watching Lebron not able to get what he wants on the court anymore just sorta hurts. It’s an angle game for him now. All old man stuff and strength in the half court. Not hating, just observing. Still get results regardless.
He’s a conductor and Davis is the work horse. It’s a beautiful thing to watch.
He did look particularly unathletic around the basket last night. I saw after the game that he was reported to have a minor groin injury of some kind, perhaps that was related. But I agree that his athletic ability has been on a very clear decline for a while, he's just a slower and more earthbound player than he once was. Sometimes he just gets overwhelmed or stuffed inside and you have to shake your head.
But with that said, his mastery of old man angles has kept his stats up to an incredible degree. Last night he scored 28 points to lead all scorers on 50% shooting/40% from 3. Granted 10 of those points came from the foul line, but he still had a better pure shooting night than Butler. For the playoffs overall he is averaging almost 27 PPG on a 60% effective field goal percentage, third highest of his playoff career. That's more points on a higher effective shooting percentage than Jamal Murray. And he doesn't do it like Harden getting it all from the foul line, he take 7.4 FTA per game, a reasonable number for the way he plays and significantly less than the Hardens or Doncics of the world.