Los Angeles Clippers beat the Los Angeles Lakers last night in one of the biggest games on Chrismas Day. Jason McIntyre & Ryan Hollins conclude that LeBron James' struggles highlight how much he needs to consider taking a page out of Kawhi Leonard's book of load management. As LeBron approaches age 35, he continues to keep his minutes consistent through back to back games and long road trips, and as a result, exhaustion hasn't been hard to hide in key games. Jason McIntyre & Ryan Hollins explain below:
Ryan Hollins: "This is the first time that we saw Kawhi guard LeBron. You talked about LeBron having a slow start; he had that man Kawhi guarding him. LeBron really hesitated to get to the rim...The thing that would kill us on the scouting report is that if LeBron got downhill and played into the paint, Why? Because he was big enough, patient enough to make plays, and he was a good enough scorer where you had to double team. The one thing that I'm optimistic about is LeBron did not attack the rim last night. He's sore; he's hurting, maybe he should've been load managing."
Jason McIntyre: "I Agree. It's time for LeBron to load manage...LeBron needs to stop doing too much. He'll be 35 in 5 days, and having a season that maybe Michael Jordan's had. Why are we forcing the issue? LeBron had 39 minutes in last night's game. I'm sorry, he needs to load manage. I know LeBron is going to push back against that, but nobody cares. We care about the championships. We care about the playoffs...This is not an overreaction. I'm sorry, but back-to-back games against Minnesota and Cleveland are games he doesn't need to be playing in. I don't care about the kid in Cleveland who bought the tickets to the game to see LeBron. I'm sorry, buddy. Do you want to watch him on TV in June or NOT? The NBA and fans need LeBron on the NBA finals in June."
Listen to the full conversation below.