PHOENIX – The white flag was flown long before the final bell. Even before.
With three minutes to go in the second quarter, LeBron James’ shoulders – the ones he had said two days earlier “are made for a reason” – slumped when the 22nd team failure of the night hit the rim.
He watched, stepping out of the paint, as the Suns came down the other end for an emphatic dunk by Torrey Craig to put Phoenix up by 28 points.
The 36-year-old James was not carrying the Lakers on his back, but simply felt the weight of the team sinking.
It was that kind of Game 5, a kick in the butt so swift and thorough that it certainly existed at the time just 21 minutes into the night.
While the Lakers deeply felt the absence of Anthony Davis, their dynamic two-way playmaker who sat down with a strained left groin, the rest of their veterans, including James, seemed completely dominated by Devin Booker (33 points in 33 minutes electrics) and the second-seeded Suns in a 115-85 slam that gave the hosts a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven first-round playoff series.
Before the final battle of Game 6 on Thursday night at Staples Center, the defending champs were not just hot on their heels but actively retreating. James led the way, returning to the locker room himself with five minutes remaining with what the team characterized as the initial treatment for the next and possibly the last game.
“They kicked our ass,” he said. “It’s that easy”.
James finished with 24 points and seven assists, but racked up most of those numbers (17 points, two assists) during the third quarter when the score was already drawn. He didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter, the margin (up to 36 points) beyond the reach of his talents.
James’ first-round career has been one of great success: He is 14-0 in the first-round series and, prior to Tuesday, he had never lost two first-round games in a row. But after the stomp, the story doesn’t seem to have that much meaning – anything seems possible for James and the Lakers.
Some of the players who returned from last season’s championship team seemed dazed, scratching their heads over why they couldn’t summon a response to Phoenix’s well-aimed shot. Even coach Frank Vogel seemed unsure whether they would be able to deliver one in the elimination game.
“Well, we’ll find out,” he said. “We will find out what we are made of and find out how much we want this.”
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With a scratch about an hour before kickoff, Davis tried to cheer on the Lakers and give tips and advice from the bench. But whatever that vocal leadership provided, it paled to the gaps his absence left on defense, where the Lakers didn’t force a fumble for the first 22 minutes of the game. As the night wore on, Davis’ ability to score from all levels of the court was lost as the Lakers struggled to shoot from anywhere.
James said that he is preparing as if Davis did not play in Game 6: “If something changes, we will go from there.”
Only one very significant factor turned against the Suns: In the third quarter, All-Star point guard Chris Paul (nine points, six assists) appeared to aggravate his right shoulder injury. Closely reflecting his injury in Game 1, Paul fell like a shot when Wesley Matthews eliminated him. He grimaced through a couple of free throws, doing both before heading back to the locker room to end his evening. Paul later said that the injury “scared him” but also said, “I’ll be fine.”
Aside from Paul’s disappointing injury, the Suns had an incredibly clean sheet. They outscored the Lakers in turnovers (four to 17), assists (29 to 14) and, of course, in shooting (45.7% to 34.5%). As the visitors fought for any semblance of a fitting wingman for James, Phoenix garnered standout performances from players like Mikal Bridges (13 points) and Cameron Payne (16 points), relatively newcomers who have demonstrated the balance of seasoned playoff players.
No Lakers starter outside of James scored more than Andre Drummond’s seven points, and Markieff Morris scored four disappointing points in just 10 minutes as a starter for Davis. Point guard Dennis Schröder, who was seeking a contract this offseason, didn’t score at all.
“I have to be aggressive and be Dennis,” he said. “You can’t control if the ball goes in, but at the end of the day, I’ll stay aggressive, keep shooting them and I have to do them. Everyone has to do them. “
With local sports celebrities like JJ Watt, Kyler Murray and Diana Taurasi in the arena, it felt less like a competition than a statement of the Suns’ rising playoff ambitions, with some 16,000 fans screaming and paying loyalty. Wearing jerseys with names like “Nash” and “Barkley” and “Hill,” viewers without a championship celebrated the blowout as if one could be in their collective future.
Booker was worthy of his tribute early on, nullifying 18 points in an impressive first quarter while manipulating the Lakers defense like a puppeteer. With practiced rhythm, he dove through double teams, finished contested floats, and soared for the jumpers as the crowd rose to their feet with him.
Despite how smooth Booker’s game was, the Lakers’ attack was equally awkward, with teammates bumping into each other in the paint on drives and three-point shots that have all series for shooters. team perimeter.
It looked like the Lakers could come out of the first quarter on Phoenix’s heels before Booker hit a tilted float and a three-point jump shot to take an eight-point lead.
From there, everything fell apart. The Lakers started the second quarter with 0 of 8 shots from the field, while the Suns cooked from the floor, launching a 21-2 run that sent the game from uneven to comically unbalanced. Vogel flipped through the lineups, looking for offense from every corner of the roster, but the Lakers only finished with 10 points to the Suns’ 32 as they took control of the game and series.
They tried to replace Marc Gasol in the center, pushing Talen Horton-Tucker and Ben McLemore on the wings. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was able to start with a knee injury, but played just 15 minutes and missed his only shot attempt before being sidelined for most of the second half.
The question arose: If Davis isn’t healthy enough to play Thursday night, does the Lakers, who never faced an elimination game during their 2020 title run, have a chance to survive and force a Game 7 on? Saturday at Phoenix?
“It’s literally winning or going home at that point,” James said. “So, you shoot all the bullets you have and also drop the gun.”
Later, the Lakers even had mixed reactions to the loss. Schröder said he was likely to “clean it up” when it came to reliving it on video, thinking that little could be learned from such a lousy performance. Morris disagreed.
“I think we have to show,” he said. “Everything we worked for, everything we have been through throughout the year, is over. I think we have to, just to put it in our heads, that this is it. There is no more, if we lose another, talking about what we could have done, what we should have done. That’s all.”
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