LeBron James came out with a vintage performance on Friday night as he carried the Los Angeles Lakers to a much-needed win over the Washington Wizards. LA prevailed, 122-109, for just their second win in eight games since the All-Star break, and this was thanks in large part to LeBron's 50-point explosion on the evening.
After the game, LeBron's ex-Cavs teammate Channing Frye sent out a bit of a warning pertaining to The King's elite level of play. For starters, Frye expressed how he was not shocked at all by LeBron's offensive eruption against the Wizards. The one-time NBA champ then explained why this was the case:
“Zero. This does not surprise me at all,” Frye said about how surprised he was about LeBron's explosion against the Wizards. “He's so good, he can be whatever you need him to be. … I think for him, he leads the league in scoring because he's the smartest player to play in the NBA. He takes care of his body, he knows his spots. And when his jumper is hitting it's almost impossible to guard him.”
LeBron was definitely hitting his shots for the Lakers on Friday night and it resulted in his second 50-point performance in the span of a week. Not too many 37-year-old's out there can make this same claim. As a matter of fact, James made a bit of history with his recent scoring outburst.
Frye was also quick to point out how LeBron now leads the NBA in scoring. To put that into context, James has now surpassed both Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo for the highest scoring average this season. The fact that these two are the top frontrunners for this year's MVP title speaks volumes of what LeBron James is doing right now.
Be that as it may, Frye admitted that he's feeling a bit worried right now. In his mind, the Lakers are running a huge risk with LeBron here, and that his extremely heavy workload could start taking its toll on him:
“I don't know how long he can continue to do this,” Frye warned, “and I say that very kinda like cautiously, but I don't know how much he's gonna have left in the tank. We just talked about it off the air, he's third in minutes played, which is crazy. So for him to do that, and you expect him to have another level for the Playoffs, I think he's just doing this to keep that team afloat until Anthony Davis or Russell Westbrook snap out of whatever they're in — injuries or just in a little funk.”
"I don't know how much he's going to have in the tank."@channingfrye talks about LeBron James' play for the Lakers this season on #Gametime. pic.twitter.com/rDdhNc8pOi
— NBA TV (@NBATV) March 13, 2022
Fair point from Mr. Frye here. Despite how much we applaud LeBron for meticulously taking care of his body, it's no secret that Father Time is slowly catching up to him. James has indeed proven that he has been able to defy the aging process thus far, but the harsh reality is that you can only push back the inevitable for so much.
As Frye expressed, the only way he sees this playing out for the Lakers is if Anthony Davis finally gets healthy again. Right now, we aren't even sure when that's going to be. Frye has also remained optimistic about Russell Westbrook getting out of the “little funk” he's currently in. Based on what we've seen from Russ this season, though, I'm not too sure if this funk is as little as Frye describes it to be.
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