1 reason is he chills and observes what the team needs while Luka and co carry. Lebron’s wanted to be this for so long and finally got it. If the Lakers had slightly better bench they would be true title contenders

He’s the GOAT for a reason. No one else in history can control all aspects of a game like he can. 

And yet people keep saying he has no clutch gene. Rubbish.

reading this sub you would think he’s complete dogshit though and the sole reason why the lakers aren’t undefeated lmao

Dude is just defying the limits of the human body

Barring major injury this man legitimately has a solid 3-4 years left in the tank (if not more in the right situation), and ASSUMING standard physical decline and the salary considerations are reasonable. Dude is a cyborg. or a space marine progenitor (the Emperor protects).

He’s more machine now than man.

i started to levitate when he hit those threes early in the 4th

His head reached the rim on that ally oop from Luka. At 41. Nutty af.

Unleashing the limits of cryptid physiology.

Bruh that Luka 3 behind Bron at the end of the shot clock made me roll my eyes out the back of my head. My wife asked what happened and all I could say was ‘Pels lost’ lol

If it’s a close game and Luka and LeBron are remotely rested, it’s a wrap

But but analytics and net rating are telling me they are a bad team

Luka bringing Real Madrid dark magic

Absolutely pathetic by this sub. Just goes to show how much they don’t watch the game and just love running with a narrative.

Ayton is putting up 14-8.5 on 70%!!! Shooting on an 8 million dollar contract and people just constantly hate on him and Nitt pick 1-2 small players it’s infuriating

He really locked in during the second half, he wasn’t playing great in the first outside the first few minutes 

When LeBron/Luka/Smart activity look for him he’s great and good things happen

The past few bad DA showings are in smart part due to Luka not doing that

They can be a decent defensive team for 5-10 minutes

If your team isn’t beating us by at least 10 at the start of the 4th quarter, they’re fucked. Full effort Lakers are legit good, it’s just the consistency in effort the other 3 quarters that sucks.

Hopefully we can keep the effort going 

At this point we’re just padding that stat.

This sub says it’s luck, but it’s more about having the second best player ever and another guy who is a top 5 player in the league handling each possession down the stretch. 

Dumbest take of all time was assuming that Bron couldn’t play off ball LMAO

The 13-0 is not the thing people shit on, I mean on paper that’s amazing. But the thing is they get blown out basically in all their losses. Then they play against teams like the Pels and win in the clutch with their main guys playing big minutes. That’s usually a sign that maybe they are going to struggle against great teams, in the playoffs. Tomorrow’s game is probably going to show us once again the level they are at right now once again. Spurs look like they play at 1.5x speed compared to the Lakers.

insanity

It won’t happen, he can lead the league in scoring and gravity as he did with Mavs and he will still be a distant 3rd in voting

Only way he gets it is if Jokic misses too many games with injury and SGA completely fades

Instead he’s stuck in “Cade Cunningham” and “Jaylen Brown” convos.

???

If were being honest, Luka is right where he belongs in that 2nd tier. I’m not sure if he’s playing injured or something but he just hasn’t been the same since the start of December. He still has the same issues defensively, he’s still turning the ball over the most in the entire league, he’s still struggling with his 3pt shot, and he’s still struggling to get the team to flow offensively. Maybe he needs to take a couple of weeks off or something once Reaves is back because the team needs him at his normal MVP level play if they want to make a deep playoff run.

Since early December, Lebron has been the teams best player. That just shouldn’t be the case when Luka is in his prime and LeBron is 41.

hes fun to watch but hes nowhere near SGA lets be real, hes right where he belongs in the “what if everybody else doesnt play 65 games” convo, a solid step below SGA jokic and maybe giannis

And a G Leaguer

Yeah but that’s their issue. Against top teams, playing mediocre even in 1 quarter is a recipe for a blowout. But if they can keep it close, they can win in clutch.

It’s usually why they lose games by 10-20 points. Down 7 in the first, then Luka sits, now down 15, and game over, they just lose their focus, effort and lose

Yeah the trade is really working out for them, but idk I feel like the upcoming draft is a “can’t miss” one if you’re a lottery team.

Still kudos to the Pelicans scouting team for identifying that they can’t miss him.

The only crime was picking Fears instead of just keeping their pick and drafting Queen at 7 instead.

Fears is still young and he may turn out to be a superstar. He’s already way better than most/all 19 yr olds typical trajectory at this point. So there is hope there. Dumars believes so.

Yeah, he’s looking great. Even without his scoring he can contribute. Good gamble from the Pels.

One of my favorites things in basketball is predicting where a Vando open 3 is gonna go, you think surely he hits the rim, but I swear half his misses are airballs

Thing about Vando is he’s always active and doing something, and more often than not it’s a positive (his defensive hustle got them so many extra possessions that I can forgive some of his lapses)

It’s not a hot or cold take. We are literally on track for 40-20.

Yeah I think this is pretty likely barring any bad injuries to LeBron or Luka. 

Not a hot take, we will unless injuries

After Luka hit that crazy shot they pretty much gave up.

We tankin- oh wait

Refs really stepped it up in the 4th

to be fair two starters are missing so the bench is especially bad right now

That first half was the worst bench I’ve seen all year, literally worse than G league level

Rui and Reaves getting healthy will improve the rotation/bench

Well. 2 starters are out, and you have 2 superstars that can easily score 20-30 points.

The bench is not gonna be amazing. It obviously could be better. But really, it’s all about context. 

Vando did his job well too. 

i’m ngl i thought the mythos around the way he takes care of his body was exaggerated, as things tend to be around mega superstars, but it’s actually the only fuckin explanation. dude is a basketball machine.

They didn’t go to him, either the coach or his teammates, or both. Not his fault at all - though technically he could’ve demanded the ball and forced the issue. But that doesn’t seem like Zion’s personality.

You’re a bot

Reaves vs. Wolves

Rui vs. Raptors

Bron vs. 76ers

And Luka!! ✨

Is he bringing our FRP with him? Literally no reason for them to trade for Trae.

Jake’s defense wasn’t great for this game imo. He gave away easy backdoor cuts, was late on a few close-outs, and Murphy treated him like a traffic cone.

our offense is ass right now, no ball movement, too much iso. We are relying on Luka/Bron hitting crazy shots to win. It won’t work in the playoffs.

Dallas was offering Luka. Wasn’t AD’s decision to leave

Luka struggles was getting doubled and blitz most of the game and everyone outside of bron being unable to shoot. 

Every team has close games against and loses to bad teams. Spurs lost to grizz tonight. Wizards have been beating lots of teams lately. At the end of the day, these are all professional basketball players who can go off on a given night and win a game. But Lakers have hung on and are like 14-2 against sub .500 teams and still have guys like you complaining that it was close.

Yeah this game was pelican central despite the refs helping LA all game. Pelicans collapsed in the 4th despite having momentum.