A superstar player and his head coach’s mismatched decisions are hardly a unique phenomenon. We just didn’t think that would be a sight in this Los Angeles Lakers squad. Yet the recent Phoenix Suns game was full of plot twists. The cliffhanger came in the final seconds, with fouls, an ejection, and the lead flipping back and forth. It all boiled down to LeBron James taking Luka Doncic’s place against JJ Redick’s expectation…

After the Lakers got a narrow 116-114 win, Redick addressed the moment James stepped up to the free-throw line instead of Doncic. The head coach’s comments reached James in the locker room. The reporters, however, immediately wanted to know why he thought of taking the technical free throw.

“S— I just walked to the free-throw line,” James said, re-enacting the moment in his head. “I mean, why wouldn’t I?”

In case you were wondering, this answer came with the usual confident ‘King James’ tone.

“I’d have been okay with Luka taking it, too,” he said.

Except for Redick giving a last-minute instruction, there was no explanation behind James unexpectedly stepping up to the stripe. But the Lakers veteran felt either Doncic or himself could’ve taken it, so he “just took it.”

Redick, though, admitted this caught him off guard.

“Luka and I had talked,” the coach said. “I thought Luka was going to shoot it. I walked back; LeBron was at the free-throw line. He shot it. I don’t know what the dialogue on the court was.”

According to Redick, the Lakers established a system at the start of the season (the period that James sat out with sciatica, by the way). They had designated who would take the shot when there’s a tech. He doesn’t specify anything, but he made his preference clear.

“Sometimes it’s the superstar, sometimes it’s the best free-throw shooter, sometimes it’s a guy who maybe needs to see the ball go in the basket,” Redick said with a diplomatic tone. “It’s all situational. But Luka should have shot that.”

The issue was that James missed it. That almost cost the Lakers another humiliation at the hands of the Suns.

LeBron James defying JJ Redick put the Lakers in a dicey situation…

“I mean, unfortunately, I missed it, but I made up for it.” LeBron James had the luxury of saying.

That’s because the Lakers won due to factors also related to him. But going to the free throw line nearly could’ve gone sideways.

In the last 12 seconds of the game, the situation escalated when Dillon Brooks made a three to put the Suns up 114-113, but he immediately went up to James, earning his second technical foul and an automatic ejection.

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James got to the line and missed the technical FT. Perhaps Redick felt the outcome would’ve been different if Doncic had taken that shot. This is significant considering the narrative about Redick going along with James’ decisions. And the parallel narrative about the 40-year-old veteran shaving into Doncic’s time.

What ultimately worked in the Lakers’ favor were the last plays. James got fouled while attempting to make a three. He made the last two shots that put the Lakers up 115-114 with less than four seconds left in the game.

The Suns missed the next possession, and Marcus Smart got fouled while grabbing the rebound. Although the clock ran out, the refs had called it. So Smart got his free throws, shot one out of two, and secured the Lakers a two-point win.

It redeemed the Lakers from their humiliating loss earlier this month. But most watching were not happy with James’ behavior throughout the game. Apart from extending his rivalry with Brooks, he showed unsportsmanlike conduct by shoving a referee. He didn’t get tossed for it, but it sure caused a frenzy online.