By Greg Beacham / The Associated Press
LEBRON JAMES and the Los Angeles Lakers were in rare form shortly before the coronavirus pandemic stopped the National Basketball Association (NBA) season, and they’re determined to find it again inside the bubble.
The Lakers had just beaten the NBA-leading Milwaukee Bucks and the rival powerhouse Clippers in the previous week before the stoppage. James had played magnificently in both games, bolstering his MVP case and leading the Lakers into the stretch with ample reason to believe they could contend for a championship.
“To be able to have our team at the top of the Western Conference and playing the way that we were playing at that time, and the way I was playing, it was definitely a good feeling,” James said.
Four months after the world changed, the Lakers are back at work in Florida’s mostly empty gyms. Almost nothing is familiar in these unprecedented circumstances, but James’ determination to win a title—his fourth, Anthony Davis’s first and the Lakers’ 17th—still burns fiercely.
“Nothing is normal in 2020,” James said. “And who knows if it will ever go back to the way it was? But you make the adjustments and you figure it out along the way. That’s what life is all about.”
James had been dominant in nine games since the All-Star break, averaging 30.0 points, 9.4 assists and 8.2 rebounds. The NBA’s assists leader has been an outstanding facilitator of the Lakers’ offense ever since he arrived last season, and he will step back into that role when the Lakers go back to work next week, starting in a showdown with the Clippers next Thursday.
Davis has remained one of the game’s best big men in his first season on the West Coast, averaging 26.4 points and 9.4 rebounds while blocking 2.4 shots per game and asserting his case as the best defensive player in the NBA.
The evident chemistry between Davis and James extends across the Lakers’ roster, which appears to have suffered none of the potential problems of being a recently assembled super team. Coach Frank Vogel says his players have returned to work smoothly with a renewed focus partly made possible by the absence of normal life.
“The whole bubble has been a little bit different from what we do, but a lot the same,” Vogel said. “When you’re focused on what you need to do, you make the adjustments. It will feel a little bit different, but I think once the ball goes up, we’ll be locked in on what we normally do.”
The San Antonio Spurs, meanwhile, will try to extend the longest active playoff streak in North American major sports without LaMarcus Aldridge and with a decent mathematical chance to sneak into the final postseason spot in the Western Conference.
The 22-season run is on the mind of guard Patty Mills, along with Coach Gregg Popovich’s view that the Spurs will be more preoccupied with the future than whether they avoid missing the playoffs for the first time since a couple of months before they drafted Tim Duncan in 1997.
“It’s important,” Mills said of trying to extend the streak. “It’s one element of the big picture of the San Antonio Spurs organization and how well the team has done over the course of a couple of decades.
“But, at the same time, you got to look at the big picture, you got to look at the future and where we are at organization-wise in trying to bridge the gap between the success the Spurs have had and where that sees us in the future.”
Aldridge had shoulder surgery in April, about six weeks after the pandemic shut down sports, and the Spurs announced last month he wouldn’t play when the season resumed.
The seven-time All-Star’s absence puts most of the burden on leading scorer DeMar DeRozan if the Spurs are to challenge eighth-place Memphis, which would only happen if they can emerge from the five-team cluster that rounds out the Western Conference in the 22-team restart.
The Spurs can force a play-in series by staying within four games of the Grizzlies, and they’ll likely have a pretty good idea right away of their chances. The first two games are against Memphis and Sacramento, which is a half-game ahead of San Antonio.
“We’re not here for no reason,” DeRozan said. “Definitely develop and compete at the same time. Once you keep that mindset of going out there and winning, anything can happen. Despite whatever the odds, percentages may be, you can’t feed into that.”
With Aldridge out, the focus also shifts to young point guards Dejounte Murray and Derrick White, who have struggled under heightened expectations. Because of the shortened year, the Spurs are already guaranteed their first losing season since going 20-62 in 1996-97 and getting the No. 1 pick that led to Duncan.
“Each team has a goal here,” Popovich said. “Some teams are confident they’re a step away from winning an NBA championship. Other teams just want to be in the playoffs. Some teams are concerned mainly with development. If we play well enough to get into the playoffs, that would be great. But my goal is development right now.”
Image credits: AP
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