While the lackluster and generally anonymous performance from Anthony Davis in Game 3 got the majority of the headlines in Laker Land, LeBron James will be the first to acknowledge that he didn’t play up to his standard. Not even very close to his standard.
The Lakers had 19 turnovers in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, leading to 21 points for Miami off of those mistakes. Eight of them, a game-high, were committed by James. As the player who basically controls all of the action for the Lakers, him turning the ball over that much is not a recipe for success. Among all the things the Lakers talked about following their first loss of the series, James led with turnovers, knowing he was far from his best.
“Turnovers. Turnovers is what killed us,” James said on Monday. “We can’t turn the ball over versus this team. We had some breakdowns defensively that we’re not accustomed to having. Those will be cleaned up in Game 4.”
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“You hate to lose when you’re not at your best, I definitely wasn’t at my best from an individual standpoint so I take that responsibility and I take that with a lot of passion and understanding of how I can be much better in the following games.”
The Lakers need both of their star players to be better in Game 4. While other players, such as Danny Green have drawn the ire of Lakers fans, the simple fact is this team needs nothing less than excellence from James and Davis to win the franchise’s 17th championship.
