The immortal Keita Bates-Diop with 30 points and 11/11 from the field.The Lakers defense without Davis. Woof.
I'm impressed with LeBron but not necessarilly in a good way. Watching him play he really feels like a different player, even if statistically he has managed to remain basically at or near his career averages. He really doesn't feel like a game-changing athlete anymore. On defense, many players can blow by him if they get him switched on to them. On offense he just doesn't have a lot of lift and he doesn't get out in transition the way he used to. He is relying a lot on tough-turnarounds and taking more threes (only making 34% this year) to compensate and yet, he's still shooting 51% from the field. He's kind of turned into Zach Randolph, muscling guys away to get his shots off when normally he could blow right past all but the very best perimeter defenders.
He's averaging 37 mpg this season. The Lakers team seems super-reliant on him just turning into God in the postseason and anhiliating his rivals, but I don't see the athlete that is capable of doing that in 2021. I never, ever want to count LeBron out and a lot of what he has been able to do is remarkable, but I think it's clear his athleticism has slipped a bit and the Lakers are really miserable without him doing everything.