{"id":118737,"date":"2026-04-23T05:22:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T05:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/23\/lebron-james-sends-warning-to-lakers-for-game-3-despite-defensive-efforts\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T05:22:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T05:22:58","slug":"lebron-james-sends-warning-to-lakers-for-game-3-despite-defensive-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/23\/lebron-james-sends-warning-to-lakers-for-game-3-despite-defensive-efforts\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James Sends Warning to Lakers For Game 3 Despite Defensive Efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers may be in control of their playoff series, but there\u2019s no sense of comfort inside the locker room.<\/p>\n<p>After taking a 2-0 lead over the Houston Rockets, much of the attention has shifted to how effectively the Lakers contained Kevin Durant in Game 2.<\/p>\n<p>While Durant still finished with 23 points, he was limited to just three in the second half and committed a playoff career-high nine turnovers.<\/p>\n<p>James led the way with 28 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists, but postgame, his focus wasn\u2019t on what went right, it was on what\u2019s coming next.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNone. That just makes him even madder going into Game 3,\u201d James <a href=\"https:\/\/lakersnation.com\/lebron-james-cautions-lakers-after-game-2-defensive-performance-on-kevin-durant\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> after the win. \u201cNo satisfaction. You know, we did our job. We did that. But the guy\u2019s a first-ballot Hall of Famer and he\u2019s going to make way more great plays than not. So, we don\u2019t have no satisfaction\u2026 That game is over and done with, but it\u2019s still a tall challenge \u2014 7-foot tall, too\u2026 He hates that. He might be mad at me if he sees that. He wants to be 6-9 or 6-10 so bad, but he\u2019s 7-foot for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Lakers\u2019 aggressive defensive scheme, trapping and double-teaming Durant throughout the night, proved effective, but James made it clear that containing a player of Durant\u2019s caliber is never a one-game task.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just think it\u2019s just the, I mean it\u2019s the stories,\u201d James added. \u201cYou guys have seen us play for so long. They followed us since high school or maybe even before that so you know, the storytelling is what a lot of fans and what a lot of people gravitate towards because they\u2019ve seen our journey. They\u2019ve seen our ups, they\u2019ve seen our downs, and everything in between.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I think that\u2019s what makes certain guys, certain matchups, that fans kind of attract to because of the journey and the storytelling,\u201d he added. \u201cSo from a fan\u2019s perspective, I think that\u2019s what that\u2019s about. From a competitive standpoint, to play against one of the greats to ever play this game is always an honor and it\u2019s always a treat so I don\u2019t take that for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foreverbet.com\/en-us\/sportsbook?utm_source=basketballforever&amp;utm_medium=sitearticle&amp;utm_ca%5B%E2%80%A6%5Dn=basketballforever500ph&amp;utm_term=JamesLakersDurant&amp;lid=j0ytdho0wlyd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-69110\" src=\"https:\/\/basketballforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ForeverBet-BF-promotional-banner-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"730\" height=\"175\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/basketballforever.com\/2026\/04\/21\/jeanie-buss-says-kobe-bryant-would-love-luka-doncic-era\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kobe Bryant Would\u2019ve Loved Luka Doncic Lakers Era: Jeanie Buss<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/basketballforever.com\/2026\/04\/22\/lebron-james-sends-warning-to-lakers-for-game-3-despite-defensive-efforts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers may be in control of their playoff series, but there\u2019s no sense of comfort inside the locker room. After taking a 2-0 lead over the Houston Rockets, much of the attention has shifted to how effectively the Lakers contained Kevin Durant in Game 2. While Durant still finished [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":118738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118737"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}