LeBron IS WHY the Lakers were SWEPT: 4th Quarter Play by Play Breakdown

In a 34 minute breakdown of the 4th quarter of game 4 I show with painstaking detail that LeBron James is the primary reason the Lakers were swept. In fact, it seems he was the worst player on the court for both teams. With each quarter that is broken down play by play it becomes increasingly apparent that all the Lakers needed to do in order to at least not get swept, was leave LeBron on the bench longer. Let's focus on the perofrmance score of LeBron James in the 4th period versus Rui Hachimura. LeBron officially attempted 6 shots. However, the eye test says 7 shots with one failed shot being removed from the stats thanks to a bailout by the officials. This also gave him 2 free throw attempts (undeserved) of which he only made 1. Before getting to my next point about the low value of LeBron’s points we should look at Rui’s box score. 75% in the 4th period, 3 of 4 from the field. 100% from the foul line, a free throw that came in a clutch moment after hitting a 3 in a clutch moment…in fact it came right after LeBron trying to be the man and failing. Unlike LeBron’s bailout trip to the foul line, Rui actually got bumped via a really stupid foul by Chet Holmgren during his three point shot. Rui’s one miss came during an exceptionally difficult layup attempt, and I’m going to have to say the layup attempt seemed ill-advised. Now that’s out of the way I can say that’s my only real complaint about Rui’s shots. Let me put their numbers on the screen again. 3/6 vs.3/4. Rui wins already, but since this is a performance review determining player value I need to point out that of LeBron’s 3 made shots one was a cherry pick and the other was thanks to an uncalled and rather blatant shove off. If I’m a coach or the GM I see this as LeBron actually being 1/6. Cherry picking is not commendable behavior, in fact it is despised by coaches and players alike, and if it weren’t for LeBron’s media protection, his repeated and regular decisions to not get back on defense would get called out, you know, the way they call Luka out for it despite Luka doing it half as often as LeBron. Instead, not only have they not criticized LeBron for it, they repackaged the negative as a positive, stating that he is leading the league in transition points, an amazing feat at his age. It’s not transition. What they are actually describing is laziness and a tendency to leave teammates in 4 on 5 situations. The fact that sports media is willing to throw Luka to the wolves proves that this behavior is not only NOT acceptable, but not even acceptable by other stars. It is literally only accepted for the sake of LeBron’s public image, which means it is not accepted for actual quality basketball. You are making an exception for a player who is hurting you. That’s low value. In fact it would be a deal breaker for a scout. The other bucket I would remove is the dunk that only took place because of, once again, the special treatment LeBron James receives. It’s peculiar that no one challenged this shot after LeBron cleared the lane with a shove off. Once again, one must consider that LeBron is accomplishing what he is accomplishing thanks to the bending of rules. This is an advantage. It’s an unethical advantage and it’s an advantage that you can’t always count on. It seems to me that it would be wiser to invest in a player who can actually get you buckets legally rather than a player who depends upon skewed officiating. Even the cherry picks almost always come with an illegal shove off, as if the cherry picking wasn’t bad enough in itself. I don’t think it is a stretch to believe a team could acquire a player, especially with $50 million to spend, who can score without special treatment from refs while also contributing defensively. Which brings me to the defensive comparison. As usual thanks to ‪@TheRealCyberius‬ for the AI thumbnails.