Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: heatcheck.info/
This is how Lebron disrespectfully exposed Zion’s limitations. Look at him parked all the way under the basket waiting for Williamson and baiting him to shoot any kind of shot.
Just look at this, Zion has the ball but he doesn’t know what to do with it. Valanciunas comes over to set a screen but they’re all too deep and now it’s just crowded. Eventually you got this awkward barreling right into Lebron and this is an offensive foul.
Seriously, look at him going left and right without any idea of what to do. The terrible spacing here doesn’t help him either, so he just has to flip it back to Ingram who forces up a contested jumper. Awful possession.
The game plan was simple. James goes under on all screens and waits for him at the rim, while Davis meets him right here just to not allow Zion to get a head of steam.
And all of these blunders where he runs over people for the offensive foul is based on the fact that he doesn’t have a back to the basket game, no baby jumper, no hooks or a fadeaway shot.
His main and only weapon in the half court is to get a head of steam, take off and adjust midair for the layup or the dunk.
And you can see that it was the exact same scenario in the second half as well, only this time he knows a charge is coming so he tries to avoid it and thus misses the layup.
Williamson was also a complete no show on defense. This type of jogging back while his guy is wide open, and knocks down a three pointer is inexcusable.
Check out this freeze frame of all 5 of his teammates pointing where he should be, and where he actually is-all the way on the other side, and of course Prince hits this one from downtown.
And then right here, he just watches D’Angello Russell go by him all the way to the rim for the layup without any kind of effort to stop him.
The inside the NBA crew criticized him heavily first of all for the shape he’s in, but then also for his overall mentality and lack of aggression.
And how can you not criticize him, when he only shot 8 times for 13 points. 8 shots from your franchise cornerstone in an elimination game like this is unacceptable.
So now compare all of this, along with his postgame comments saying that he’s gotta be more aggressive and look- compare that to the intensity of almost a 39 year old Lebron.
Not only did he come ready to fight from the very first possession, he kept the intensity throughout the entire time, and not just on offense, but look at him doing the little things grabbing Zion on the boxout not allowing him to even see the basketball.
Check out the energy here on this rebound and tell me did this game mean to him or not.
And this is possibly the best example. Watch where Lebron is and where Zion is, and notice the contrast of one guy going full speed and the other acting like this is a scrimmage.
And when you display this kind of passion throughout the entire game, then the basketball gods award you and here come the heat checks.
Lebron and the Lakers deserve to be in the finals as they expose another western contender. They did the same thing to Phoenix the last game and I explained exactly what they did. Check it out here. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.