LeBron James says he knows exactly how to beat the Golden State Warriors. But actually doing it may be a lot harder than it sounds.
The second-round match between the Warriors and Lakers is shaping up to be epic, with everything you could want in a postseason series — star power, personal rivalries, legacy-defining stakes and a potential chess match in rotations and strategies at both ends of the court.
For all that potential complexity, LeBron boiled down the Lakers’ keys to victory to one extremely simple idea.
While eliminating mistakes is simple in theory, it will be incredibly difficult in practice — that’s why the Warriors are the Warriors.
How much can LeBron and the Lakers limit mistakes against the Warriors?
The Warriors this season are clearly not the same team that they were at their peak. According to Inpredictable, they rank 16th in the league in points per possession after a defensive rebound and 17th in the league in points per possession after a turnover. In general, they haven’t been able to punish teams for making stakes in the same way they have in years past.
However, there is still a tremendous amount of muscle memory for this veteran team and with the pressure turned up in the playoffs they can still respond. Lose track of Steph Curry or Klay Thompson for a half-second and they’re drilling a 3-pointer of cutting through for an open layup.
And in their Game 7 series win over the Kings, we saw not just an epic Steph Curry scoring performance but also a signature third-quarter run, outscoring the Kings by 12 in the period, a common trait to their championship-winning teams.
The Lakers may know what they need to do, but very few teams have actually been able to do it four times in a seven-game series against the Warriors..
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