Lakers’ LeBron James said NO to Jamal Murray.
At 39 years old, Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James should be at home, enjoying retirement, and watching the NBA Playoffs from his couch. But James isn’t just an ordinary 40-ish man. He is still out there competing with the best of them in the NBA, and not just as a bench ornament signed by Los Angeles for locker room purposes only; James is there to play a huge role for the Lakers and do incredible stuff on the court.
LIKE THIS.
Here’s a closer look at the block.
It is hard to believe that two decades into his career in the NBA, James is still able to pull off electrifying plays like that huge block on Denver Nuggets star point guard Jamal Murray early in Monday night’s Game 2 of this Western Conference first-round series. But that’s also why James is an all-time great who is a virtual lock to be in the Basketball Hall of Fame down the road.
It’s also worth giving Murray here props for having the audacity to even think about throwing it down in the face of the much bigger four-time league Most Valuable Player. That was actually off of a brilliant two-man play from Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic and Murray, with the former making an accurate pass to his cutting teammate. But James sagged just enough off of Aaron Gordon, who was standing in the deep right corner, to provide instant help defense at the rim. If anything, it was just another reminder for the rest of the NBA that James remains a threat defensively.
That block on Murray helped the Lakers set the tone early in Game 2. James finished the first half with 10 points, six rebounds, and seven assists with a steal and two blocks in 17 minutes. Anthony Davis also seemed to be in the zone early with 24 points and six rebounds at the half. Meanwhile, D’Angelo Russell silenced his critics with a scorching first half, scoring 18 points with six 3-pointers buried in the first 24 minutes of the contest. The Lakers also closed out the second quarter with a fiery 21-7 run to set a 15-point halftime lead.
The Lakers can’t let up. If they are to level the series at 1-1 and pull off a first-round series upset win to dethrone Jokic and the Nuggets, they are going to need James and company to keep up that kind of effort on defense. Denver is an elite offensive team with an all-time great in Jokic orchestrating the team’s attack on the floor, so it would take the Lakers to be just as smart and relentless on defense to shift the tide to their favor.
Fans react to Lakers star LeBron James’ block on Jamal Murray
“LeBron with an all-time LeBLOCK on Jamal Murray! 💥🤣”, posted @sluggahjells on X (formerly Twitter).
“Jamal Murray really tried to meet LeBron at the rim 😭,” added @GoldBoysSupport.
“Don’t take Lebron for granted. He won’t play forever,”@ShinyWilder reminded basketball fans. Indeed, James is not going to play forever no matter how great he still looks deep into his late 30s.
“BRON ON A MISSION. DON’T CHALLENGE THE KING AT THE RIM 🐐👑,” chimed in @breezefnyt.
“The posterorizer become the poster. King status,” shared @lowtideeth.
Even Hall of Famer and Lakers great Magic Johnson was left stunned by James’ defensive play on Murray.
“LeBron said not on my watch big fella!!😳,” Johnson said via his official X account.