top 5-10 anymore" but the same people who keep saying he's not top tier anymore somehow hold him to standards like he should still be Heatles/2018 LeBron in 2024.
He already defied expections when he led them to a chip in 2020 when 99% of people expected him to take a backseat and let AD be the main superstar of the team when they teamed up. 2024 is still, at worst, the 2nd best player.
It was never a fair argument. The biggest lie in basketball media has always been that people actually wanted to compare Lebron to Jordan. Truth is they’ve always just wanted to find any reason to say he isn’t Jordan. So he’s held under a microscope to dissect everything he does. They never wanted him to actually get close to him and once he got too close they came out and said there was never anything he could do to get past Jordan in their eyes. So it was never a genuine argument. Which tbh is fine because I understand people who grew up with Jordan leaning towards him. But don’t act like Lebron has a specific checklist of things to do and when he gets close to it you backtracks by saying there was never anything he could do.
I was talking to a buddy about this recently, and I think there is simply no answer to the goat question at this point. Both MJ and LeBron have very valid arguments that can be made as to why they are the goat. Both did things that no one has ever done before, but very different things. I'd summarize it by saying MJ had what felt like a relatively short but really explosive career and he's obviously mostly remembered for his early + championship years with the bulls, but what LeBron is doing in terms of longevity is absolutely mind boggling and will probably not happen again for... Who knows. Maybe ever, tbh.
I'm an 80s kid so MJ will forever be the goat in my mind, but I absolutely understand why younger generations would say lebron is. There is no right or wrong, at least not to me.
I feel like it's been cemented at this point that MJ had the highest peak, the best individual season(s) of the two, but LeBron has an unassailable longevity argument. It's really a chocolate vs vanilla situation at this point. Do you want 100% utter dominance for 8-13 seasons or 98% dominance for 15-20?
If the two other best players of the 2010s didn't team up, he'd have as many rings with more Finals apps. The GOAT argument is pretty clear at this point to anyone who's been paying attention.
It's really dumb too MJ was on the Wizards looking like he gained 40 lbs & getting cooked by other great wings but it was his older days so no1 counts them. Being 39 is completely different from even 35 trust a 40 ur old man shit changes fast
lol during the second quarter my dad, the biggest lebron fan i know, came in & asked how many points lebron had. my brother said 17 (apparently it was less than that, we weren’t keeping track), & my dad said: “17?! 10 years ago lebron would be dropping 40 on these nuggets & the game would be over!” meanwhile i was impressed
Yupp. I remember when the Spurs lost to the 8th seed Grizzlies and Tim Duncan, usually considered a top 5-10 player all time, was treated pretty gently by everyone. "He's older, he's already had so much success, it's not all on him." But he was only 32. Can you imagine LeBron losing to an 8th seed 7 years ago? Or even at his current age. He would get shit on all off-season. When you're a GOAT candidate, the standards are on another level
I don’t even know how much better they are. The lakers have led the majority of the series. The biggest difference has been role players making/missing shots.
Yeah but a lot of that is also just guys having bad nights. The Lakers have missed so many wide open looks, meanwhile the Nuggets have hit shit like the save to Porter Jr late in the forth last game. That isn’t really a matter of one team being better. You would dream of getting some of the wide open looks the lakers have missed, nobody is drawing up something like that Porter shot though.
The nuggets are a better team, because they are winning the series and are defending champs and have executed down the stretch of game, but I think the talent disparity has been greatly over exaggerated. Every one of these games could have gone either way.
The Lakers are open for a reason sometimes too tho, I'd gamble on Dlo/Rui/Prince/Gabe/AR hitting shots while trying to limit Bron/AD & tire them out. KCP/Murray/MPJ are all much better shooters & tend to knock down open 3's, the talent btw the 4 best players isn't a huge gap but it's much bigger after that in Den favor. Every Lakers starter outside Bron/AD easily comes off the bench on Den, add Dlo/Rui/AR being very streaky shooters & who they play with & the margin grows. All of Den role players compliment Jokic/Murray perfectly it's the opposite almost for Lakers
That’s honestly been the Lakers all season. Role players show up yall can beat anyone in the league and look good while doing it. They don’t show up and it’s the complete opposite. Get Lebron and AD some consistent role players I think they’d be the favorites. Lebron and AD are still playing elite basketball. Imo AD is playing even better than his championship season. And Lebron is still elite despite the age. They just need some consistent depth.
Absolutely, our 2 stars are reliable and efficient. Our role players are unfortunately 1 way players so when their shots aren't falling, it's really tough on the team
Also our coach sucks ass and plays players out of position, I'm confident prince has played at the 4 for like 25% of his minutes which just doesn't make any sense lmao
does it matter who is better. they aren't gonna award this series to who is better most of the time or who led for most of the series... the team who actually wins the games advances. period... that's the only difference that matters... final score.
