Swanson: LeBron James, Lakers are better in closeout win, as guaranteed

LOS ANGELES-- We've got deep phonies and self-cloning. And if you speak Clipper, a sprain and a tear are one in the exact same. 2 and two make five.

However we have LeBron James, old trusted, a man who implies what he says and states what he indicates.

When he swore-- "I was (expletive)"-- after a 5-for-17 effort in a coulda-closed-out video game in Memphis on Wednesday and after that swore, "I'll be much better in Game 6," he darn well meant to follow through.

Friday, in the seventh-seeded Lakers' swashbuckling 125-85 closeout win versus the second-seeded Memphis Grizzlies-- ending their first-round Western Conference playoff series in 6 video games-- he uncorked scientific, traditional LeBron, vintage 1984.

If not exactly better with age, then still much better than 99.9% of the basketball gamers in the world. The supreme tone-setter, he did us a solid by going out and restoring some faith in reality at Crypto.com Arena.

He was at the arena five hours early, "locked in as usual," Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. "Nothing various, you know. Simply typical LeBron."

A typical day at the workplace? A big day, a bring-your-" Game 7 mindset"- to-work day, James stated. Whatever it required to avoid a third trip to Memphis.

As Anthony Davis stroked and swatted and D'Angelo Russell gathered a playoff career-high 31 points, a rested-as-possible James delivered a discussion of Actual Intelligence. With his off-ball, driving-and-dishing display, he discovered associates open in the corners and at the rim, recipients of James' computations, which added up to six assists.

And he kept them in line, looking down Austin Reaves after a missed out on task-- Reaves stated he got the message: "We ain't doing that, you got ta get there"-- and then he danced with the child after Reaves completed a cool Euro-step-into-a-reverse-layup.

Age ain't nothing-- however the numbers stated the 38-year-old James shot 29.4 % in Game 5, which was even worse than in all but 9 of his 271 previous career playoff

games, his teams now 2-10 in games when he makes fewer than Less% of his shot attempts. James' vision is sharp, seeing 20-20 in the Lakers' 117-111 Game 4 win, when he recorded his very first 20-point, 20-rebound video game that night, the first in the playoffs by a Laker because Shaquille O'Neal did it
in 2004. A blow, a breather, critical prior to the Lakers get back to playing every other day, before James gets back to the company of being better.