Throw in his 2.6 steals and 2.3 blocked shots a game to realize the totality of his play. James was the easy choice for Finals most valuable player, averaging 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and 8.9 assists. Get exclusive access to thousands of premium articles a year from top writers.Or perhaps Cleveland fans should apologize to him. This will end up being a footnote to a footnote. In addition to getting healthier, James adjusted his shooting form and finished the season at 41% from 3-point range, the best of his career. 'I took a lot of pride in the offseason in getting my foot, my ankle back in order, getting my body back in order,' James said. Like the Warriors, the Lakers will be awarded no bonus points based on a perspective that looks at the entire lay of the land. This season, if they have a bad week, James and the Lakers will deal with heavy fallout simply because of the expectations that have been established for the franchise. The Lakers just completed their second-best regular season in the past 13 years, behind only the 52-win season in 2019-20 that ended in a title. 'This whole season has been weird,' Curry said. The conference's depth now is totally different, and the margin for error is the tightest it has been in the past two decades. In 2016, when they blasted the league en route to 73 wins, the Warriors' current 46-36 record would've had them in the No. But if they lose one of their next two games, they will surely sit through a torrent of 'end of the road' storylines. The Warriors then went 27-12 to finish the season. Stories leaked about role players undermining coach Steve Kerr, and Curry himself was quoting the definition of insanity. The Warriors were 19-24 in late January with Draymond Green suspended, Chris Paul injured and Klay Thompson stuck in a long slump. But all the things we've gone through and the way the West is stacked, that's our situation. You could look at our record and extrapolate that out for 82 games and you're probably not in this situation. 'You could look at it a lot of different ways. 'This last 30 games has just been 'Operation: Give ourselves a chance,'' Curry said last week. Keep track of all the latest NBA play-in and playoff news and happenings as the postseason gets underway. James and Curry are judged aggressively both against ghost adversaries who have long retired and against themselves when they were younger, healthier and played in a less competitive league. When this is your résumé, you aren't afforded the luxury of simply maximizing your current team's chances. Last season, they played in a series that smashed television ratings records as the Lakers won and James reached his 12th career conference finals. They played against each other four times. Their dominance in their primes and extended run of winning at the highest level has made anything less than that seem like failure.īetween 20, either James or Curry played in the Finals for 11 out of 12 years. James and Curry are superstars of a certain age. This is the 15th season LeBron James and Stephen Curry have been active players in the NBA together. The Golden State Warriors will play the Sacramento Kings just after James takes on the New Orleans Pelicans as the West teams fight to gain entry to the playoffs.

He shares this status with 36-year-old Steph Curry, who will also compete in Tuesday's play-in tournament. He doesn't live in a world where 'good' seasons are accepted at face value. The Lakers finished the season winning 13 of their last 18 games and slipped into eighth in the West at the finish line after spending months stuck in ninth or lower.īut for James, reality is easily skewed. 500, 13 if you count the championship of in-season tournament, for everything we went through,' James said, 'it's a pretty good season for us.'

The Lakers finished the regular season 47-35, four games better than last season, and James thought that was pretty good, too. To be 39 years old, the oldest active player in the league, and dealing with some chronic injuries to his left ankle and right foot and long-term maintenance of other areas such as his lower back, to play that many games is indeed cool. 'At this point in my career to play 70-plus games and be available for my guys.'

Lebron finals record