Category: NBA Basketball

LeBron James throws down incredible dunk on Kings forward Bjelica

Lakers F LeBron James was called washed in some corners but he reminded everyone just how explosive he can be with a dunk against the Kings

The Washed King is here to remind challengers that he is still liable to posterize takers looking to block a ferocious dunk from LeBron James. In the Los Angeles Lakers’ Friday night matchup against the Sacramento Kings, James had an incredible dunk against the Kings.

James has led the NBA in assists over the first 11 games of the season and he has led the Lakers to the NBA’s best defense over that same time. For much of the early going on Friday, the Lakers were a little sluggish. But the they closed the half with a fury, capped off by the dunk from James over Kings forward Nemanja Bjelica.

James is one of the greatest dunkers of all time even though he has never participated in an NBA dunk contest. His ability to finish in games, and through traffic, may be the greatest we’ve ever seen. Friday night, approaching age 35, he showed another example of delivering special moments with astonishing regularity.

LeBron James on he and Tom Brady: ‘We’re gonna play until we can’t walk’

LeBron James was asked if he thought about the end of his career and compared himself 42-year old New England Patriots star Tom Brady.

The Los Angeles Lakers have raced to a 9-2 record thanks to their defense and in particular, a revived LeBron James on the defensive end, who said that he’s much healthier this season. Now that he’s healthy once again and leading the NBA in assists for the first time in his career, he doesn’t see an end in sight for his NBA career, seeing himself like a basketball version of Tom Brady.

James made the Brady comparison during Friday’s Lakers shoot around ahead of their game later this evening against the Sacramento Kings. James was asked if he could envision the end of his career, spurred by last night’s news that Carmelo Anthony would sign with the Portland Trail Blazers.

Video via Kyle Goon of the Southern California News Group

Last season was the first time we saw James seriously injured in his career as he missed 17 straight games. But after the longest offseason of his career, which included filming Space Jam 2, James is also enjoying major help on both ends from superstar Anthony Davis. If he can continue to get support from Davis, as well as the other Lakers role players like Danny Green, that can only help LeBron’s hopes to play at a high level into his 40s.

Bronny James Jr. and Sierra Canyon to have 15 games streaming on ESPN

The high school squad of LeBron James Jr. and Zaire Wade will be broadcast 15 times on ESPN streaming services.

Move over, Disney+. There’s a new streaming event that promises to sweep the nation. LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers are currently the best basketball team in town and the Western Conference with a 9-2 record through 11 games and the No. 1 ranked defense in the NBA, but the team that may rival their following during the season is not the Los Angeles Clippers but rather a high school boys team from Chatsworth: Sierra Canyon.

If you had previously doubted the level of attention in Sierra Canyon, who feature Bronny James Jr. and Zaire Wade, sons of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, as well as top recruits BJ Boston and Ziaire Williams, their level of inclusion on ESPN’s slate of high school games should change that. ESPN will carry 15 Sierra Canyon games this season on their ESPN 3 channel, with the first one coming only six days from now, according to Eric Sondheimer of the Los Angeles Times.

Canyon has already played fall league games in preparation for their upcoming season, with some of the highlights from those games leaking out to show pretty hyped gyms including LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. If those tune-ups are any indication, atmosphere for these games should be remarkable to witness.

 

Avery Bradley out at least 1-2 weeks with hairline fracture in leg

After getting Rajon Rondo back this week, the Los Angeles Lakers continue to deal with other injuries in their backcourt.

Just when it seemed like the Los Angeles Lakers were entering a healthier stage of their season, they’ve lost a key member of their backcourt for at least a couple of weeks.

The Lakers announced on Friday morning that an MRI on starting guard Avery Bradley revealed a hairline fracture on the ‘non-weight bearing’ portion of his lower right leg. Bradley missed a game earlier last week after initially suffering what looked like an ankle injury in a Nov. 3 win at San Antonio. According to the Lakers release, Bradley will be re-evaluated in 1-to-2 weeks.

