Don't Expect LeBron James to Save the Lakers in Game 6 Against Suns

LeBron James finds himself in a position that he hasn’t been in throughout his entire NBA career, as he’s down 3-2 in the opening round of the NBA playoffs.

The Los Angeles Lakers, who were favored to beat the Phoenix Suns despite being the No. 7 seed, will need to win Game 6 tonight to keep their season alive.

Anthony Davis’ injury status has yet to be determined for tonight’s game, but even if he plays, LeBron will need to step up in a big way. Ahead of Game 5, I was fooled by James’ statement to the media, where he said he was ready to shoulder the load and put on a big performance.

What happened was quite the opposite, and I’m not buying into the narrative again tonight.

LeBron scored only 24 points in Davis’ absence while grabbing five rebounds and notching seven assists. While the stat line itself doesn’t seem so bad, it wasn’t close to the performance James needed to have and he visibly gave up as the game went on.

I will be fading LeBron in as many ways as possible for Game 6, as I doubt he’ll bounce back from the abysmal display he put on in Game 5.

WynnBET has James’ point total set at 29.5 for Thursday night, and the under seems like a great bet at -108 odds.

They also have other player props set for him, including assists (8.5), rebounds (8.5) and turnovers (3.5).

Give me the under on points, rebounds, and assists, and then I’ll mix in an over bet on his turnovers.

LeBron hasn't scored over 30 points in a single game this series, in fact the most he's scored was 25 in Game 4. He's also only surpassed 8.5 rebounds once, which was in Game 4 as well. He has hit the over on 8.5 assists in three of the five games, but he's also committed over 3.5 turnovers at the same rate.

Despite what we saw from the Lakers on Tuesday night, WynnBET has them set as 2.5-point home favorites with the total set at 207.5.

It’s hard to speak against one of the greatest basketball players to ever walk the face of the Earth, but after backing LeBron in Game 5 and seeing him essentially give up on his team, I’m expecting a similar performance tonight that will result in his 2021 season coming to an end.