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Bright lights, big stage, same LeBron.
Unmoved by postseason pressure, superstar LeBron James said he doesn’t plan to change his preparation ahead of the Lakers’ playoff opener against the Houston Rockets on Saturday. Approaching his record-tying 19th postseason appearance, James has reason to believe in his well-established routine.
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“Nothing changes for me from the regular season to the postseason,” James said, “besides just making even more heightened focus.”
The consistent approach that guided him through 23 regular seasons puts James in position to star in another high-stakes game as the Lakers (53-29) chase the franchise’s 18th NBA championship. James will command almost the entire spotlight with guards Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves still sidelined.
The 41-year-old, 22-time All-Star has never had a problem with being a leading man.
“I think a lot of the great players, the best players, what they’re addicted to is being the showman,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said, referencing Stephen Curry’s fourth-quarter heroics that pushed the Golden State Warriors over the Clippers in a thrilling play-in game Wednesday night. “And being on the stage and giving a performance. …
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“One of the reasons they’re great and they’re able to be the showman so consistently is because they recognize [that] to be the showman, I have to do all the things necessary to then go on stage and perform at my best. And that’s the commitment with LeBron that I’ve talked about so often.”
The stage is set for a star-studded first-round series with James and Houston’s Kevin Durant. The Rockets’ superstar rose to fifth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list this season. He and James, the league’s all-time leading scorer, have 76,037 combined regular-season points, more than the rest of the Lakers’ roster combined (57,341).
“He’s the head of the snake,” James said of Durant. “But it’s the Houston Rockets and they have some damned good players on that team.”
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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/knows-most-lebron-james-sets-233016455.html
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Publish date : 2026-04-16 23:30:00
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