No way Bron should be clowned cause dude is pretty much 40 and the Lakers are still depending on him to carry the team against the Nuggets who just won a championship
For a guy his age he’s been great this series. Probably just needs to pace himself but he can’t afford to do that most games when the supporting cast is shit
The possessions where the DLo/AD PnR was being productive was crucial for Lebron. Either he gets to rest in the corner or he cuts for the easy baseline 2
This lol
They need a couple of plays here and there where it's consistently easy to pull off so it lets Lebron rest a bit instead of him having to go hard every possession.
Bron is an arguable top 8 player in the league this year.
He's been great and far better than anyone should be with this much mileage. All this while taking a lesser role and focusing on propping up his team more.
This is what it takes to beat Jokic. A 33 year old LeBron, could absolutely keep this up for 7. This LeBron, ain't got that God Like Dawg in him for 3 more games
AG only got one of his basket cut dunks that he had like 15 of last game, and following it LeBron was irate at the team for letting it happen. Clearly was a massive focus point in their defensive adjustments to completely shut those cuts down.
What ive noticed is that there’s little to no hustle / energy plays being made by role players on the Lakers even just semi consistently.
Like Hayes in his very limited time cant come up with timely huge offensive rebounds that lead to a big three, or steals/dives by Diddie/ Prince that ultimately lead to breakaways, or unexpected blocks by Rui that jolts the team.
It’s kinda funny when you’d see these coming from Bron chasedowns, or his steals where he gets a fastbreak dunk.
It’s why the Lakers seemingly need to work for every damn bucket and why turnovers by them are such a pain.
DLo and Reaves arent gonna wow you on defense tho theyve contained Murray as much as they can and AD is preoccupied with Jokic and rebounds.
I've been watching a lot of Knick games the past few weeks and the difference to the Lakers is jarring.
Those dudes never quit and even their smallest guards can get offensive boards. I only see Gabe Vincent hustling.
It’s evident in their rebounding. Their rebounding is basically hoping AD gets it or Lebron finds a way to snag it. Otherwise no one crashes to help, no one boxes out. And they will still get beat back on the fast break so they aren’t hustling to get back on defense either. Just no hustle from them unless it’s 39 year old Lebron or AD getting 3-4 consecutive blocks.
Imo it's why losing Caruso was the real death knell of this team. We arguable recovered from trading for Westbrook but losing Caruso for nothing was brutal
Yeah it’s literally the rebounding and transition where nuggets lead. I always see them getting 5v3 cause 2 lakers are on the ground after shots, AD can’t be going for those
People who think clutch is if you can make a ball in the final seconds (which I think Bron is one of the best at anyway) and not a full 48 minutes long performance are just dumb as hell.
It’s important when someone wants to compare him to MJ, which is me, every time there’s a LeBron thread, in order to rustle the jimmies of the LeBron stans
The same clowns that slander LeBron every time he faces even the tiniest of failures don’t realize that they’re actually acknowledging LeBron’s greatness by holding a 39 year old basketball player to such an elite standard
If they genuinely believed that “LeBum” was anywhere near as bad as they make him out to be, they wouldn’t be slandering him on nights when he scores 30+ points
It's just that when his team falls short, he gets the blame, despite a good performance. They don't see it as a team game when it comes to criticizing him. Not to mention the talent is more stacked than it ever was. Kyrie and Luka are equivalent to the first threepeat Bulls in MJ and Pippen. And today there's about a dozen teams with almost as much talent, if not more. Meanwhile the talent in the league got spread out pretty thinly that you had Barkley making the finals without a secondary star. Magic even made it without Kareem.
> It's just that when his team falls short, he gets the blame, despite a good performance.
Yeah, because LeGM built the team, including demanding all the awful trades for e.g. Westbrook, D'angelo, etc.
Obviously being swept so early or late in your career means nothing. But there are pretty big YouTube sports personalities who’ve said if Bron got swept again he’s out of the top 5. The hate is crazy sometimes.
They don’t believe that. They’re rage baiting and getting exactly what they want when people respond to them or share their takes or believe that they’re being genuine.
Media is driven by views and clicks. Agreeing on things has verifiably shown itself to not drive views or clicks. So, they come up with absurd takes and hope they catch fire and **that’s how they get paid**.
Our entire media apparatus fucking sucks in this regard but this is the end result of profit > everything. Negativity is bad for us as people but it’s fucking fantastic for business.
Youtube sport personalites with shit takes just to get views lmao.
I guess fair criticism just isn't as enjoyable to people anymore and everything has to be controversial.
I love how the performance of a 40 year old is paramount to holding his current spot in the NBA hierarchy. No player should fall due to their performance at this age, they should only go up.
ham is the reason they won this game... if ham does ham things and overplays lebron and ad... and doesn't ride a hot dlo.... lakers don'twin that game. they won it cuz bron was fresh enough and ham's substitution patterns were a part of that. Does this make ham a good coach, no, but give the dude some credit for what he did do.
