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So that Game 3 overtime win Friday in Houston was fun, huh?
The Lakers needed it, of course. The Lakers wanted it.
The Lakers are paying for it.
Because LeBron James looked superhuman since playing those 45 minutes, including all five gutsy minutes of ovetime.
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He hasn’t looked great.
Not even particularly good, not by his lofty standards.
And the Lakers need their not-quite-ageless wonder to be at least great to beat these Houston Rockets one more time. They need James’ best can-you-believe-he’s-41? act if they hope to close out this challenging best-of-seven first-round series without Luka Doncic.
The Lakers went up 3-0 largely thanks to James’ contributions.
After weeks of willingly playing third-wheeling behind Doncic and Austin Reaves, James made it look like playing the alpha was like riding a bike in Game 1’s 107-98 victory: He got right on it and gave the Lakers 19 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds.
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Then James had 28 points in the 101-94 victory in Game 2. And there was his monster effort in Game 3, when he had 29 points and 13 assists and, in overtime, a key steal and block in the Lakers’ 112-108 victory.
But James has been much more mortal in the two games since, and the Lakers have lost both.
With a chance to finish off the Rockets in Game 4 on Sunday at the Toyota Center, James had almost as many turnovers as points: eight and 10, respectively.
With a second chance to finish off the Rockets in Game 5 at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday, despite a second day of rest, James had a jagged performance that looked like a lot of work in the Lakers’ 99-93 loss.
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He had a game-high 25 points on nine-of-20 shooting, but he missed all six of his three-point attempts. He smoked layups. And missed three of his 10 free-throws, short on those attempts like he was on many of his misses Wednesday.
And while he had only two turnovers, they were the type to turn a tide, the type we’re not accustomed to witnessing from James. That type the Lakers can’t afford for him to make.
If he were a quarterback, he could have been called for intentional grounding, he overthrew Rui…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/swanson-lakers-another-ageless-lebron-110000799.html
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Publish date : 2026-04-30 11:00:00
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