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"LeBron James forgot to stop the Nuggets": Lakers star makes spectacular transition dunk before halftime buzzer, but NBA Twitter is adamant that the Lakers star wasn't called for a blatant travel

Writer Rachel Young

We hear a lot of talk about Year 18 and how much LeBron James is being affected by age. He gave us solid proof that he’s still going strong tonight.

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James took 3.5 seconds of game clock to go from his own 3-point line to dunking the ball all over the Denver Nuggets. The Lakers had just given up a 14-point lead, and James wanted to force the issue to end the game.

A look at the play truly illustrates how much of a bulldozer James still can be in transition.

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But if you play basketball at any level, you might notice one obvious hitch – James travels blatantly even after accounting for a gather step. It is clear as daylight when you watch replays of the play. The refereeing crew was shorthanded on the night, and without the baseline referee, there was no way to call it with surety.

Also Read: ā€œHappy Valentines’ Day Dadaā€: LeBron James shares a surprise gift he got from his daughter Zhuri James ahead of Lakers’ loss to Nuggets

Richard Jefferson calls the LeBron James dunk a travel

Understandably, Twitter did not take long to dissect this play. They called the NBA rigged, LeBron a fraud and his 2020 ring a Mickey Mouse ring, as is tradition. But there was also serious analysis present as to why this was a definite uncalled travel.

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Also Read: ā€œKevin Durant grew as a player in his time with Golden Stateā€: Warriors’ Draymond Green cites KD’s playmaking as a skill to have evolved in the Bay Area

Richard Jefferson joined in on the criticism as well.

Overall, it was a lopsided game from the second quarter onwards. The Nuggets took full advantage of AD’s injury-enforced absence to pile on the misery over the Lakers. The LA team are now 21-7 on the season, 1 game ahead of the Clippers in 3rd and 1 behind Utah.

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