Can a 41-year-old LeBron James turn back the clock and carry the Los Angeles Lakers past the Houston Rockets in the first round of the NBA playoffs?
An ESPN panel believes James still has the tools to “swing” a playoff series in his team’s favor, even as he goes into battle without the injured Luka Doncic (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (oblique), the Lakers’ two leading scorers in the regular season.
“Can James shift back from the third option and lead L.A. to wins while those guys are on the mend?” Dave McMenamin pondered.
Analytics guru Dean Oliver explained that if James can replicate his four best performances from the season in the playoffs, he can do the unthinkable.
“…James just has to see if all those career-extending devices and tricks have staying power,” Oliver wrote.
“James’ four best games of the season had him adding plus-11, plus-9.2, plus-8.2, and plus-8 net points. That’s about plus-9 points per game toward winning.
“Between him, Doncic and Reaves, they added plus-8.5 per game, so the very best of James for four days could get them to the second round.”
Lakers Heavy Underdogs
Some would argue that it would be unfair of Oliver or the Lakers to expect “the very best” of James at this stage of his career. However, there may be a glimmer of hope given how James fared without his co-stars at the end of the season.
James averaged 25.5 points, 11.0 assists, 6.8 rebounds and 2.5 steals, and was a +15.3 on the floor in his final four games of the season without Doncic and Reaves. ESPN’s Iman Shumpert warned the Rockets not to underestimate his former teammate.
“If you have five minutes on the clock at the end of a playoff game, LeBron James can still make the right decisions against whoever,” Shumpert said on Monday.
Shumpert also predicted a competitive series between the Rockets and Lakers, even though James and Co. enter as +550 underdogs.
Can Luka Return to Save Lakers?
If James and the Lakers can somehow stay alive through the first week, there’s a slim chance that Doncic could join them for the latter half of the series.
Over the weekend, Slovenian outlet Ekipa reported that Doncic had already undergone a first round of treatment for his injured hamstring in Madrid and had made a brief stop in Slovenia to visit his daughters. The report added that Doncic was slated to finish a second round of stem cell therapy and rejoin the Lakers by “midweek” this week.
ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne also reported that there’s chatter about Doncic possibly rejoining the Lakers for the latter half of the first round of the playoffs.
“From what I understand, there’s a chance Luka could come back later in the first round,” she reported. “He’s in Spain, he’s getting treatment every day. A lot of people on the team are talking to him every day. He’s engaged.”
The typical recovery timeline for a grade 2 hamstring strain is four to six weeks. Based on that timeline, Doncic won’t be back until early to mid-May. The second round of the playoffs will get underway around May 3-4.
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