PORTLAND, Ore. — While the rest of the NBA world told LeBron James what to do with his body and what he should do to prepare for another potential run towards the NBA Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers locker room inside the Moda Center was tuned to a booming speaker in the visitor’s locker room playing “I’m So Groovy” by Future.
Did LeBron play? Mhmm. Did he dominate with 21 points and 16 assists? Mhmm. Is the royal groin feeling okay after nearly 37 minutes of action in a 128-120 win to snap a four-game losing streak? Mhmm. James, two days before his 35th birthday and three days before the end of a decade dominated, is still the King and hummed along like the iconic Future track. He did so even after a nasty fall and a re-aggravated elbow to show that he’s just fine. He also told reporters after the game that he intends to play tomorrow night in a highly-anticipated game on Sunday against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks.
“As long as this ice take care of its business and I wake up comfortably and healthy, yeah,” James responded to questions about whether he would play on Sunday. James also said he’s “doing alright” for himself with regards to his right groin issue that flared up on Christmas.
James wasn’t the only Laker to have an injury scare on Saturday as Anthony Davis felt his right shoulder bother him more than it had at any time since he first injured it earlier this season following a well-timed swipe by Portland’s Kent Bazemore.
“It’s the first time I really felt it again on a play like that,” Davis said. “Something I’m not too worried about. You have to keep strengthening it and get it right for tomorrow.”
Injuries to their biggest stars aside, Saturday was also notable for another strong performance from Kyle Kuzma. In light of comments that went viral from his trainer Clint Parks, Kuzma delivered his second straight game of 24 points or more. When asked about his trainer, Kuzma didn’t take sides against the family.
“Nope,” Kuzma said when asked if his trainer had anything to do with his play. “Not at all. I’m locked in because I’m trying to be good.”
Kuzma was great, scoring 24 points and hitting nine of 17 shots. It’s the efficiency that LeBron likes the most.
“We want him to be that third scorer for us, consistently get to 18 to 20 points a night and more important you know, it’s just the efficiency right now that I love,” James said of Kuzma, who was nine for 17 from the field. “He’s just been very efficient mixing it up with his 3s, his paint touches. You saw it tonight on the break as well, just mixing it up.”
The Lakers needed every bit of Kuzma’s points and they also needed the continued strong play of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who despite losing his starting spot on Saturday to Avery Bradley, had 13 points and three 3-pointers on the night. Rajon Rondo, who had 15 points and four assists, also got a postgame shout out from LeBron for his performance and his job pushing the pace.
“Rondo came in with so much pace, his pace was incredible,” James said. “Kuz is keeping up his streak for scoring the ball and gave us the punch we’ve been wanting all year obviously. He’s been getting into his groove. And then AC and Dwight was monster in the paint. And everybody else just chipped in.”
While the Lakers got a nice win and broke the losing streak, there’s still a sense with the team that they let one go on Christmas Day. James is just happy they learned from it.
“It’s a marathon at the end of the day,” James said. “We’re competitors, all of us, Coaches, players, we’re competitors. We don’t want to lose. You just try to make up for it, you have 24 hours, 48 hours or sometimes 72 hours and we were better tonight than we were on Christmas.”
But while their leader spoke of the big picture, other important figures on the Lakers weren’t afraid to talk about what they left out there against the Clippers.
“We were all pretty upset about the last game,” Davis said.
“I got an early tech. I wanted our group to feel that,” head coach Frank Vogel said. “It’s not fun losing. We’re a good team and we were able to use that to our advantage and take it out on this team.”
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