Right now, the Lakers would be absolutely lost without LeBron James. They just lost another game to the Miami Heat on Sunday night, but it had nothing to do with his performance. He put up 33 points and 11 boards in the loss, keeping it close enough to give fans in Los Angeles false hope.
To put it simply, James is playing out of his mind even while the Lakers continue to struggle. After the loss, he was asked about his performance and how he has felt about his play over the last month or so.
"I'm in one of the best zones offensively I've been in my career. And I don't plan on stopping. That's just how I feel. I feel fantastic. Shooting the ball extremely well from the field. I didn't shoot the three-ball well tonight."
Bron sunk just 1 of his 8 three-point attempts, but he did shoot 54.5 percent from the field. He also added 8 successful free-throw attempts of the 11 that he earned in the loss.
"But all eight of them felt great. Shooting efficient from the free-throw line, I'm shooting efficient from the field. Very efficient at the rim. I don't go into the game saying, 'You gotta score 30 or you guys don't have a chance to win.' I just play the game, and the scoring has just been happening organically."
His 29 points per game is the highest that he has averged since the 2007-08 season when he was putting up 30. Part of that has come as a benefit from his move to center this season, but he's also just playing out of his mind right now.
He has not shot this well from the field since his last season with the Cavs and he's shooting over 76 percent from the charity stripe. That's the highest mark he has put up since the 2011-12 season when he won the MVP.
So it's safe to say that without LBJ at the helm, the Lakers would somehow be much much worse.
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