LeBron James Shares Strong Message After Beating Giannis Antetokounmpo

Four-time NBA champion LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers defeated Giannis Antetokounmpo and his Milwaukee Bucks. The reigning MVP couldn’t help his team win the night, and LA celebrated a 113-106 win. It was a good start of the road trip.

King James outplayed his younger rival. He finished the night with 34 points. One thing stands for sure. LeBron didn’t even think about the fact that he won a game against Giannis.

“I can care less about that,” the Lakers superstar said. “I try to play well and help our team win against any team.”

Lakers big man Anthony Davis had a similar reaction. His teammates didn’t talk about the Bucks. The only thing they did talk about was the win. Los Angeles couldn’t afford to lose two straight games.

“Honestly no one had brought that up or talked about it. Our motivation was not losing two in a row tonight,” AD said. “We were able to get that accomplished. He’s a great player. Great player on both sides of the ball. He deserves it. But for us, we try to go out there and win basketball games.”

Davis has great chance to win the Defensive Player of the Year award this season. Utah Jazz big man Rudy Gobert and Antetokounpo are next on the list.

Will LeBron beat Antetokounmpo in the MVP race?

The MVP race is pretty tight. LeBron is a top-five contender standing at +600. He is tied with Nikola Jokic from the Denver Nuggets. Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic is a favorite with +400.

LeBron plays 32.2 minutes per game which is a career-low for him. Experts have also noticed a slight drop in his stats. He is averaging 23.7 points, 7.9 assists, and 7.5 rebounds per game with the Lakers. The 16-time All-Star is doing his best to stay fresh and ready to win games.

“It’s a fine line now with how much we push, how much rest and also stay in good rhythm,” LeBron said. “Because myself and our team, we built so much great rhythm in the bubble that we want to try to continue that as much as we can.”

Lakers players are building nice chemistry, and head coach Frank Vogel is pretty impressed.

Frank Vogel on how he thought first month would play out: "I honestly had no idea what to expect coming in off a short offseason and coming in after having won a championship. I really thought it could be a wide range of ways that it could play out. I’m happy with where we’re at"

— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) January 21, 2021

“I honestly had no idea what to expect coming in off a short offseason and coming in after having won a championship,” he told media members. “I really thought it could be a wide range of ways that it could play out. I’m happy with where we’re at. There are some areas we need to continue to get better at. And we’ve shown early on we can be great at — just disciplined things with the habits we build with more repetition and more time together.”