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Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James will be a key part of keeping the team afloat as Luka Doncic returns from injury.
There is still no firm date for Luka Doncic’s return from injury, leaving the Los Angeles Lakers to search for enough offense to survive the Oklahoma City Thunder in the meantime.
That makes one specific LeBron James advantage worth watching as the second-round series begins. During a Lakers-Thunder series preview on his YouTube channel, Lakers reporter Jovan Buha and analyst Tim “Cranjis” identified James’ post game as one area where Los Angeles may be able to consistently pressure Oklahoma City.
The Thunder are a brutal matchup for the Lakers in several obvious ways. They have the perimeter defenders to pressure the ball, the length to shrink the floor and the speed to turn live-ball mistakes into instant offense.
But James’ ability to punish smaller defenders in the post gives the Lakers something simple and physical to lean on, especially while Doncic’s return timeline continues to loom over the series.
Lakers-Thunder series preview w/ @Tim_NBA: — LA’s ISO & PnR defense vs. SGA — LA’s post-ups/bullyball w/ LeBron — Why LeBron, Austin Reaves, Lou Dort, Ajay Mitchell & Deandre Ayton are X-factors — Possession, 3PT and paint battles — Prediction
Watch: t.co/ycJnNSE72a
Buha raised the question of how Oklahoma City will defend James in the post, pointing to the success James had using his strength against smaller Thunder defenders during the regular season.
Cranjis added a key statistical note: the Lakers scored at a highly efficient level when posting James against Oklahoma City, according to the matchup data discussed on the show.
That does not mean the Lakers have solved the Thunder. It does mean they may have found one of the few cleaner ways to generate offense against a defense built to create chaos.
Oklahoma City’s pressure is especially dangerous when teams try to initiate offense far from the basket. The Thunder have enough active defenders to get into ball handlers, jump passing lanes and force possessions to start late in the clock.
That is where James’ post touches could matter. A post-up does not require the same amount of dribbling or perimeter creation. It lets the Lakers enter the ball, let James read the floor and force Oklahoma City to decide whether to stay home or send help.
If the Thunder guard James straight up with smaller defenders, the Lakers can live with that. If Oklahoma City sends extra bodies, James remains one of the best passers in NBA history at finding cutters and shooters out of pressure.
For a Lakers team already playing without Doncic, that kind of controlled offense could be essential.
Doncic’s injury situation remains the larger backdrop to the series.
Doncic has been sidelined since April 2 with a hamstring strain, and Shams Charania described the recovery as a “slow path,” with Doncic still not doing full running or full-contact work. Heavy has also covered the tension between cautious insider reporting and an ESPN game preview page that listed May 7 as an estimated return date.
That uncertainty matters because the Lakers are not just missing another scorer. They are missing the player who most easily changes the geometry of their offense.
Without Doncic, more responsibility falls on James, Austin Reaves and the Lakers’ supporting cast to create shots against one of the league’s most disruptive defenses. That is a difficult ask over a full series, particularly against an Oklahoma City team that already handled the Lakers during the regular season.
The Lakers-Thunder schedule opens with Game 1 on May 5 in Oklahoma City, followed by Game 2 on May 7, Game 3 on May 9 and Game 4 on May 11.
That means the Lakers may need to survive at least the opening stretch of the series without Doncic. If James can consistently create efficient post offense, it would give Los Angeles a way to keep games closer while waiting to see whether Doncic can return.
Erik Anderson is an award-winning sports journalist covering the NBA, MLB and NFL for Heavy.com. He also focuses on the trading card market. His work has appeared in nationally-recognized outlets including The New York Times, Associated Press , USA Today, and ESPN. More about Erik Anderson
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