{"id":551164,"date":"2021-06-03T15:21:10","date_gmt":"2021-06-03T19:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=551164"},"modified":"2021-06-03T15:21:16","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T19:21:16","slug":"for-the-first-time-ever-lebron-james-could-lose-a-first-round-playoff-series-is-the-kings-reign-complete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/for-the-first-time-ever-lebron-james-could-lose-a-first-round-playoff-series-is-the-kings-reign-complete\/","title":{"rendered":"For The First Time Ever, LeBron James Could Lose A First Round Playoff Series. Is \u2018The King\u2019s\u2019 Reign Complete?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">38<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffor-the-first-time-ever-lebron-james-could-lose-a-first-round-playoff-series-is-the-kings-reign-complete%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=551164&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1321241771-2.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p><span>When you\u2019re \u201cThe King,\u201d otherworldly performances are expected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>From dragging his 2007 Cleveland Cavaliers \u2014 a team entirely devoid of talent \u2014 to the NBA Finals, to coming back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the 73-win 2016 Golden State Warriors in The Finals, LeBron James has almost always lived up to his \u201cKing\u201d title on the court. But even the king ages, and as he does, the supporting cast around him must continue to improve in order to lessen the workload of their leader.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Los Angeles Lakers surrounding James have been unable to pick up the slack for their aging superstar, and they\u2019re one-game away from elimination because of it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This isn\u2019t the 2020 playoffs in the Orlando bubble, and the Lakers roster is not as good as last year\u2019s championship core. Even with all their baggage, Dwight Howard and Javale McGee were the modern \u201cTwin Towers\u201d in the playoffs, giving the Lakers a physicality in the paint that is noticeably lacking this postseason. The Lakers\u2019 offseason acquisitions this year \u2014 Marc Gasol, Wesley Matthews, and Montrezl Harrell \u2014 have not lived up to expectations, with Harrell being completely dropped from the rotation. Mid-season pickup Andre Drummond has never seemed like the right fit next to James and Anthony Davis, and was benched by coach Frank Vogel for most of the second half of game five.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>James has never been in this situation before \u2014 one loss away from a first-round playoff exit for the first time in his illustrious 18-year career. He\u2019s been to the playoffs in 15 of his 18 NBA seasons, and not once has he failed to reach the second round. And while it would be silly to expect James to throw in the towel Thursday night and head for vacation, all types of new occurrences are happening for James.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Before Tuesday night\u2019s blowout loss to the Phoenix Suns, James had never even lost two consecutive games in the first round, let alone found himself well on the way to his first early playoff exit. <\/span><span>James is averaging 22.2 points per game in the series against the Suns \u2014 his lowest average in 15 career first-round matchups, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/by-the-numbers-lebron-james-in-a-most-unusual-position\">NBA.com.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The game five loss wasn\u2019t unexpected \u2014 the Lakers were six point underdogs entering the game \u2014 but it was the way in which they lost that was so shocking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Most expected James to come out overly aggressive without his superstar sidekick, yet James seemed <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/the-drama-king-returns-lebron-james-angrily-walks-off-court-in-middle-of-4th-quarter-as-lakers-collapse\"><span>passive<\/span><\/a><span> at best, finishing with 24 points on 9-19 shooting from the field. With Phoenix up 30 at the half and the result of the game never in doubt, James left the court for \u201ctreatment\u201d before the game even came to a close.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>To say his performance was a disappointment would be an understatement. We\u2019ve always expected James to carry his teams \u2014 especially when injuries to the roster become an issue \u2014 to victories. Even James himself believes this to be the case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThese shoulders were built for a reason,\u201d James <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LakersNation\/status\/1399728691442237440\"><span>told<\/span><\/a><span> reporters before game five, \u201cand if it takes for me to put more on top of it then so be it. Win, lose, or draw. I\u2019m ready for the challenge.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Turns out, those shoulders aren\u2019t as young as they once were, and if Anthony Davis is unable to play in game six Thursday night in LA, James will be looking back longingly on his more youthful postseason experiences.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to <\/i><i>sports@dailywire.com<\/i><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i>member<\/i><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you\u2019re \u201cThe King,\u201d otherworldly performances are expected.\u00a0From dragging his 2007 Cleveland Cavaliers \u2014 a team entirely devoid of talent \u2014 to the NBA Finals, to coming back from a &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2279104,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1321241771-2.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"For The First Time Ever, LeBron James Could Lose A First Round Playoff Series. Is \u2018The King\u2019s\u2019 Reign Complete?","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1321241771-2.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"For The First Time Ever, LeBron James Could Lose A First Round Playoff Series. Is \u2018The King\u2019s\u2019 Reign Complete?","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2279104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}