Bradley has stayed in the starting line-up, averaging 9.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. He’s stayed in the line-up mostly because of his on-ball defense and activity. He’s also doing a good job scoring inside the 3-point line to off-set a cold shooting start from the outside.

Without Bradley, the Lakers started Kentavious Caldwell-Pope against Chicago on Nov. 5 but Caldwell-Pope is currently listed as questionable for Friday’s game against the Kings. If KCP can’t go, Alex Caruso or Quinn Cook would be the likely next candidates to take Bradley’s place in the starting line-up.

Bradley will get to do a good portion of his recovery in Los Angeles as the Lakers aren’t scheduled to play a road game until a week from Friday in Oklahoma City.

Lakers look to win third straight as they host short-handed Kings

The Los Angeles Lakers welcome the Sacramento Kings for their first meeting of the season.

The Los Angeles Lakers are back on the court Friday night as they prepare to host a short-handed, yet scrappy Sacramento Kings squad as L.A. looks to go on another win streak.

After starting the season 0-5 and one of the most disappointing teams in the NBA to open the season, the Kings have won four of their last five games and won their most recent one without star point guard De’Aaron Fox. They’ve been without Marvin Bagley since the first week of the season with a fractured right thumb and the Fox injury came earlier this week, robbing them of their best player.

Nevertheless, they stayed on a roll with a home win against a struggling Portland Trail Blazers squad even without Fox. Forward Bogdan Bogdanovic poured in 25 points off the bench and might be the biggest threat the Lakers have to consider on the offensive end.

Shooting guard Buddy Hield will also present a challenge to the Lakers with his movement away from the ball and his ability to shoot the ball from deep spots on the floor. Harrison Barnes can also take advantage of switches if he gets smaller players on him in the post, though the Lakers size might take that away tonight.

The Kings aren’t good, but they certainly aren’t as bad as their start. While the Lakers have been rolling, they can’t take them lightly. And seeing as they are coached by former Lakers coach Luke Walton, they’ll likely be a little motivated to dominate against a mostly unheralded group.

LeBron James celebrates Carmelo Anthony signing with Trail Blazers

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James celebrated his friend Carmelo Anthony getting back into the NBA on Thursday.

One of the most disappointing teams in the early going of the NBA season made a big move on Thursday night, one that got on the radar of LeBron James as one of his closest friends in the league made his way back into the NBA.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Thursday night that the 4-8 Portland Trail Blazers agreed to bring in 10-time NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony, which brought about a response of enthusiasm from NBA fans and of course, the rest of the Banana Boat crew. Dwyane Wade shared his reaction that it was ‘about time’ and LeBron echoed his friend’s tweet.

For those who are wondering, the first game between LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony is scheduled for December 6th in Portland when the Los Angeles Lakers visit the Portland Trail Blazers. They will also play each other about three weeks after that in Portland on Dec. 28.

After it looked for nearly a year like LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony would never play on the same court again, that chance will come sooner than anybody expected.

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LeBron James says it’s not that weird playing an injured Warriors team

The Los Angeles Lakers star also eluded to his 2015 NBA Finals when he played the Warriors without Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving.

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LeBron James doesn’t think it’s all that weird to play a Golden State Warriors team without both Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, but he did acknowledge when he’s watching them on TV the absence of the Splash Brothers is a lot more jarring.

After last night’s comfortable 120-94 win over the Warriors on Wednesday night, James was asked about the state of the Warriors as they fell to a league-worst 2-10 record. LeBron obviously knows what they’re going through, but he wouldn’t use the word “weird” to describe the feeling of playing against a deleted Warriors squad, because he’s been used to playing them with a depleted unit before in the 2015 NBA Finals without Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving.

Video from Kyle Goon of the Southern California News Group

Irving played only one game in the 2015 Finals before suffering a broken kneecap in the first game of the series. Obviously James is still a little salty about that Finals run and who could blame him, as he pushed the Warriors to six games with Matthew Dellavadov and Timofey Mozgov as his 2nd and 3rd options.

