Winning the NBA championship is a process, and LeBron James feels like his Los Angeles Lakers have made measurable progress towards that goal.
After leading the team to a Game 5 win against the Portland Trail Blazers to advance to the second round of the playoffs, James talked about how the Lakers have gotten better during the course of the series.
LeBron tells TNT in his walk-off interview: "We got better throughout the course of this series…We have an opportunity to decompress just a little bit and wait for our next opponent and at the same time continue to remember how important voting is." #Lakeshow
— Lauren Jones (@LoJoMedia) August 30, 2020
It looked like L.A. was in some trouble when it dropped Game 1, 100-93. But the Lakers won Game 2 easily, pulled away for a Game 3 win and blew out Portland in Game 4 by 20 points.
Suddenly, it was clear that the Lakers were the superior team.
In Game 5, Portland fought hard even though it was without the services of superstar Damian Lillard. It remained right on L.A.’s heels throughout and tied the contest at 109 on a Gary Trent Jr. 3-pointer with 6:52 remaining in the fourth quarter.
But almost in the blink of an eye, the Lakers took a 129-114 lead, and Rip City was done for the season.
Going on late runs like the one L.A. put on Portland in the fourth quarter is a common trait of championship teams past and present.
