LeBron James looks for his last dance: puts the Lakers in the West finals

No one would have said at the beginning of the season that the Lakers would be at this point about to play the NBA Western Conference finals. LeBron James' team crawled on the tracks. They started the season with a string of 2 wins and 10 losses. They were the last in the classification. No one was betting a penny on them. This Friday, they have eliminated the current champions, the Golden State Warriors of Stephen Curry, the most dominant team of the last decade in the NBA. LeBron's Lakers are looking for their last dance.

The "last dance" is how the season of Michael Jordan's sixth and final Chicago Bulls title in 1998 is known. There was a sense of the end of an era. Nobody knows how much time LeBron James has left on the court, but at 38 years old, his era is also approaching the end, although games like this Friday's make you doubt it: he managed 30 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists. He made another notch to his revolver: he became the player with the most series won in the playoffs: 41.

The Lakers already have only two rivals ahead of them on their way to take the ring, which would be the fifth of their career for their star. The first hurdle is the Denver Nuggets. The winner of both will play the NBA finals against the champion of the East, which will come out of the final between the Miami Heat and the winners of the elimination between the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers.

AUSTIN REAVES FROM HALFCOURT AT THE BUZZER 😱

WHAT A SHOT. LAKERS LEAD ON ESPN. pic.twitter.com/8ES5Kfv3cO

— NBA (@NBA) May 13, 2023

These Lakers have been able to bring Jack Nicholson back to the front row. As in his moments of glory, this Friday the stands were full of rich and famous: Elon Musk, Lewis Hamilton, Kim Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, Bad Bunny ... They enjoyed a game in which the Lakers were always ahead and victory seemed assured from very early. The first quarter, despite a recovery by the Warrios, ended 31-26 for the locals. At halftime it was 56-46 thanks to a basket from midfield and the third quarter closed with 91-77. Halfway through the final quarter the difference was 20 points. At the end of the game, 122-101.

The NBA's most successful team has transformed twice during the season. First, it just started working. Center Anthony Davis took turns with LeBron as the leading scorer and rebounder. James was moving towards his all-time points record. Meanwhile, the team improved a little its balance of wins and losses and avoided the ridicule of last season and the beginning of this.

The second transformation came in the last market window, with the signing of D'Angelo Russell, the departure of Russell Westbrook and the ownership of Austin Reaves. With Russell, James and Davis on the court, the Lakers' record in regular-season games was nine wins and one loss. They ended up just the opposite of how they started and sneaked into the playoffs almost at the last moment.

For the Golden State Warriors it is a sad farewell. This year they have been hurt by injuries and their inability to win games outside of San Francisco regularly. But also that its stars, in particular Stephen Curry, have not performed at the same level as last year. Curry is incredibly talented and has played memorable matches, but his miracles have been less frequent this year.

With one of those miracles, the 50 points in a seventh playoff game, the Warriors saved the tie with the Sacramento Kings of Domantas Sabonis at home. In the end, they have fallen in the series against the Lakers, in which they had home-court advantage. The loss in the first game of San Francisco has marked a tie in which the Warriors have been unable to win any of the three games played in Los Angeles. Coach Steve Kerr snaps a historic winning streak in the West playoffs.

Stephen Curry dejected by the elimination of the Golden State Warriors.Santiago Mejia (AP)

LeBron James and Stephen Curry melted into a hug at the end of the game. Two legends who have met throughout their career, each with four champion rings, who respect and admire each other.

A new balance

The Lakers have found a new balance with the arrival of D'Angelo Russell and the ownership of Austin Reaves. LeBron James has assumed that he does not need to exceed 30 points per game and seems willing to give up prominence when convenient and reserve for key moments. It is still a marvel. Anthony Davis is in top form. It is a wall in defense, where it intimidates with its plugs and its 2.08 meters in height. In addition, he bounces in both rings and scores more and more. He is again the center of 2020 who won the title with James in the bubble season.

Era-defining.

LeBron 🤝 Steph pic.twitter.com/QLnaeAvspm

— NBA (@NBA) May 13, 2023

Along with James and Davis, both Russell and Reaves are scoring 15 points per game. They have assumed that they are not the stars of the team, but their work is proving decisive. Reaves, who made a spectacular basket from his own court at the end of the second quarter on Friday and added, is becoming the revelation player in his second season in the NBA. He is 24 years old and was not selected in the 2021 draft (he did not want to be selected 42nd by the Detroit Pistons), but he has been earning the respect of his teammates in the Lakers and the trust of the coach.

Germany's Dennis Schröder completes the starting line-up and Japan's Rui Hachimura acts as sixth man. Other secondary put their grain of sand. Friday's game, in which the Lakers have dominated from start to finish, with much more success from the three-point line than the Warriors, but also a powerful interior game, is an example of that new balance.

The Lakers will play the Western Conference finals against Nikola Jokić's Denver Nuggets. It's another exciting duel. The Serbian center is a machine to score, capture rebounds and give assists that has already left some records in these qualifiers. He has Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., the team's other offensive mainstays, at his side.

The Denver Nuggets face this partial final as favorites. They were the conference leaders in the regular season, with a record of 53 wins and 29 losses. But they come face-to-face with the Lakers, the historically dominant Western Conference team, which has crossed the Nuggets' path time and again at key moments. With them they have lost the last three conference finals they have played: in 2020, in 2009 and in 1985. (They played only one more, against the defunct Seattle Supersonics, to whom they lost in 1978.)

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