There are plenty of reasons for that: Kevin Durant missing Game 1 and the Lakers haranguing him into nine turnovers in Game 2; Luke Kennard, Rui Hachimura and Marcus Smart shooting a combined 19-for-33 (57.6%) from 3-point range through two games; Deandre Ayton holding Alperen Şengün to just 5-for-19 shooting when they’ve been matched up; etc.One of the biggest ones, though? LeBron James, it turns out, still knows how to take the reins of a playoff series and — even at age 41 — make sure it’s played on his terms and at his pace.“We all got to pick up our play,” James told reporters after the Lakers’ 101-94 Game 2 win.

“When you’ve got two big guns out like we have, we all got to pick up our play. And that’s all it’s about. We’re all just trying to contribute, make contributions in all facets of the game, pick up our play.”One way that LeBron’s been picking his up?

By posting up.As my colleague Tom Haberstroh noted on this week’s episode of The Big Number, through two games of Lakers-Rockets, James has finished 16 possessions out of the post with either a shot attempt or a foul drawn. According to Synergy Sports tracking data, that is not only more post-ups than any other player (nobody else is even in double-digits); it’s more than every non-Lakers team in the postseason field.Left block, right block or at the nail; Josh Okogie, Tari Eason, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr. or Aaron Holiday; backing them all the way down to the rim, whipping a pass to a cutting big man, or turning over either shoulder for that patented baseline fadeaway jumper.

LeBron’s breaking out every tool in the toolbox — I guess “every club in the bag” is more appropriate these days — in search of ways to compromise the Rockets’ defense, draw attention away from the likes of Kennard, Smart, Hachimura, Ayton and Jaxson Hayes, and create advantages that allow the Lakers to play on their terms rather than Houston’s.Including plays where he's passed to a teammate who has shot the ball, the Lakers are scoring 1.053 points per possession on these post-ups, according to Synergy. That’s not elite efficiency; it would’ve ranked 39th among 76 players who logged at least 50 post possessions during the regular season, between Jalen Johnson and Day’Ron Sharpe.

Considering the Rockets gave up 0.94 points per possession on post-ups and 0.99 points per possession on pass-outs from the post during the regular season, though, it ain’t half-bad. Especially when you factor in that a Lakers team that has struggled with ball security without Dončić and Reaves — a 19.3% turnover rate through two games, third-worst in the playoff field, including 21 cough-ups of the more damaging live-ball variety — hasn’t turned it over once on those LeBron post-ups, getting a shot on goal or drawing a foul each time.LeBron James is averaging 23.5 points, 8 rebounds and 10 assists through two playoff games. (Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images)Adam PantozziThanks partly to those methodical trips to the low post, the Lakers have the slowest average time to shot on offense (14.6 seconds, more than 60% of the shot clock) in the postseason field, according to Inpredictable, and have decelerated the pace of their series to 91.8 possessions per 48 minutes — the slowest series in Round 1 thus far. Several series in recent years have operated at a slower pace, mostly featuring teams that already played at a snail’s pace (Joe Mazzulla’s Celtics, Tom Thibodeau’s Knicks), that revolved around a low-post monster (Nikola Jokić, Joel Embiid) and/or that entered the series as an underdog and were adopting the underdog strategy of trying to take the air out of the ball — limiting the number of offensive possessions their favored opponents had, and with it their ability to build and extend a lead.The current iteration of the Lakers check all three boxes: 22nd in pace during the regular season, built around the post game that LeBron has worked tirelessly to hone over the past 15 years, and an underdog heading into the series based on the absence of two of their three best offensive we