In such a season that seems doomed to failure, James himself still has a goal to pursue.
James has long been a player who is very good at controlling his emotions, especially considering that his career is so long, he is so much in the attention of the outside world, and he has experienced so many ups and downs, and the occasional few times in the past that his emotions have gotten out of control are also acceptable.
However, in the game against the Raptors on the 15th, we met a LeBron James who was particularly emotionally abnormal, it seems that from the first quarter of the game, James was fighting with himself, fighting with the people around him, and in the first quarter of the game, James smashed the basketball three times after a defensive foul on the team, and glared at the young player Gabriel on the side, Gabriel could only face it with a bitter smile.
In the following games, James has repeatedly shown his dissatisfaction with the game from the body language, and this dissatisfaction is not limited to the opponent, but also teammates, after a pass error by Stanley Johnson, James did not look at Johnson, but the camera clearly captured James's anger at Johnson's mistake, for Johnson, at that time, he was undoubtedly lucky not to be glared at by James, otherwise it may cause him another psychological blow.
Due to the Lakers' overall fall behind, James also lost his mind in the entanglement with his opponents, in the first half of the game, he smashed the ball the face of Raptors rookie Barnes, although the intention of James was to save the ball, but from the action point of view, this obviously has a venting meaning, and in the subsequent game, James also knocked down Siakam with his elbow in the fast attack (the referee ruled a defensive foul) and pushed Trent down in the scramble.
Throughout the game, James's body language exuded a frustrated mood, and after the team eventually lost, James did not choose to give any interviews to the media after the game.
When was the last time James was emotionally out of control during the game? Maybe we have to go back to the 2016 Finals G4, where James's performance was not outstanding, he also had some radical moves in the game, the Cavaliers were eventually defeated by the Warriors, the total score came to 1-3, and everything looked like the trend was over. Today, James is undoubtedly in a similar mood, which is called despair.
Since the All-Star, the Lakers have only won 2 games, the common denominator of both games is that James has scored at least 50 points, in other words, only if James gets 50+, the Lakers can win the game, according to the final score with the Raptors, if James who scored 30 points can get 50 points, then they will eventually win, ask, when a team has relied on a player to this extent, as the core of this team, how can you not despair? What's more, James knows better than anyone the future prospects of this Lakers team.
In the case that Anthony Davis still can't come back in the short term, the rest of the regular season, James can still only lead the team alone, he clearly knows that the strength of this Lakers team today, can almost be described as useless, their defense is bad enough, they don't have enough outstanding players to compete with opponents like the Raptors, on the offensive end, they always have Wei Shao's existence of dragging down the team space, and the Lakers team is not a team that is good at shooting three points. This prevented James from fully exercising his ability to control the field with his sudden pass.
In the Finals 6 years ago, James's despair finally came back to the bottom, and the Cavaliers achieved a stunning reversal in the case of 1-3, becoming the first team in NBA history to win the championship after falling behind 1-3, but now this despair, from the current situation, is the real sense of despair, because you really don't see any possibility that this Lakers team can change the status quo.
In the game with the Raptors, James scored 14 points in the final quarter, and his score reached 30 points, 30 points have almost become his routine operation in the past period of time, perhaps many people will question James's process of getting 30 points, such as today's game, in the case of the general trend at the last moment, James got 4 points again, so that his score came to 30+, which will be regarded by many people as a performance of brushing points, but in the case of the Lakers' situation has been so bad, For James, who fights with injuries, such a score is undoubtedly beyond reproach.
In such a season that seems doomed to failure, James himself still has a goal to pursue, his career total points are close to The NBA's all-time scoring list No. 2 Carl Malone, and then in front of him only the first place in Abdul-Jabbar, with James' current competitive state, next season he will complete the catch-up for Abdul-Jabbar and reach the first place in history.
In addition, this season's James has a personal goal to chase, that is, the scoring king, James has never been known for scoring, but never underestimate his scoring ability, as of now, James can average 29.5 points per game, ranking second in the league after Embiid (29.9 points per game) and Alphabet Brother (29.8 points).
In his previous career, James has not failed to take the scoring king, but if he can get the scoring king at the age of 37, obviously in a different sense, it will be the oldest scoring king in the history of the NBA, James will also attach great importance to this, in the previous interview, James has said that he does not like the outside world to think that he is not a scorer, so James also has to prove that he is also a great scorer, even if he is 37 years old.
Basketball is a five-person sport, and the problems of the Lakers today are difficult for James to solve alone, and he should not be criticized so much for the Lakers' poor record, but in addition to the team's results, James can at least prove that he is still one of the best players in the league at least on the offensive end, and for him, this is the final consolation of such a desperate season.
Wen | Li Hui
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