{"id":619293,"date":"2026-05-02T13:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T13:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/619293\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T13:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T13:32:07","slug":"at-41-lebron-james-is-turning-back-the-clock-and-taking-the-lakers-on-a-storybook-playoff-run-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/619293\/","title":{"rendered":"At 41, LeBron James is turning back the clock and taking the Lakers on a storybook playoff run | NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The date is 12 March, and the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> are in the midst of a run that\u2019s garnering a lot of well-deserved attention, in a month that sees them lose just two contests and win 15. The spirit of the locker room is at an all-time high, and it\u2019s clear in talking to LeBron James, the 41-year-old storied veteran and greatest-of-all-time candidate who recently put his ego aside to accept a role as the team\u2019s third option, that he believes what many around the NBA are starting to as well: his Lakers have a real shot at contention.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you get older, you appreciate the moment more than anything. When you\u2019re younger, you think about what you\u2019ve done in the past, or what\u2019s to come in the future,\u201d he tells me when I ask how he\u2019s been able to be so present of late, in light of the ups and downs of a topsy-turvy Lakers season. \u201cBut the only thing that we know for sure is happening is the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sentiment was more poignant than even James knew at the time. The wind would be swiftly and mercilessly knocked out of those buoyant sails just a few short weeks later, on 2 April, when in the throes of a biblical drubbing at the hands of MVP frontrunner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his class-of-the-conference Thunder, the door to the Lakers\u2019 postseason was seemingly slammed in their faces in downtown Oklahoma City. The Lakers were already emotionally wallopped, outmatched by orders of magnitude, down 31 at half-time. And then, in the span of a couple of minutes in the third quarter, Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and Austin Reaves, the team\u2019s backcourt starters, were both sidelined indefinitely<\/a> with injury. The blow was devastating. The season was over. That is, until it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

As recently as a month ago, it appeared that James\u2019s days as the No 1 option were behind him, and for good reason. He\u2019s a quadragenarian, the oldest player in the NBA<\/a> for two years running. He shares a team with Don\u010di\u0107, the 27-year-old perennial MVP candidate and heir apparent to the Lakers franchise. But when, just a few short weeks before the postseason was set to begin, the Lakers lost their two leading scorers, James was left with two choices: call it a season, or attempt to carry the team on his 6ft 9in frame, as he\u2019d done so many times before.<\/p>\n

Neither Vegas nor basketball experts<\/a> gave the Lakers any chance against the Houston Rockets headed into their first-round series, in which they grabbed a commanding 3-0 lead before sealing the victory in six games in Houston on Friday night. The doubt was justifiable; the Lakers were at a clear talent disadvantage without Don\u010di\u0107 and Reaves. (The Rockets\u2019 Kevin Durant would end up missing five of the six games in the series.) And the upset was, to be sure, a true team effort, filled with storybook storylines galore: Luke Kennard, a trade-deadline castaway from Atlanta, essentially won Game 1<\/a>. Marcus Smart, believed by many to be washed up when the Lakers acquired him last summer, proved wholly indispensable, as both a dirty work guy and an unlikely scoring resource. Deandre Ayton, the much-maligned center from the top of Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s draft class whom Portland <\/a>paid to go away<\/a> last summer, was invaluable both defensively and on the glass. And JJ Redick, the \u201cpodcaster\u201d second-year head coach who took immense flak after a disappointing debut postseason outing against the Minnesota Timberwolves last season, proved his mettle in this series as both a tactician and leader.<\/p>\n

LeBron James and the Lakers are headed to a conference semi-final series against Oklahoma City. Photograph: Ashley Landis\/AP<\/p>\n

But the story of the series was James, who, in a critical Game 3, not only got a gutsy steal on the Rockets\u2019 Reed Sheppard and hit a miracle of a three-pointer<\/a> at the end of regulation, forcing the game to overtime (and ultimately a win), but did so mere minutes after going on a 10-0 Lakers run with his own son, including a senior-to-junior highlight alley-oop<\/a>. Throughout the series, James turned back the clock on both ends, averaging 23 points, eight assists and seven rebounds with nearly two steals per game. He was, by any measure, the best player on the floor. To say that no one has ever done what he\u2019s doing at this age is an understatement. The truth is, no one has even come close.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done it throughout my career, but they still have to accept it,\u201d James said in the locker room after Game 6, on slotting back into a leadership role for the team on which he\u2019d taken a step back. \u201cFor them to allow me to lead them, that means a lot to me.\u201d Redick, clearly moved after witnessing, first-hand, yet another chapter in the LeBron James<\/a> storybook, could only shake his head. \u201cFor him to do it again, to answer the bell again, it\u2019s really \u2026 it\u2019s baffling, in some ways,\u201d Redick said Friday night, attempting to stifle a grin. \u201cThe leadership aspect, he just has this ability to set the tone for the entire group, and he did that again tonight, and our guys responded. And I\u2019m really happy for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Father Time is undefeated, so the saying goes. But, as it turns out, his record isn\u2019t quite so simple. James, well into his third decade as the face of the league and anywhere between 10 to 20 years older than most of his competitors, has proved a formidable challenger. \u201cI\u2019m kicking his ass,\u201d James deadpanned, chuckling, after the series clincher. Twenty-three rounds in, he has Time on the ropes.<\/p>\n

Reaves, who was able to return from a severe oblique strain and provide reinforcements for the final two games of the series, said he doesn\u2019t take what James is doing for granted. \u201cI told him after the game, I\u2019d like to think we have a pretty good relationship, [so] I went over to him and I was like, \u2018You\u2019re insane. The stuff that you\u2019re doing \u2026 It\u2019s not normal,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cWith age, or whatever, he\u2019s been in the league for 23 years \u2026 The way he can [still] control a game, it\u2019s impressive. I don\u2019t think you can say in words how special he was, not just tonight, but this series, this year. I\u2019m just happy that I don\u2019t have to play against him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lakers will go on to face the aforementioned thorn in their side, the Thunder, in the Western Conference semi-finals. Certainly, this would not have been part of the plan, had Los Angeles had their druthers about a round-two opponent, especially with Don\u010di\u0107 still sidelined. But, then again, nothing for Los Angeles went according to plan this year. It was going to be a transitional year, until things started to click, and the chemistry was too potent to deny. Then it was destined to be a tale of woe, a \u201cwhat if?\u201d footnote in the briefly intersecting careers of two megastars at different points in their trajectories in James and Don\u010di\u0107. In any of a myriad possible timelines, this wasn\u2019t LeBron James\u2019s team to carry. In all but one of them, we had seen the last of a superhero run from him in the NBA postseason.<\/p>\n

None of this was supposed to happen. But the basketball gods work in mysterious ways, and for the moment, the story isn\u2019t over quite yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The date is 12 March, and the Los Angeles Lakers are in the midst of a run that\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-619293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}