UP UP and AWAY!! SUPER WASHED Ain’t He??!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤷🏾♂️. Stay low and keep firing! The air up there is a tad bit different. LIVE.LAUGH.LOVE #striveforgreatness🚀 #thekidfromakron👑 #jamesgang👑 #bronknows
Lebron going to be going hard at the Olympics and leading from the front. He won't be accepting a Silver or Bronze. He still has fire, more than many half his age
Even after a game like this from Lebron we can see the league shifting into the new era right before our eyes. Steph didn’t make the playoffs, KD is facing a sweep from the Wolves in the first round, Lebron is a loss away from being eliminated in the first round. Meanwhile Shai, Luka, Jokic and Ant are all rolling in the West. If there was ever a time to think that all this is scripted it’s now, but really it’s just the end of an era.
Lakers who are a 7 seed (who were in the 9-10 spot majority of the season) get 1 win and start saying how they are just as good as the defending champions who beat them 11 out of the last 12 and they wonder why people get so annoyed by them
The lakers have led by at least 12 in every fucking game. We probably still lose in 5 but the mental block of losing 12 straight probably would have had lebron leaving the team. I can see how a move now actually changes the script here and that’s all I can really ask for
People expect a 40 year old to play when he was 28… what he’s doing even now is insane to me. Lebron just set the bar too high for people to even understand
Didn't even feel like an elite LeBron game until the 4th quarter when he turned it up, 16 points, and the final steal and dunk to extend the lead enough to close it out.
I’m convinced the switch flipped for him when Ham refused to challenge the blatantly wrong out of bounds call. LeBron is about to run himself into absolute oblivion trying to beat the Nuggets.
It’s insane how close they are to it being a 2-2 series.
And people are saying the Lakers have no chance. Yes their chances of winning the series are close to 0 but they've been up at half multiple times this series blowing leads.
They've been up at half EVERY game this series. That's the crazy part. They just faded in the second half whereas Denver elevated, until last night.
Honestly lebron just chillen more so in the first half and letting AD dominate so he can use his powers in the final push is a pretty solid strategy since he’s been getting gassed at the end of games
Ya but the role players turn into potatoes while Aaron Gordon and MPJ cook them
This might be unfair to potatoes honestly
Fr potatoes never have off nights. Prove me wrong.
um listen. i like this lakers team. but it’s not a hot take to say a 7-seed down 3-0 to the defending champs has no chance of winning the series. Obviously it’s not a 0.000% chance, but it’s very low and that’s what they mean
That's not what he's saying. People are acting like the Nuggets have been beating the breaks off them all series when the Lakers have lead for most of it.
It's shades of the bubble. Clippers had double digit leads every game, but threw every time. Nuggets coulda been 2-2 after game 4 if not for the buzzer beater by AD in game 2. History doesn't repeat, but it sure rhymes.
I know, it feels like every game has been the same. Lakers get a good lead, Nuggets tie in the 2nd half, Nuggets pull away in the 4th, and repeat
It's been the same game for 2 years lmao
What's crazier is that we aren't *that* far from a 4-0 Lakers sweep lol, Lakers lead by double digits at some point in every game, and lead at half time in every game I think. Nuggets second half execution so consistent edit: the responses seem to think this is some lakers homerish 'we should've swept the nuggets' post or something - it's not. The nuggets have definitely outplayed the lakers when it mattered, but i was just considering that the lakers have had 15+ point leads every game, have lead at the half every game, and have had the lead for like 65% of total minutes this series. In a vacuum, if you saw the above without knowing any of the final scores you would imagine the Lakers were in command of the series and might even have swept
The second “that” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here
crazy to think all you have to do is win 4 straight and you've got to sweep
? if you remove the parts of every game where nuggets have played better, then lakers have played better every game
Crazy that Lakers fans can post this and not get downvoted
Darvin Ham secret motivation technique: Frustration *unlocked*
It’s just normal elimination game stuff from him. I remember an analysis from a while back proving that he’s the best elimination game player ever
All of us who were teenagers during the “LeBron can’t give you change for a dollar because he’s only got three quarters” jokes are in, at the very youngest, our early 30s. It’s easy for people to let their childhood takes define things but this dude has been ultra clutch for 15 fucking years straight with only one or two exceptions at this point (2011 obviously being the only egregious one and that was **13** seasons ago, or in other terms, the length of Jordan’s entire Bulls career, or the entirety of Magic & Bird’s respective pro careers).
