Lakers' Bad Game 5 Loss Sends LeBron In Unknown Territories In The First Round
LeBron James’ perfect record in the first round of the Playoffs is in grave jeopardy.
The Lakers suffered a humiliating defeat in Game 5 against the Suns in a pivotal matchup that sends L.A. down 2-3 in the series, losing 85-115.
The game was over by halftime with the Suns having a 30 point lead. The Suns won the second quarter 32-10 in what was a no-show of effort on defense for the Lake Show. Lakers absolutely missed the presence of Anthony Davis on the defensive end, who was sidelined with a groin injury suffered during Game 4 on Sunday.
But that’s no excuse for the other Lakers, led by LeBron, who finished with the number one defense in the NBA this season. The Suns got in the paint at will and kicked out to open shooters all night. They finished with 44 points in the paint and had 23 points off turnovers showing that the Lakers weren’t getting back on D in transition.
What was more glaring than that, however, was the performance by the Lakers backcourt who finished with the same amount of points as everyone back home watching. To KCP’s credit, he was returning from an injury himself and obviously wasn’t healthy but in Dennis the Menace case, his performance just shows how wrong he was for turning down the Lakers' $80 million extension they offered him in the middle of the season.
So who’s to blame for this loss?
It’s hard to bypass Dennis’ goose egg performance as the third-best Laker on the team, but this was a game the King needed to take over.
James finished the game with 24 points, seven assists, and five rebounds in 32 minutes of play. 17 of his points however came in the third quarter when the Suns were already up big. After starting the game seemingly aggressive, LeBron went straight passive trying to get his teammates involved to no avail. As most did, I wanted and expected a big game from James to take a gut-punching lead without AD but it went left quick for him and his team. He finished the game with the worst plus-minus for the Lakers and didn’t help on the defensive end as you can see here giving up on a play in just the second quarter:
LeBron eventually left the game early in the fourth with a little over five minutes left in the game, clearly disappointed with the efforts of the team.
"We got our ass kicked. It is that simple," LeBron said after the bad loss. "They did whatever they wanted to win this game.”
Now the Lakers have to look to rebound at home in what could be the end of their chance at repeating. James said in his post-game presser that he will be going into Game 6 with the mindset AD won’t be available. A bright spot the Lakers can look to is that Suns’ point guard Chris Paul seemingly re-aggravated his injury to his shoulder in the third quarter. Paul has been the engine behind the Suns all season and has been key in pushing the pace against the much slower Lakers. Booker will be key in Game 6 if they are going to finish off the Lakers for good. He had arguably his best game last night, scoring 30 points, but it was his big performance in the first quarter that set the tone for the game.
“There's nobody that's scared of the moment,” Booker said. “We're a confident team.”
The Lakers have to find some shooting as well if they are going to force a Game 7. Taking away LeBron’s meaningless 6-10 shooting from deep, the team shot 6-25 from three.
Game 6 is Thursday in Los Angeles, in what could be a legacy-altering game for the King. He has never trailed in a series in the first round after Game 5 or later.
