After missing the los angeles lakers’ last game before the break, lebron james was chastised for his intransigent decision to play in the 2024 nba all-star game. He played 14 minutes and was seen to have worsened his ankle injury, putting him on the bench for thursday’s road game against the golden state warriors. Nevertheless, judging by his latest reaction, he still seems to be locked in on the action. When james’ full attention was on him when he hammered home an emphatic dunk off a nice pick-and-roll early in the second quarter, backup center jaxson hayes commanded the spotlight. According to lakers daily, the nba’s all-time scoring leader did not even have to say a word to describe the situation.
Unfortunately, hayes’ jam did not propel the lakers to a long-term lead in the chase center. The warriors are up double digits, with the dazzling stephen curry setting the tone with 32 points at the time of publication. Trayce jackson-davis, a rookie who has been underrated, has added 13 points off the bench. Anthony davis is doing everything possible to keep la in this game (23 points, 13 rebounds, and three blocks), but he cannot do it alone. The “other guys” are often referred to as the x-factors for this squad, with austin reaves and d’angelo russell being the primary x-factors.
However, players such as rui hachimura, spencer dinwiddie, and jaxson hayes must do their part. Ideally, a few of them would give lebron james another reason to be up from the shadows. At the end of this road race, there could be a different degree of head shake.