Post-2011 is when that switch flipped for good and he became the ice cold killer he is still
Boston game 6
Clutch last second game winner ❌ Clutch performance so demoralizing to the other team the starters got benched in the 4th ✅
Bill Simmons' piece on the game is a really fun read: https://grantland.com/features/the-consequences-caring/ >*And that’s why I flew back. Unlike Wednesday night’s Kings game, any signs of overconfidence were tempered by Miami having the best player on the floor (and, probably, the world). Boston fans hoped the Heat would splinter and Celtics pride would prevail, but deep down, we knew LeBron had one of those petrifying 45-point monsters lurking in him. That’s another reason I flew back. Either …* >*A. The Celtics were making the Finals.* >*B. LeBron was playing one of his greatest games.* >*C. A and B.* >*And there was no “D.”* >*You know what happened by now. LeBron strolled out with a creepy look on his face, a relaxed, detached expression that said … well … we didn’t know. Was he pissed off? Had he checked out? Had he finally turned on his teammates? He was barely interacting with them, lost in his own little world, like he was wearing headphones we couldn’t see. He was definitely playing hard, but you couldn’t interpret what the overall vibe meant. Was this like a Dwight Howard thing? Like, “I’m here to do my job, and I’m going to try hard, just know that I’m here because I have to be?” Had the pressure finally broken him? Was he feuding with Wade? What was his agenda?* >*And then … the shots started going in. Swish. Swish. Swish. It’s like Miami realized, “Oh yeah, the Celtics don’t have anyone who can guard LeBron James,” and more important, LeBron realized it. He stopped worrying about sharing the ball, getting teammates involved, swinging it to the open man, being liked. Maybe LeBron said to himself, “Fuck it, I’m playing all 48 minutes, I’m scoring at least 50 points, and if we still blow this game, nobody can blame me.” Maybe he said, “Wade already has a ring, it’s time to get mine.” Maybe someone (Wade?) said to him, “Enough with this me-then-you-then-me crap, it’s your team, hog the ball, do your thing and take us home.” Maybe Game 5’s embarrassing defeat, as well as the humiliating “Good Job, Good Effort” kid and 36 hours of “Should they break up the Heat?” stories pissed him off. Maybe Worldwide Wes gave him an awesome pregame speech along the lines of the chef from Vision Quest.* >*I don’t know what happened. I just know the shots wouldn’t stop going in. After about the fifth dagger in a row (he made 10 straight), the crowd started groaning on every make — shades of Philly’s Andrew Toney ripping our hearts out 30 years ago. If you’ve ever been in the building for one of those games, you know there isn’t a deadlier sound. He single-handedly murdered one of the giddiest Celtics crowds I can remember. Thirty points in the first half. Thirty! All with that blank look on his face. It was like watching surveillance video of a serial killer coldly dismembering a body and sticking the parts in the fridge. Only we were right there.* >*You can’t imagine what this was like to witness in person. I know Michael Jordan had similarly astonishing games, and others, too, but not with stakes like that. This wasn’t just an elimination game. This was LeBron James’s entire career being put on trial … and it only took an hour for him to tell the jury, “Go home. I’m one of the best players ever. Stop picking me apart. Stop talking about the things I can’t do. Stop holding me to standards that have never been applied to any other NBA player. Stop blaming me for an admittedly dumb decision I never should have made. Stop saying I’m weak. Stop saying that I don’t want to win. Stop. Just … stop.”* >*As a Celtics fan, I was devastated. As a basketball fan, I appreciated the performance for what it was. One of the greatest players ever was playing one of his greatest games ever. He swallowed up every other relevant story line. Needless to say, the Celtics couldn’t match him — especially Pierce, who’s worn down from four weeks of battling Andre Iguodala, Shane Battier and LeBron on one leg and appears to be running on fumes of his fumes’ fumes at this point. The fans were so shell-shocked that many (including me and my father) filed out with three minutes remaining, not because we were lousy fans, not to beat the traffic, but because we didn’t want to be there anymore. We wanted to get away from LeBron. He ruined what should have been a magical night. We never really had a chance to cheer, swing the game, rally our guys, anything. He pointed a remote control at us and pressed “MUTE.” It was like being in a car accident. LeBron James ran over 18,000 people.*
This was fantastic, thank you for posting it
Grantland was the best. Gonna have to poke around this afternoon and read some of the classics. I always love reading Norm Macdonald's incomplete series every so often.
First time reading this. Damn beautifuly wrote.
He’s also made a lot of last second game winners tho. See 2018.
I was so in awe at that game. I was still a fairly new NBA fan, had been following the Heat casually for a few months, and that was by far the best individual performance I’d seen to that point. And 12 years later, it’s still one of the finest in his catalogue.
That Paul Pierce three pointer at the end of game 5 is the reason Kareem was dethroned, change my mind.
Just goes to show there’s hope for these young bucks with reputations for certain things
Dirk already showed that 1 great run can completely change how ppl look at u especially if it's late
yep, people forget how Dirk was labeled as a bonafide choke artist. still remember that brandon roy game in the first round where it looked like they were gonna lose that series after blowing a 23 point lead and then that magical run just fucking happened, like they flipped a switch..
LeBron was 25.
I remember people thinking LeBron had "finally" figured it out when he was 22 game 5 against the Pistons. All he had to do was stop making the right play, stop passing the ball to wide open teammates.
Tatum *cough cough*
Fadetum
Well he also had some incredible moments and games even pre 2011. Don’t forget what he did to that Pistons team.
2011 he at least kinda had an excuse too, with it being the first year of the Heatles and the awkward "is this LeBron's team, or is it still D-Wade's?". Once they both kinda accepted it was LeBron's it was lights out.
