Lakers face a Nets superteam that they helped usher in – Orange County Register

The final time the Lakers noticed James Harden, they drove him to quit.

It was lower than a month into the season when the defending NBA champions put collectively back-to-back blowouts of the Rockets in Houston, the second of which noticed Harden merely quit in the course of the sport. The Lakers pressed their heels on the Rockets’ throats, with LeBron James memorably shooting a 3-pointer and turning around to crow at the Lakers bench before it went in.

Afterward, Harden stated in a memorable press convention that his nine-season tenure in Houston was unsalvageable: “I’ve actually performed the whole lot I can. This example is loopy. I don’t assume it may be mounted.”

On Tuesday night time, two days from going through the Lakers once more, the 31-year-old former Artesia Excessive standout was all smiles. Now with the Brooklyn Nets, Harden had guided his staff (with out Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving) again from a 24-point deficit and made the winning shot against the Phoenix Suns with 31 seconds left.

“The way in which we’re taking part in,” stated Harden, who had 38 factors and 11 assists within the comeback win, “and the potential we’ve got as a staff is what I’m enthusiastic about.”

One interpretation of the problem that lies forward of the Lakers is that the Brooklyn Nets, as stacked of an offensive staff as there’s ever been, is partly a monster that they helped usher in. Not solely have been the Lakers the final staff Harden confronted with the Rockets this common season, however their gentleman’s sweep of Houston in the second round of last year’s playoffs, with 4 straight wins to shut out the collection after shedding Sport 1, rippled via the group resulting in them parting methods with their head coach, their basic supervisor and Russell Westbrook.

The dysfunction had been brewing before that series, however the Lakers helped deliver the problems to the fore by decisively crushing the Rockets. Though that’s not the interpretation James has of the previous MVP’s commerce to Brooklyn final month.

“I don’t assume it has a lot to do with us,” he stated. “I feel it has the whole lot to do with how James was feeling. James felt like he needed to be in a unique place, completely different scenario. He desires to win, he desires to win now and he felt like his time was over in Houston and that was all it’s about.”

One factor appears certain: Harden landed within the scenario he needed.

Within the 16 video games since Harden joined the Nets, the staff is 11-6 and is on tempo to have one of the best offense (120.9 offensive score) in league historical past. That’s what one would possibly anticipate from a staff with three gamers who’ve two MVP trophies amongst them and have lengthy been a number of the most gifted scorers within the recreation.

James took a “been-there, done-that” slant when requested if he might consider any staff as offensively gifted as Brooklyn: “Umm, have we forgot about KD, Steph (Curry) and Klay (Thompson) already?”

However the concept the Harden-Durant-Irving tandem is on that airplane undoubtedly rocks the notion that the Lakers are undisputed favorites to repeat as champions.

Thursday’s recreation gained’t precisely really feel like a Finals preview: Each Lakers All-Star Anthony Davis (proper calf pressure) and two-time Finals MVP Durant (left hamstring pressure) are anticipated to overlook it. However James stated he’s shopping for the competition as a measuring stick for the Lakers.

“They obtained three of one of the best guys within the recreation,” he stated. “Positively would like to be full while you’re taking part in towards a staff like that and see, like, at that time within the season, the way you match up – the way you match up towards a number of the finest groups within the league.”