Lakers

Ahead of the premiere of Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, check out side-by-side comparisons of the cast with the NBA players and executives ...

Ladies and gentleman, please welcome Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty to the court as your next TV obsession. Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty premieres March 6 on HBO and HBO Max. The HBO series, which premieres March 6, takes viewers back to the glitz and glamour of the 1980s and the beginning of the NBA's Showtime era.

The Lakers superstar becomes the 4th-oldest player in NBA history to top 50 points and proves he's still adapting and honing his craft.

For far too often, James has finished with MVP-type numbers only for the Lakers to lose. “To see it first hand is something that I can learn as I continue to get older in this league and continue to find ways to be effective. On a drive-and-kick, James then set up Anthony for an open trey that gave the Lakers a 122-116 cushion with 34.3 seconds left. “It is just an example for every player to put the work into his craft.” First, James played in a game he described as “paint dominant” with big men scoring in the post. If you cannot have a growth mindset on how you can find ways to get better with the time, then you’ll get left behind,” James said. So as long as I’m in this league and the game changes again, then hopefully I’ll have that growth mindset and I’ll continue to adapt.” James became the seventh Lakers player to post multiple 50-point performances. “Right now, I don’t give a damn about the 56,” James said. Following a four-game losing streak after the All-Star break, the Lakers (28-35) finally collected a win against a Warriors team (43-21) that has lost four consecutive games and eight of their last 10 amid Draymond Green’s absence. After the on-court celebration, James was asked in the locker room how it felt to score so many points. He also became the fourth-oldest player to post a 50-point game.

On a night where they needed him most, LeBron showed up in a big way for the Lakers.

There was a moment in the first quarter that seemed to change the course of the game early. And he dominated the Warriors, leading the Lakers to a 124-116 victory. But a late surge from Los Angeles and a little help from LeBron James helped them to capture their 28th win of the season.

In HBO's new drama about the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers dynasty, John C. Reilly, Jason Clarke, and Quincy Isaiah make a hell of a show out of Showtime.

That series would be equivalent to the glow-down we saw in Peacock's Bel-Air, which was so desperate to be capital-P Prestige that it sucked the fun and heart out of what Will Smith and co. McKay and the team behind the production are right to drive over the speed limit in their recreation. Not everyone's a fan of the joke, though—especially the people who actually suited up for the Lakers back then. Winning Time, which stars the likes of John C. Reilly as the late Lakers czar Jerry Buss, and Jason Clarke as a wound-extremely-tight Jerry West, adds a little Adam McKay (who produces the series) flair to the historical record. Clearly, we're not supposed to assume that the true story behind it all, which saw Magic Johnson win five championships with the franchise, actually looked like what we saw on Sunday night: a jockified version of Succession. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar added, “the story of the Showtime Lakers is best told by those who actually lived through it.” (No comment yet from Jeanie Buss, the current Los Angeles Lakers owner and daughter of Jerry.) As for critics, the series has received a largely positive response, though the over the top showmanship seems to have struck a nerve.

Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James finished with 56 points and 10 rebounds in a crucial 124-116 victory over Steph Curry and the Golden State ...

He is averaging 29.4 points, 8.1 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game this season. "I love getting my guys involved, I’ve always been that way." "It p----- me off."

This thought entered my mind repeatedly while watching HBO's Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, the first episode of which premieres this Sunday.

Given that the show has signaled that it’s going to end in 1991, and that the Lakers won four more titles after 1980, and that the Showtime era’s third-most-famous player, Hall of Famer James Worthy, wasn’t even drafted until 1982, focusing so much on the earliest days of the dynasty is an odd choice. McKay recently gave an interview to Vanity Fair in which he disclosed a falling-out with longtime friend and collaborator Will Ferrell over the casting of the show. The show’s approach to sex—and there’s a lot of sex—feels similarly disjointed. This brings us to perhaps the most flummoxing aspect of Winning Time, which is the question of whom exactly it’s for. For a series about one of the most famous basketball teams in history, Winning Time shows remarkably little actual basketball. Winning Time has plenty of boobs and butts and people saying “fuck” to each other, but its historical inquiry never gets much more complex than “remember when?” The show’s fourth episode attempts to bring a critical eye to Buss’ womanizing, but it rings hollow after all the ogling of naked women the show itself has indulged in up to that point. All of this is a shame, because beneath all the hyperactive razzle-dazzle, Winning Time boasts a handful of terrific performances, starting with Quincy Isaiah, the screen newcomer cast as Magic Johnson himself. Reilly is a famously versatile performer, equally at home in comedic and dramatic contexts, but expecting him to do both within the same role is a high-wire act that requires a much better script than he’s given here. Compounding the tonal and storytelling inconsistencies of Winning Time is how the show actually looks. It’s a show about one of the most interesting subjects I can imagine that seems to fundamentally misunderstand what actually makes that subject interesting. So many different characters break the fourth wall and address the camera, and so frequently, that the show’s narrative coherence is undermined from its opening minutes.

Los Angeles Lakers head coach Frank Vogel is receiving an increased push from several members of the organization to remove Russell Westbrook from the ...

The Lakers bounced back from a four-game losing streak on Saturday night. Despite the pressure to do so, Vogel has yet to demote Westbrook. Still, Wojnarowski reports that the point guard and coaching staff haven't seen eye-to-eye on how to best utilize his talent, which has led to some "tense moments" between Westbrook and Vogel recently. Vogel was asked about the prospects of bringing Westbrook off the bench on Friday, to which he said "we're not there yet."

The 56-point effort tied Trae Young's NBA season-high and is the most points LeBron has scored in a game for Los Angeles, Buha notes. James said he was just ...

“(The Lakers) would like to get through the rest of this season with Frank Vogel,” Wojnarowski said. Caruso was having a strong season for Chicago, but has played just 28 games to this point and is currently sidelined with a fractured right wrist. The Lakers have had an undeniably disappointing season, barely clinging to the No. 9 seed in the West with a 28-35 record, but James has been consistently great on offense. But we’re still in a good position where we can still have a chance. “It’s funny, our guys were following me off the floor tonight going into the locker room and they asked me, ‘How does it feel to score 56?’” James said. James said he was just happy to get a win.