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LA Lakers superstar forward LeBron James caught the Lakers’ crosstown rival LA Clippers sleeping during the second quarter of Wednesday’s matchup. The play resulted in an easy dunk for James.
As the Lakers brought the ball up the court, James first took a brief break in the backcourt to put his shoe back on. James appeared to be completely out of the Lakers’ play, leading Clippers superstar forward Kawhi Leonard to forget about him entirely.
Leonard instead opted to play some help defense on Lakers point guard D’Angelo Russell on the perimeter. However, as Leonard and his co-star, Paul George, double-teamed Russell, James came racing back up the court.
Russell then got the ball to Lakers star big man Anthony Davis on the elbow, who quickly found a slashing James. Leonard was unable to recover in time, resulting in an effortless dunk for “The King,” which cut the Clippers’ lead to nine points.
Check out James’ highlight dunk below:
LeBron James says Lakers are still figuring things out early in the season
The LA Lakers have gotten off to a slow 2-2 start this season and just barely scraped past the Orlando Magic 106-103 at home on Monday. The team also entered Wednesday’s game against the LA Clippers shooting a league-worst 29.2% from 3-point range through four games.
However, LeBron James isn’t worried about his team’s struggles. After Monday’s win over the Magic, James spoke about how the Lakers are still trying to figure things out early in the season. He added that he expects to see substantial improvement from his team throughout the season:
“We’re going to continue to get better,” James said.
“I think we’re still a little trying to figure it out, which is okay. We’re four games in. We’re going to get a lot better throughout the season, but so far, we like some of the things we see.”
Most would have a hard time pinning the Lakers’ offensive struggles on James, as the soon-to-be 39-year-old is still putting up elite numbers in Year 21. So, he will need his teammates to start stepping up soon if the Lakers want to avoid falling behind in the Western Conference standings.
After four games, James is averaging 22.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 1.5 steals, 0.8 blocks and 1.8 3-pointers per game on 53.0% shooting.