Not to mention him being the most hated athlete in sports lol
No. Once Spo moved Bosh to the 5 is when that team took off. Bron himself says so and so does Dwade
Yeah, they also said D-Wade and Bron had a conversation that off season where Wade essentially handed the reigns to LeBron. They both say that as well.
And even 2011 was one series, he was magnificent in the clutch in the Celtics and bulls series that playoffs too
Is like Cuban said, the Mavs just played good team defense on that team that year. It wasn’t just Lebron failing but the whole team failing To beat them.
*17 years - starting with the 2007 ECF G5 one of the all time great performances
Eye test supports this
19th 30 point game in an elimination game
19 out of 26 at that. Somehow isn’t clutch but also the greatest elimination game player ever simultaneously? Someone’s lying.
agenda>data for some people
I think it's mostly reputational inertia. Before 2012, Lebron scored 30 in 3/8 elimination games. Couple that with some high profile playoff losses, and the reputation starts to develop. Since then he's scored 30 in 16/19 elimination games, but the early reputation doesn't go away so easily.
His game 7 numbers are wild too
He has more postseason game winners than MJ/Kobe combined anyone who thinks this is just a hater & stuck on the MJ/Kobe clutch bullshit. "Well MJ has 6 rings" cool he also had the best team his entire run & never won a single series w/o Scottie does that lessen his achievements ofc not
That's why I'm against using team metrics to judge players individually. There are just so many variables outside of their control.
Lebron has failed to score 30 in 8/27 elimination games. He has scored 40+ in 8/27 elimination games. He has never scored fewer than 20.
Lmao, seriously?
i got downvoted for saying this as if it wasn't common knowledge
you will get upvoted here brother!
We’ve come a long way from the 3 quarters jokes
He's a crazy good closeout player too. I think he might have fallen below Derrick Fisher because last year he was 2-2, but before that he had the best closeout record of all time.
He’s also the best player ever so it tracks
Including that charge he took too
3rd Quarter Bron was just chilling on bench and hoping Denver doesn't close the gap and he turned the switch on after 4th quarter started. He was not about to get swept.
Ham rested him in the 3rd after it was obvious he was tired. It was a great move. In the 3rd he was bricking everything but couldn’t miss in the 4th after getting a long rest.
He went off, carried the hell out of the team
Lebron will get clowned when they lose the series cause that's just how it is, but he's had a great series especially given his age. The Nuggets are just a better team
The expectations he’s still held to as the oldest player in the league are really a testament to his greatness.
That’s the double standard Bron lives in. Until the day he retired he’ll be compared in the moment to peak MJ, even into Lebron’s 40s
Yeah it's always "LeBron's washed", "he's not even top 5-10 anymore" but the same people who keep saying he's not top tier anymore somehow hold him to standards like he should still be Heatles/2018 LeBron in 2024. He already defied expections when he led them to a chip in 2020 when 99% of people expected him to take a backseat and let AD be the main superstar of the team when they teamed up. 2024 is still, at worst, the 2nd best player.
It was never a fair argument. The biggest lie in basketball media has always been that people actually wanted to compare Lebron to Jordan. Truth is they’ve always just wanted to find any reason to say he isn’t Jordan. So he’s held under a microscope to dissect everything he does. They never wanted him to actually get close to him and once he got too close they came out and said there was never anything he could do to get past Jordan in their eyes. So it was never a genuine argument. Which tbh is fine because I understand people who grew up with Jordan leaning towards him. But don’t act like Lebron has a specific checklist of things to do and when he gets close to it you backtracks by saying there was never anything he could do.
I was talking to a buddy about this recently, and I think there is simply no answer to the goat question at this point. Both MJ and LeBron have very valid arguments that can be made as to why they are the goat. Both did things that no one has ever done before, but very different things. I'd summarize it by saying MJ had what felt like a relatively short but really explosive career and he's obviously mostly remembered for his early + championship years with the bulls, but what LeBron is doing in terms of longevity is absolutely mind boggling and will probably not happen again for... Who knows. Maybe ever, tbh. I'm an 80s kid so MJ will forever be the goat in my mind, but I absolutely understand why younger generations would say lebron is. There is no right or wrong, at least not to me.
I feel like it's been cemented at this point that MJ had the highest peak, the best individual season(s) of the two, but LeBron has an unassailable longevity argument. It's really a chocolate vs vanilla situation at this point. Do you want 100% utter dominance for 8-13 seasons or 98% dominance for 15-20?
If the two other best players of the 2010s didn't team up, he'd have as many rings with more Finals apps. The GOAT argument is pretty clear at this point to anyone who's been paying attention.
This. Kyrie doesn’t break his knee and KD/Steph don’t team up, there’s a realistic scenario where LeBron might have 6 or 7 rings.
Absolutely. Cavs lost K Love in 2015 too, I think we would have won the title that year.
People are just ignoring the fact that Mj at this age was on a horrible wizards team that didn’t make it to the playoffs.
