Arguably (only because it always turns into one!) one of the GOATS (Jordan and Kareem are the other two) in NBA history, LeBron James holds an interesting place of the three, in that generally, Jordan and Kareem’s kit generally stayed the same during their careers. Essentially, their bags never changed, but LeBron has had a few different phases in his career. You could probably tie it to his hairline or body mass, but there’s probably been three distinct phases of LeLegend. The first was LeWirey where you would see James succeed through agility, speed and skill. Then there was LeBully, a version that relied on strength, finding match-ups and relying on high IQ plays. And finally we have what we see now, which is much like perhaps a subdued “LeBully”… LeThargic? But even though this version has found measured success just the same, yes, they did win the bubble chip if you didn’t remember, I’m still very much in awe of the fact that during all this time, LeBron has been building on his three-point shot, a part of his game that really has been kind of an afterthought in his Hall-of-Fame career. Not sure if you remember, but in his rookie year, he just shot 41.7% and 29% at the three-point line.
Well, fast forward to the present, this is officially now not an afterthought. After last night’s much needed win against the Nets, James went 9-10 at the three and is now 140-for-341 beyond the arc this season, good for 41% and career high. Generally, LeBron has always been an above average shooter and has been in the top quarter in the league the past 10 years, but I think what makes this year especially different than the previous isn’t necessary volume, but spacing. Keep in mind that James is hitting nearly 46% on wide-open catch and shoots this season, which puts him right there with Steph Curry for context… and I think a lot of that has to do with Anthony Davis surviving a season without a body part exploding. With the Lakers fighting for the play-ins currently, it’ll be interesting to see how LeThree (and Davis) are able to play these final few weeks, but one things for sure, LeBron is still LeMazing…
What can you say about Luka Doncic that hasn’t already been said about that big boat in Speed 2? Slow, fat and wholly destructive to anything in the way, just like the surging Houston Rockets, who had won 11 straight and were making a run to try and overtake the Warriors for the play-in spot until Luka and his 47/12/7/2 happened. The Mavs have looked great and have somehow put together a top-5 defense in their past dozen or so games…
Joel Embiid is nearing his return and is expected to play later this week. Respect to the Sixers for hanging on… barely, to the eight-seed. If only because we could possibly see a Celtics vs. Sixers first round match-up. What? Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Jay is a longtime Razzball everything who consumes an egregious amount of Makers Mark as a vehicle to gain wisdom and augment his natural glow. Living in the D.C. area, he also likes spending time visiting the local parks and feeding lettuce to any turtles he encounters, including Mitch McConnell.
