On December 26, Beijing time, the NBA's annual year-end battle, the Lakers lost to the Nets 115-122 at home, suffering a wave of 5 consecutive losses. In the whole game, James started 40 minutes and shot 14 of 25, including 3 of 9 three-pointers and 8 of 9 from the free throw line, contributing 39 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals, and the plus-minus on the court was +9.
As far as this game is concerned, I think James's performance is unquestionable, but after the game, there were a lot of people talking about James being blocked, which I think is a bit incredible.
With 45 seconds left in the fourth quarter of the game, the Lakers offensive round, James held the ball to advance to find Munch, who made a layup, and the two sides played 115 draws; and in the subsequent Nets offensive round, Harden broke through the inside line with the ball and threw the ball high into the air, Clarkston received the ball to meet James's defense, smashed the ball into the basket, and played 2+1; after that, James did not score, and Wei Shao grabbed the offensive rebound dunk and was blocked by the basket, completely ruining the Lakers' hope of overturning.
Admittedly, Harden's pass is crucial, Clarkston's end is tough, and this ball is worth blowing for a lifetime, but we should not deny James's efforts throughout the game. Before the end of the third quarter, Westbrook led the team alone by the Nets to stretch the point difference to 20 points; throughout the fourth quarter, James contributed 13 points, 6 assists, 2 steals and 3 three-pointers in a single quarter, leading the team to erase the point difference in the minute before the end of the game. But at this critical moment, What did Westbrook do, missing Mills' bottom corner three points, and the dunk did not bury hope. Originally Clarkston was Anthony in the defense, but he was easily freed, which has the picture of James being blocked, the veteran who is about to turn 37, played 40 minutes in the whole game, and has a lot of times played the role of center forward, 2 meters 03 height, by 2 meters 11 Clarkston blocked, I think there is no shame at all. In fact, James has already judged Harden's intention to pass the air connection, and he is really helpless.
According to statistics after the game, in the 40 minutes of James' appearance, the Lakers won by 11 points, and in the 8 minutes of his rest, the Lakers lost 18 points. In the past 5 games, James can average 31.6 points, 9.8 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.4 blocks per game, shooting 56% from the field, but the Lakers are difficult to win. (Isn't this the full strength we are expecting, but unfortunately it really can't be moved)
According to the report in the front, Wei Shao refused to be interviewed after the game, and James talked about Wei Shao's performance in an interview, which was also slightly helpless, he said: "This guy played very hard, he tried his best, I have no opinion on this"! (What's the use of hard work, in addition to grabbing rebounds actively, if you can advance and dunk the air crash, you won't waste James's efforts)