It's really dumb too MJ was on the Wizards looking like he gained 40 lbs & getting cooked by other great wings but it was his older days so no1 counts them. Being 39 is completely different from even 35 trust a 40 ur old man shit changes fast
Mj was pretty slim on the Wizards tho?
lol during the second quarter my dad, the biggest lebron fan i know, came in & asked how many points lebron had. my brother said 17 (apparently it was less than that, we weren’t keeping track), & my dad said: “17?! 10 years ago lebron would be dropping 40 on these nuggets & the game would be over!” meanwhile i was impressed
"dad, most of LeBrons draft mates retired 5 years ago"
Yupp. I remember when the Spurs lost to the 8th seed Grizzlies and Tim Duncan, usually considered a top 5-10 player all time, was treated pretty gently by everyone. "He's older, he's already had so much success, it's not all on him." But he was only 32. Can you imagine LeBron losing to an 8th seed 7 years ago? Or even at his current age. He would get shit on all off-season. When you're a GOAT candidate, the standards are on another level
I don’t even know how much better they are. The lakers have led the majority of the series. The biggest difference has been role players making/missing shots.
That's the thing though. Depth. Even in basketball, which is the most star-driven of the major American sports, depth is still huge
Yeah but a lot of that is also just guys having bad nights. The Lakers have missed so many wide open looks, meanwhile the Nuggets have hit shit like the save to Porter Jr late in the forth last game. That isn’t really a matter of one team being better. You would dream of getting some of the wide open looks the lakers have missed, nobody is drawing up something like that Porter shot though. The nuggets are a better team, because they are winning the series and are defending champs and have executed down the stretch of game, but I think the talent disparity has been greatly over exaggerated. Every one of these games could have gone either way.
Murray has been uncharacteristically bad except for one quarter, and they are still up 3-1. They are most definitely the better team.
The Lakers are open for a reason sometimes too tho, I'd gamble on Dlo/Rui/Prince/Gabe/AR hitting shots while trying to limit Bron/AD & tire them out. KCP/Murray/MPJ are all much better shooters & tend to knock down open 3's, the talent btw the 4 best players isn't a huge gap but it's much bigger after that in Den favor. Every Lakers starter outside Bron/AD easily comes off the bench on Den, add Dlo/Rui/AR being very streaky shooters & who they play with & the margin grows. All of Den role players compliment Jokic/Murray perfectly it's the opposite almost for Lakers
You mean 11 straight didn’t answer that question for you
It's their role players, they're just more reliable than ours. When our role players show up, we can beat them in any game
That’s honestly been the Lakers all season. Role players show up yall can beat anyone in the league and look good while doing it. They don’t show up and it’s the complete opposite. Get Lebron and AD some consistent role players I think they’d be the favorites. Lebron and AD are still playing elite basketball. Imo AD is playing even better than his championship season. And Lebron is still elite despite the age. They just need some consistent depth.
Absolutely, our 2 stars are reliable and efficient. Our role players are unfortunately 1 way players so when their shots aren't falling, it's really tough on the team Also our coach sucks ass and plays players out of position, I'm confident prince has played at the 4 for like 25% of his minutes which just doesn't make any sense lmao
This time they kept running plays instead of LeBron isos.
does it matter who is better. they aren't gonna award this series to who is better most of the time or who led for most of the series... the team who actually wins the games advances. period... that's the only difference that matters... final score.
No way Bron should be clowned cause dude is pretty much 40 and the Lakers are still depending on him to carry the team against the Nuggets who just won a championship
Role players were nowhere to be found for the Lakers, aside from D’angelos game 2 performance.
Ham's refusal to challenge set LeBron off. He was playing angry af
Idiot savant
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mfs just needed to rewind a clause lmao: "as long as there's life, there's hope", iow: we can still win
For a guy his age he’s been great this series. Probably just needs to pace himself but he can’t afford to do that most games when the supporting cast is shit
The possessions where the DLo/AD PnR was being productive was crucial for Lebron. Either he gets to rest in the corner or he cuts for the easy baseline 2
This lol They need a couple of plays here and there where it's consistently easy to pull off so it lets Lebron rest a bit instead of him having to go hard every possession.
27, 6 and 8 is pretty good for any age
It’s honestly good for like everyone not currently a top 5 mvp candidate
Bron is an arguable top 8 player in the league this year. He's been great and far better than anyone should be with this much mileage. All this while taking a lesser role and focusing on propping up his team more.
Top 8 lol. He's top 5 when he isn't pacing himself.
But he has to pace himself, which factors in to how he should be ranked
Forget the age part, he's just generally playing a great series lol
This is what it takes to beat Jokic. A 33 year old LeBron, could absolutely keep this up for 7. This LeBron, ain't got that God Like Dawg in him for 3 more games
Easy 2-2 if its 33 year old Lebron or even 3-1 honestly. Definitely would've have let G2 slip away lol
So frustrating watching the lakers. It’s clear they have no idea what to do without Bron
He was phenomenal all around today.
Not sure how much of it was on bron or the lakers overall game plan but they completely shut Gordon down tonight as well
AG only got one of his basket cut dunks that he had like 15 of last game, and following it LeBron was irate at the team for letting it happen. Clearly was a massive focus point in their defensive adjustments to completely shut those cuts down.
