The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a blow within days of reaching Orlando. Their backup point guard, Rajon Rondo, suffered a fracture and will miss around 6-8 weeks. Although he was just the back-up after LeBron James, Rondo was the best play-maker on the team. Therefore, former NBA champion BJ Armstrong believes LeBron is going to be under a lot more pressure now.

While making an appearance on Sky Sports’ NBA Heat Check, former Chicago Bulls guard Armstrong talked about Rondo’s importance to the team. “Even though Rondo is not playing significant minutes for the Lakers, his veteran presence in the locker room, what he does to organize a second unit is going to be missed. Playoff Rondo is battle-tested and we know he can organize the game So I think this is going to hurt much more than people are talking about”

He says that Rondo and Bradley’s absence combined is going to affect the Lakers. “They’ve already missed a significant piece in Avery Bradley. So now I think this is going to put an extraordinary amount of pressure on LeBron James. Not only does he have to score, (but he’s also) going to have to initiate the offense. And he is going to have to organize the team.” 

Will LeBron James be able to rise above the pressure?

Armstrong doesn’t seem to have faith in Rondo’s replacements. But he knows LeBron can takeover.“Putting that type of pressure on Alex Caruso and the players they have just acquired, is going to put a lot of pressure on LeBron James. You can put him (James) in positions doing whatever part of the game is being played. He can be a wing player, he can be a scorer, he can drop in the post, (or) you can put him top of the key.”

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But we have seen LeBron James carry his team before. He carried his Cleveland Cavaliers team all the way to the NBA Finals in 2007. He carried the Cavs again to a title in 2016, but he had help from Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. But in 2018, this burden he took on was far greater than before. Adam Pearce and Joe Ward from the NY Times wrote how, in the 2018 playoffs, James contributed a historic 32% of the Cavaliers’ stats. No player has come close to this, except Kareem Abdul-Jabbar when he had 30% over 40 years back.

At the Lakers, he also has Anthony Davis, who is the most talented teammate he has had since Dwyane Wade. He is a DPOY level player and is a three-time Blocks champion. In the regular season so far, they have shown they can be a lethal duo. If the rest of the squad can play their role effectively, James and Davis can lead the Lakers to their first title since 2010.