LOS ANGELES — LeBron James’ burst is bonkers.
Always been, still be.
Those 38-year-old legs can still mount a kick capable of catching a sprinting Andrew Wiggins, 10 years his junior, from behind. Of rising up, still a hulking presence in Year 20, and breaking up a touchdown pass attempt, his momentum carrying him on, and on. Up and over the heads of fans seated in the front row and then another 10 rows beyond that.
Quick on his feet, James avoided incident during that foray into the crowd late in the third quarter.
Quick on his feet, he delivered all the perfect, snappy responses mid-game to spur his seventh-seeded Lakers to a 127-97 Game 3 victory on Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena. The home team took a 2-1 lead in this best-of-seven second-round series against the sixth-seeded Golden State Warriors.
James finished with 21 points – all coming in the second and third quarters, when the Lakers outscored the Warriors 63-38 and flipped a seven-point deficit into a gaping 86-68 lead.
He was scoreless – shot-less, actually – in the first quarter and needed for just about a minute in the fourth, because the Lakers were so many miles ahead of the defending champions.
It turned out to be an easy night at the office for James, and a good day for the James Gang. Dad had to play only 33 minutes with his son Bronny in the stands, enjoying the spectacle a couple of hours after he announced on Instagram he’d be taking his talents down the street, to USC.
It will make him, James said, the first member of the family in recent memory to attend a university: “It’s very, very, very exciting and very humbling and a great moment for my family.”
Bronny also was in the building in February to see Pops claim the NBA’s all-time scoring record in February. This time he got to witness it as he moved ahead of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the career playoff rebounding list with his eight boards to match his eight assists.
“I think it’s just a case of allowing the game to come to him,” Ham said of James’ selectively slow start, when he let his game load while D’Angelo Russell fired off the Lakers’ first 11 points and 13 of their first 17. “He’s not gonna be that guy who’s going to be selfish and force his way.”
“Once he gets it going, that’s another story.”
And it wasn’t as though James isn’t contributing if he’s not shooting, Russell noted.
“Bron’s a guy who can dominate the game from so many different aspects,” said the Lakers’ recently reacquired guard, who scored all 21 of his points before halftime. “Obviously, the regular fan will recognize scoring, dunking, things that are loud like that. But he still affects the game with passing and with defense with communication, all those little things. He still led us.”
But then James turned up the volume, turned it way up, making an array of momentum-building moves that included, well, let’s just let the maestro break it down, picking up with his first points, at the free-throw line, with 6:32 to play in the second quarter:
“I saw those two go down, and I believe I followed that up with a transition spin move on Draymond (Green) with a floater over the top,” testified James, who bucked the local dress code Saturday with his green polo shirt.
“And then we was able to get a stop, I was able to hit a three across from their bench. And then we just started going. And we went from down seven at one point to having an 11-point lead at halftime. Just try to feed off the fans, feed off our ability to defend and just put the pressure on them.”
The hits kept coming, and they’re likely still ringing in the Warriors’ ears.
There was James’ full-head-of-steam spin moves through the Warriors’ defense. A swooping rejection of Jordan Poole. A Magic Johnson-esque full-court pass to Dennis Schroder through traffic.
And that chase-down pass-breakup that said everything about the Lakers’ effort level – raised and redemptive after they waffled in a 127-100 loss in San Francisco on Thursday.
This time, the L.A. crowd was treated to 127 points and a blowout, and another timely explosion from one of the game’s all-time elites.