James had an incredible stat line in a losing effort in the 2015 Finals, averaging 35.8 points, 13.3 rebonds and 8.8 assists per game.

LeBron drops 23 and 12 as Lakers take care of Warriors at home

LeBron James had a solid night as the Los Angeles Lakers notched a win without superstar forward Anthony Davis on Wednesday.

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LeBron James had 23 points and 12 assists on Wednesday night to help the Los Angeles Lakers hold off a depleted Golden State Warriors squad on Wednesday night.

LeBron’s performance in the 120-94 victory was one of several that helped the Lakers overcome the absence of starting forward Anthony Davis, who missed Wednesday’s game due to shoulder and rib injuries.

Kyle Kuzma scored 22 points in the spot-start for Davis, going 7-of-12 from the field. Former Warrior JaVale McGee also had his best game of the season: 18 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks.

As for Golden State, former Lakers draft pick D’Angelo Russell led the way with 21 points. And while the Warriors made the Lakers sweat at times, they were out of winning range with plenty of time left for the Lakers to seal the deal.

The Lakers did get another kind a scare late in the game when Kentavious Caldwell-Pope went down with an apparent ankle injury. Luckily for them, the Lakers will have a few more days at home, with their next game being at Staples Center on Nov. 15 against the Sacramento Kings.

Report: Anthony Davis officially listed as out against Warriors

Anthony Davis is officially going to sit out Wednesday’s game for the Los Angeles Lakers against the Golden State Warriors.

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Star Los Angeles Lakers big man Anthony Davis has officially been ruled out of Wednesday night’s matchup with a much-diminished Golden State Warriors group, according to Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes.

Earlier today, doubt was cast on the six-time All-Star’s availability for the contest, due primarily to a rib injury sustained in Tuesday’s win over the Phoenix Suns. With forward Kyle Kuzma having returned from an ankle injury sustained in FIBA World Cup play this summer, Davis’ presence may be being viewed as superfluous given the opponent at hand.

However, with X-rays coming back negative, it appears the sorry state of their opponent’s roster and the potential for a more serious injury playing in a game that should be easily winnable without Davis seems to be playing a role in the news the Chicago native will be sitting Wednesday night.

With a long season still ahead and one of the West’s thinner frontcourt rotations, a cautious approach is absolutely a wise move. Given Davis typically misses roughly a tenth of the season or more to injury even in a good year, preserving the critical big man’s health for more difficult regular-season matchups, particularly when they aren’t on the back end of a back-to-back.

With a relatively easy slate of games ahead for the rest of the month, facing struggling and rebuilding franchises like the Sacramento Kings, Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies, Oklahoma City Thunder, New Orleans Pelicans and Washington Wizards should allow the Lakers to play their star players limited minutes, minimizing the need for load management until December.

 

Trae Young is first player since LeBron to have 3 straight 30-10 games

Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young’s recent run is something the NBA hasn’t seen since LeBron James did it with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young has been thriving ever since coming back from an ankle injury that caused him to miss games earlier in the season. Including last night’s impressive win at Denver, Young has scored at least 30 points and dished 10 assists in his last three games.

With the current streak, Young became the first player to accomplish the feat since LeBron James did it in March of 2018 when he was still with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Young has been stellar as of late, carrying an incredible scoring and creation load for the Hawks to start the season.

On the year, Young is averaging 28 points, 8.7 assists and just over four rebounds per game while shooting over 40 percent from long distance. Aside from the rebounds and the 3-point shooting, his numbers aren’t unlike a typical LeBron year.

So far this season, James has taken a little bit of a step back in the scoring category as he is averaging 24 points per game after averaging over 27 points the last two seasons. Part of that is because James has taken an even bigger role as the Lakers lead guard, which has resulted in an NBA-leading 11 assists per game to go with 8 rebounds.