Bronny James made his seventh playoff appearance of the season on Tuesday night. He checked in during the fourth quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers’ Game 1 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder and logged just two minutes.
The Lakers’ bench was a disaster in Game 1, combining for just 15 points in the loss, and no player embodied the unit’s struggles more than Jake LaRavia. The 24-year-old forward has failed to show up throughout these playoffs, and Tuesday was no different.
LaRavia played 14 minutes against Oklahoma City, finishing with three points, two turnovers and a -9 net rating.
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His performance drew heavy backlash from fans and analysts on social media. Among them was Fox Sports’ Nick Wright, who took to X to express his frustration, calling on head coach JJ Redick to give LaRavia’s minutes to James.
“Honest to god give Bronny the LaRavia minutes,” Wright wrote. “LaRavia has arguably been the single worst player this postseason. Just utterly petrified of the moment. Totally brutal minutes every time.”
Lakers fans wasted no time echoing Wright’s sentiment in the comments:
“It really is surprising that JJ has moved off Bronny. He had some good moments. Much better moments than we're seeing from LaRavia,” wrote Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor.
“I think Bronny deserves to play. Especially vs these guys,” one user added.
“Facts. LaRavia play has been nasty,” another fan reacted.
“Man at this point just let Bronny James run those minutes 😭,” said one fan. “At least he’ll play free… Jake LaRavia out there looking like the moment got him in a chokehold.”
“He def is petrified… #FreeBronny,” mentioned another.
“Yup Bronny’s impact has really been underrated. Other teams have let their young guards come in and take the moment, build confidence and shake up the opposition defense routines,” another fan posted.
James appeared in all six games against the Houston Rockets in the first round. He delivered his best performance of the postseason in Game 3, scoring five points on 100% field goal shooting in nine minutes.
Whether Redick makes the adjustment for Game 2 on Thursday remains to be seen. But the message from Lakers fans has been delivered clearly: they want to see James play more minutes.
