The physical rivalry that has sprung up between Stanley Johnson and LeBron James in the playoffs took a verbal turn after game two in Cleveland.
The Detroit Pistons haven’t been shy about using physical force on the defensive side to try to slow down LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. He hasn’t had to be the offensive focal point for the Cavs with both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love averaging over 20 points per game so far in the first round, with Irving averaging 26.5 and Love averaging 22 points, but he’s gotten his shot when he wants it so far.
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James is averaging 24.5 points on 60 percent shooting through the first two games, but the Pistons have stopped at nothing in the attempt to reduce his impact. With the stream of bodies that the Pistons have thrown at him, from Marcus Morris, Reggie Bullock and Tobias Harris, perhaps the most effective has been rookie Stanley Johnson. The oversized 19-year old weighs in at 6-foot-7 and 240 pounds, but James is a freight train who deflects physical defense like few others before him.
While the Pistons weren’t expected to be an opponent who would roll over for the defending Eastern Conference champions, neither were they expected to rile LeBron up as they have so far, particularly in game two. As Michael Lee of The Vertical describes:
"The Detroit Pistons haven’t been able to get James tripping or slipping in their first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers. But they certainly have ignited plenty of emotion in him thus far, turning what should be a ho-hum series for the Eastern Conference favorites into an opportunity for the 31-year-old to taunt the Pistons’ bench after hitting a wide-open 3-pointer, wobble joyously after an emphatic dunk and talk smack to Morris after he dared to leave him open from long range."
There’s something to be said for getting in your opponent’s head, as Stanley Johnson believes he has done to LeBron James. It’s good to throw your opponent off his game. But most opponents aren’t LeBron James, and riling him up is no less dangerous than letting him run free, getting what he wants.
LeBron has indeed noticed Stanley Johnson and the young Pistons, perhaps best shown in the below clip where he walks straight through the rookie on the way to their respective benches during a timeout, but Johnson may realize he has some learning to do about what works and doesn’t work on NBA superstars.
Piston fans love the grit and physicality that Johnson brings to the floor on the defensive side, but others have antagonized the self-described King in the playoffs before. Lance Stephenson and his infamous ear-blowing incident comes to mind, as does DeShawn Stevenson once of the Washington Wizards, who called James overrated.
Looking back, the greatest relevance either of those players have now is that they antagonized James in the playoffs (although DeShawn Stevenson did win an NBA championship with the Dallas Mavericks before James got his first with the Miami Heat). It’s on Johnson to set himself apart and build his own legacy of matching up against one of the best players the game has ever seen.
As Lee continues in his piece on The Vertical:
"“I’m definitely in his head, that’s for sure,” Johnson said. “That’s for sure.”Johnson and James have some history, dating back to two years ago when the brash kid eagerly sought a one-on-one battle – and held his own, according to witnesses – at James’ Skills Academy in Las Vegas.Johnson was asked if he was afraid of how James would respond to his words and was even more defiant.“Why would I be?” Johnson responded, incredulously. “He laces his shoes up the same way I lace my shoes up. He has to come out there and compete and make his shots. He doesn’t come prepared, that’s the NBA – anybody and everybody can get busted any night. From the last guy on the bench to the first guy out. He’s going to have to strap his shoes in every night tight because I’m going to strap my shoes in every night tight. I’m going to play hard and compete every night as much as I can. Like I said before, he’s a great player. I never took that away from him, I never said anything about that. I just said I’m going to compete every night and give my hardest effort every night and live with it. He makes shots like he did and plays like he did, ain’t many people in the league, ever, probably ever, that can match that. So it is what it is, he had a great game and move on.”"
Whether Johnson can back up his talk on the court remains to be seen, more in future seasons than in this one, but one thing is certain: LeBron James has noticed, and he’s in full-blown playoff mode.