Los Angeles, meet Playoff LeBron.
Two years after he joined the Lakers, LeBron James has officially shown up.
In his third playoff game in purple and gold, James has finally shown a city draped in purple-and-gold shirts exactly what the fuss was all about.
When the games matter, he matters. When the stakes are high, he soars.
And when the dragging Lakers needed him in Game 3 against the resurgent Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday, James went on the attack, charging and crushing and ultimately pushing them to a 116-108 victory to take a two-games-to-one lead.
This series is over. You know it is. The Trail Blazers are not going to win three of four against a team with LeBron James. You just know they're not.
"It's tough to stop," Anthony Davis said of Attack LeBron. "And it's fun for us."
On a night of many Lakers stars, Davis showed up late, and Alex Caruso came up huge, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope showed signs that he could be the Lakers' third scorer they so desperately need in this postseason.
But this started and ended with James, who accounted for 38 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists, four three-pointers, and every bit of energy the Lakers needed during a lackluster start.
"I just tried to be aggressive," James said, and mission accomplished.
While James had a statistically historic night in the series opener, that was a loss. When they won Game 2, he scored just 10. This was his biggest Lakers playoff game because it was the one they needed him most, and knew it.
"I loved his game," coach Frank Vogel said. "Look, he was in attack mode, he was living in the paint, living at the rim, seeking contact, trying to play the power game that he's been so accustomed to."
It was a charge the Lakers urgently needed. With Damian Lillard gutting through a dislocated finger and teammate CJ McCollum scoring from everywhere, after two quarters the Trail Blazers lead, 57-53, and it was amazing the Lakers were that close.
Davis had one basket. The Lakers had a dozen turnovers. They had missed 13 free throws. They were literally hanging on by a thread named LeBron James, who knew his teammates were dragging, and so he dragged them himself.
He had 16 points in his first 14 minutes. By halftime, he had 22 points and six rebounds and covered the court like three players.
James drove past two Trail Blazers for a layup. He drove past three for a layup. He grabbed an offensive rebound and scored. He stopped several steps beyond the three-point line and scored. The Trail Blazers had no answer for anything he did. He committed eight turnovers and still stormed them.
"I knew after game one he was going to shift his focus to being more assertive, looking to score the basketball, we definitely saw that tonight," said Vogel. "He was just really efficient scoring the ball tonight."
James began the third quarter with a three-pointer, and the Blazers began to stagger. Caldwell-Pope hit a three pointer to give the Lakers their first lead since the opening moments.
The Lakers never faltered again, the stage set for a splendid second half by Davis, who starred for the rest of the way, finishing with 23 second-half points.
"I told LeBron, I had to take the pressure off him," Davis said. "I didn't want him to have to carry the team the whole time."
Caruso was also big, particularly handling the ball, especially in the wake of another stall for oft-injured Rajon Rondo, who was supposed to make his playoff debut but came down with pregame back spasms. Caruso had seven assists and took pressure off the Lakers big guys.
"(Caruso) allows LeBron to be off the ball some ... important to sustaining his freshness," said Vogel. "Alex did a great job ... setting up A.D."
Pity the poor Trail Blazers. Remember, this was supposed to be Portland's first home game in the series. In a traditional playoff setup, this would be the game that the underdog team comes home to a roaring crowd and rising momentum. Portland was supposed to ride the wave of the raucous Moda Center.
Instead, this was just like Games 1 and 2, nobody in the stands and strange noises coming from a fake crowd. Mirroring all of life during the pandemic, every day in these playoffs appears to be the same.
"The first thing you think about when you think about playoff basketball is not being able to hear anything," Vogel acknowledged. "That type of electric atmosphere from the crowd, that is not present and does not feel anything like the playoffs."
However, Vogel said there are other signs that this is crunch time.
"The meaningfulness ... the attention to detail by your players, the every-possession-matters type of focus and intensity is present and from that standpoint, it very much feels like the playoffs."
On a night Playoff LeBron showed up, it certainly did.