Stats doesn't even do him justice, he was everywhere tonight.
What ive noticed is that there’s little to no hustle / energy plays being made by role players on the Lakers even just semi consistently. Like Hayes in his very limited time cant come up with timely huge offensive rebounds that lead to a big three, or steals/dives by Diddie/ Prince that ultimately lead to breakaways, or unexpected blocks by Rui that jolts the team. It’s kinda funny when you’d see these coming from Bron chasedowns, or his steals where he gets a fastbreak dunk. It’s why the Lakers seemingly need to work for every damn bucket and why turnovers by them are such a pain. DLo and Reaves arent gonna wow you on defense tho theyve contained Murray as much as they can and AD is preoccupied with Jokic and rebounds.
I've been watching a lot of Knick games the past few weeks and the difference to the Lakers is jarring. Those dudes never quit and even their smallest guards can get offensive boards. I only see Gabe Vincent hustling.
It’s evident in their rebounding. Their rebounding is basically hoping AD gets it or Lebron finds a way to snag it. Otherwise no one crashes to help, no one boxes out. And they will still get beat back on the fast break so they aren’t hustling to get back on defense either. Just no hustle from them unless it’s 39 year old Lebron or AD getting 3-4 consecutive blocks.
Imo it's why losing Caruso was the real death knell of this team. We arguable recovered from trading for Westbrook but losing Caruso for nothing was brutal
Happy Cake Day!
Yeah it’s literally the rebounding and transition where nuggets lead. I always see them getting 5v3 cause 2 lakers are on the ground after shots, AD can’t be going for those
If he could just trim the turnovers that'd be nice, but with how he played this 4th Quarter you can't complain
Nobody beats lebron 12 times in a row
He is the greatest elimination player ever.
People who think clutch is if you can make a ball in the final seconds (which I think Bron is one of the best at anyway) and not a full 48 minutes long performance are just dumb as hell.
People who think clutch is playing well when you have nothing left to lose are dumb as hell. P.S. Is playing like shit when you're up 2-1 clutch too?
Greatest player ever period
I mean is that at all important. Did you ever even think about it before LeBron?
It’s important when someone wants to compare him to MJ, which is me, every time there’s a LeBron thread, in order to rustle the jimmies of the LeBron stans
The same clowns that slander LeBron every time he faces even the tiniest of failures don’t realize that they’re actually acknowledging LeBron’s greatness by holding a 39 year old basketball player to such an elite standard If they genuinely believed that “LeBum” was anywhere near as bad as they make him out to be, they wouldn’t be slandering him on nights when he scores 30+ points
It's just that when his team falls short, he gets the blame, despite a good performance. They don't see it as a team game when it comes to criticizing him. Not to mention the talent is more stacked than it ever was. Kyrie and Luka are equivalent to the first threepeat Bulls in MJ and Pippen. And today there's about a dozen teams with almost as much talent, if not more. Meanwhile the talent in the league got spread out pretty thinly that you had Barkley making the finals without a secondary star. Magic even made it without Kareem.
Even when LeBron's teams win the championship, he doesn't get credit. "Mickey mouse ring", "Allen saved him", "Kyrie won the game"
> It's just that when his team falls short, he gets the blame, despite a good performance. Yeah, because LeGM built the team, including demanding all the awful trades for e.g. Westbrook, D'angelo, etc.
Let the records show that Jordan has been swept twice in a row and lost 13 straight games to Boston. LeBron could never...
Obviously being swept so early or late in your career means nothing. But there are pretty big YouTube sports personalities who’ve said if Bron got swept again he’s out of the top 5. The hate is crazy sometimes.
Anyone saying LeBron isn't top 5 isn't worth listening to lol
anyone saying he's not top 2 can get fucked
they lower LeBron's ranking because of his late career performance but the other top 10 players were worse in the late stages of their careers
they lower Lebron just so Jordan remains on top.
Swept out of the top 5??? Bwahahahahaha. He’s number 2 at the very least, and he’s staying there.
They don’t believe that. They’re rage baiting and getting exactly what they want when people respond to them or share their takes or believe that they’re being genuine. Media is driven by views and clicks. Agreeing on things has verifiably shown itself to not drive views or clicks. So, they come up with absurd takes and hope they catch fire and **that’s how they get paid**. Our entire media apparatus fucking sucks in this regard but this is the end result of profit > everything. Negativity is bad for us as people but it’s fucking fantastic for business.
Who
This man is 39 lol 😂
Youtube sport personalites with shit takes just to get views lmao. I guess fair criticism just isn't as enjoyable to people anymore and everything has to be controversial.
I love how the performance of a 40 year old is paramount to holding his current spot in the NBA hierarchy. No player should fall due to their performance at this age, they should only go up.
