NBA 9/18 | Frac the world’s Nuggets vs 21JumpStreet’s Lakers | WCF Game 1

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There are few players in the league who inspire less fear at first glance than Caruso. He went undrafted out of college. He’s logged more time in the G League than the NBA. He is 26 years old and balding.

He also happens to be a perfect fit with LeBron James. The best player in the world plays better with Caruso than anybody he’s ever played with.

“We’re one and the same when it comes to winning basketball,” James said.

Traditional statistics don’t suggest anything notable about Caruso, who averaged 5.5 points off the bench this season. But his impact on the game is captured by a metric called net rating, which calculates a team’s point differential per 100 possessions. The average net rating for NBA champions over the last two decades was 7.2 points, and the Lakers’ net rating of 5.6 points this season climbed to 8 points with James and Anthony Davis on the court.

It was 18.6 points when James and Caruso were together. They ranked No. 1 in the NBA by net rating.

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The numbers were hard for Lakers coach Frank Vogel to ignore. Here is how their net rating with Caruso and James compared with his most dominant seasons with other teammates:

Alex Caruso (2020): +18.6

Dwyane Wade (2013): +14.4

Chris Bosh (2013): +12.8

Kevin Love (2016): +11.7

Kyrie Irving (2015): +11.6

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