106-108, with Nuggets big man Jamal Murray's half-volley 3.6 seconds before the end, LeBron James and his Lakers' 2023-24 season came to an end. With a score of 1-4, the Lakers fell to the defending champion Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs. This result was actually expected by most people before the game, but when it actually came, there were still many people who would sigh about it. When the next season begins, James will be nearly 40 years old, where will he go, what kind of basketball will he play?
Just a few days ago, the Suns were swept 4-0 by the Timberwolves, and the 36-year-old Kevin Durant and the Suns didn't even end up as good as James. Compared with another 36-year-old league superstar, Stephen Curry, the two Jando also led the team to the playoffs, and Curry's Warriors ended up in 10th place in the West in the regular season, and inevitably suffered a loss in the play-offs. Three superstars in the NBA league, despite their own season stats, can no longer afford to push their teams to the top. "The Jankudu era inevitably came to an end.
Luckily, fans who love them will see the trio of superstars together for the first time at this summer's Paris Olympics. As for the NBA, if Giankudu remains on his current team for the next few seasons, I'm afraid the championship won't be with them again.
Speaking of LeBron James, in the top arena, he can still be the main force of the team at such an advanced age, and is respected and admired by many fans, I am afraid that it is the former Ibrahimovic in football and Ronaldo who is still galloping on the green field. But from "Zhan Huang" to "Lao Zhan", the title of the fans has also changed, and he can no longer save the team by himself, and he is getting farther and farther away from the dream of the championship. In this Game 5 series with the Nuggets, James insisted on staying on the court after being injured, and he did the best he could.
A team-high 30 points, 44 minutes played in high-intensity confrontations, 11 assists and 9 rebounds, almost close to a triple-double, it can be said that he did his best to do nothing. His stats are also a microcosm of his full season, at the age of 39, he appeared in 71 games, averaging nearly 26 points per game, scoring 7.3 rebounds and dishing out 8.3 assists, and achieving 40,000 points in the regular season in the middle of the season. It has to be said that this is the limit of a player of this age, and it is also the only one, which has never been seen before or since.
Despite this, the flashy statistics can't hide the fact that James's influence on the game has declined now, he can't really make the difference between winning and losing a game, and his ability to play key shots is not as good as before. Of course, the overall staffing of the Lakers is also a limitation, Anthony Davis, who is the core of the team's offense and defense, is also 31 years old, and the rest of the players are the kind of second- and third-rate stars in the league who occasionally have wonderful highlights, but they can't last, and the cornerstone of the team is two people whose combined age reaches 70, and this team is destined not to go far.
Throughout the season, the Lakers struggled, for a long time with the Warriors, who were sliding faster, and had been hovering on the edge of the playoff zone, and the two teams were pressed against each other in the rankings. And the defending champion Nuggets and the emerging nobles of the West, the Thunder and the Timberwolves, have long soared. James and Davis took turns to be injured and suspended, and there were not many times when they played together steadily, and the final regular season rankings and the ranking positions and matchups in the playoffs actually predicted that the Lakers would not have a very good ending.
The season is over, and it is not known how the Lakers will change in the offseason, but James is still healthy, and he will definitely continue to play, and he will continue to set various records. Durant and Curry are not yet ready to leave, even if their physical fitness is in a declining stage, their skills are still in the same way, and they are still relatively self-disciplined stars. It's just that they have all passed the peak of their careers and are going downhill, which is an indisputable fact and an irresistible law of nature.
Cherish it, especially at the Paris Olympics, which may well be the only time Jankudu has teamed up in a major tournament. We shouldn't ask for more from three of the biggest stars in the past.
Text/Beiqing Sports Liu Ailin