It’s time for a Good Will Hunting moment for LeBron James: It’s not your fault the Los Angeles Lakers are on their way to missing the postseason.
James poured in his customary scoring + rebounds + dimes line against the Clippers on Monday night, but that wasn’t enough in yet another loss, putting the Lakers 5.5 games out of the eighth and final spot in the West.
The only mistake? James might want to rethink talking about how his “playoff mode” had been activated early, which he said back on Feb. 21.
Since then, the Lakers are 2-5. And that means there have been lots of jokes aimed at James on Twitter:
Is it really James’s fault? The guy took a mediocre Cavaliers team — this Lakers squad, at full strength, is better on paper — and carried them all the way to an NBA Finals last year. What he’s doing at age 34 is still astounding, but that’s not something he can do again every year.
Maybe he really does have to shut it down and wait for the offseason. Basketball is a team sport. It can’t be all on him.