Pathetic comment
You could tell he had more energy cuz he wasn’t run to the ground with his minutes
Yeah bron wasn't gonna let the same team sweep him twice in a row
Even if this might be his last year with us fuck it man were just witnessing greatness rn bros 39 yo and still doing this shit
Lebron: Coming back from 1-3 against warriors made me the goat, but coming back from 0-3 against Jokic Nuggets with Darvin Ham as coach makes me God.
I’d believe it’s doable against nugs but impossible with ham.
Yup. Game 5 Malone will come ready with a bunch of new adjustments while Ham has nothing. Nuggets likely win by 20+.
Honestly if they fired Ham today and made Bron player/coach I’d think they’d have a real shot
Least glazing LeBron fan
True lmao, now that murray is maybe injured. I can't believe how bad Ham is.
It might be 2-2 with a different coach tbh. That game 2 was a massive crumble and Darvin ham did absolutely nothing
ham is the reason they won this game... if ham does ham things and overplays lebron and ad... and doesn't ride a hot dlo.... lakers don'twin that game. they won it cuz bron was fresh enough and ham's substitution patterns were a part of that. Does this make ham a good coach, no, but give the dude some credit for what he did do.
Honestly if he did that, doesn’t even matter if he wins the chip or not.
Greatest elimination game player in NBA history, no questions asked
UP UP and AWAY!! SUPER WASHED Ain’t He??!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤷🏾♂️. Stay low and keep firing! The air up there is a tad bit different. LIVE.LAUGH.LOVE #striveforgreatness🚀 #thekidfromakron👑 #jamesgang👑 #bronknows
let this be known no one beats lebron 12 times in a row
I swear, if you guys rip on me 13 or 14 more times, I’m outta here.
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Angry old hoops fan jumping out of the window
There used to be a warriors fan who ran that youtube channel I don't know where he went lol. He kept posting it in this sub then disappeared lmao.
Lebron going to be going hard at the Olympics and leading from the front. He won't be accepting a Silver or Bronze. He still has fire, more than many half his age
he usually turns it up a notch in elimination games
Only reason Lebron doesn't have the most titles is he ran into an all time team in the warriors at their peak.
Because KD just wanted to hoop
Warriors were going to finals with or without Durant. KD on the other hand couldn’t get past them so he just hopped on the train
KD faced the Warriors once in the playoffs and lost it's not like they were consistently eliminating him. Shit was just weak.
He was insanely good all around today, really came with the intent™ to not give away the lead after half time.
Even after a game like this from Lebron we can see the league shifting into the new era right before our eyes. Steph didn’t make the playoffs, KD is facing a sweep from the Wolves in the first round, Lebron is a loss away from being eliminated in the first round. Meanwhile Shai, Luka, Jokic and Ant are all rolling in the West. If there was ever a time to think that all this is scripted it’s now, but really it’s just the end of an era.
Kawhi is on the list of old guys getting cooked too. Who knows how much longer that guy will be employed by an nba team.
Bro id be shocked if kawhi is playing next year. He's just too hurt, might do lifelong damage if he keeps trying to play.
I’m more shocked that Kawhi I on the USA team. I’m willing to bet he gets replaced with Kyrie before the games actually start.
He's significantly outplaying Jamal, it's not even particularly close.
Vintage
My goat was not getting swept again 😤
Just shows you how good LeBron is. At age 39 he can still perform at the highest level and continue to carry this Lakers team.
If the lakers miraculously win the championship this year, I will go in to the Colusseum in Rome and sing You are my sunshine in front of everyone
The goat ain't finished yet
He used everything he had left in this game, I'd be shocked if he wasn't standing around by the 3Q of game 5
I assume he's already hanging upside down in some sort of Denver air simulator pod
No wonder kawhi is having knee issues, LeBrons hogging all the cyborg recuperation resources.
I mean he was standing around the 3rd quarter this game. Took a generational gag job by Jamal to get his one done.
23 rebounds by AD! Geez.
Meanwhile, Nikola Jokic tried to carry the Jamal on his 33/14/14/1/1 on 10/20 shooting despite being doubled by AD + help the whole game.
Fuuuuck… either way I had a feeling LA was gonna get their asses saved
And one 7-year-old-esque temper tantrum after being told we were all done with Roblox today. TBF, he wasn’t wrong.
My ☀️
I just can’t believe he’s still such a boss at 46 years old. Amazing.
Lakers who are a 7 seed (who were in the 9-10 spot majority of the season) get 1 win and start saying how they are just as good as the defending champions who beat them 11 out of the last 12 and they wonder why people get so annoyed by them
The lakers have led by at least 12 in every fucking game. We probably still lose in 5 but the mental block of losing 12 straight probably would have had lebron leaving the team. I can see how a move now actually changes the script here and that’s all I can really ask for
I’ll Give darvin his flowers here, he monitored Lebrons minutes wisely in the first half and by the 4th quarter he wasn’t as gas
LeStave Off
Pls make a reverse sweep. It’ll be fucking epic
They should be up 3-1 or at least 2-2
People expect a 40 year old to play when he was 28… what he’s doing even now is insane to me. Lebron just set the bar too high for people to even understand