5 THINGS

Maybe that could slowly help shrink the racial gap culturally. Slow and steady wins the race. Tortoise beats the hare everytime.

Aloha Jamie
I thought about Rubio to but that it could be hard to do. Perhaps mid season like you said. If we can trade for Malik i would love it. Unlike Buddy, he is actually a decent defender. For a bad team the Twolves dont have much cap space and they are painfully thin at forward, so you never know. Perhaps the would roll the dice with Kuz. hes upgraded his game and perhaps he will become more aggressive offensively if hes out Lebron and AD’s shadow.

It started ugly but finished on a beauty. It was everything you want in a 7 game series in 1 game. Some questions were answered, new questions emerged and all in all planet Earth was treated to a very enjoyable basketball game. Hard fouls, hard cuts and a gritty win kicked off the NBA playoffs…kinda. Evidently the play-in doesn’t count for the regular season or the playoffs? WTF?! Whatever.

1. The greatness of LeBron James. Kind of lost against the back drop of a spectacular go-ahead three pointer in the final minute of the 4th quarter was another…not playoff nor regular season (really NBA? really? You invent this play-in and created some sort of non-game? H’ok…). I guess this makes James the All Time leader in play-in triple-doubles, I suppose. LeBron showed everyone why is still the best player in basketball. The Flagrant Foul that wasn’t that resulted in blurry vision? No problem. Swarming defense that bumped him off every paint shot? I got you guys. James stayed the course through a rocky first half, went over his loose minutes limit and delivered the 7 seed to the Los Angeles Lakers.
2. 10 men deep. Called on it on the preview podcast, Frank went 10 deep and I was actually mildly surprised we didn’t see more minutes for more guys. Luckily for Laker fans Vogel came to his senses and tightened up the second half rotation to just 8 players: James, Davis, Drummond (barely), Schroder, Kuzma, KCP, Caruso and the instrumental insertion of Wesley Matthews Jr. into the rotation after he didn’t see the floor in the first half in favor of Trezz and THT. Frank continues to, mystifyingly to me, experiment with his rotations. It’s a dangerous game to play in the playoffs but it also speaks to the lack of chemistry and continuity this version of the Lakers has been able to put together.
3. Good thing we have Alex Caruso. He steadied the offense early, then came up some incredible defense late and stayed within his game to find the open man for some nice looks around the rim. A lot of those didn’t come up as assists because of good, hard fouls by the Warriors but they did result in foul shots which helped us to a 25-15 advantage in free throw attempts. That helped us bridge the three point differential (15-10, advantage GS) and overcome a generally poor shooting performance. Caruso also proved to be our best player to slot onto Curry for defense as Schroder just couldn’t keep Curry in front of him and still looks like he’s finding his legs in every facet of the game. We’ll certainly need Dennis as we move forward and he’ll come around with his conditioning but until he does it’s nice to have Caruso as an option even though he’s nowhere near the scorer Dennis can be.
4. Wesley Matthews making the most of his role. In the first half Frank went more with Trezz and THT who both played OK but weren’t effective defensively and didn’t overcome that enough on offense. That forced Vogel to turn to Matthews in the small ball line up he used a lot more in the second half and Wes delivered with a key three pointer, some stout D and a huge rebound. +/- is a wonky stat but in Wesley’s case I think it apropos he led the team, by far, +/- in his 14 minutes because his defense was huge for us in the second half. His numbers weren’t eye-popping but his contributions were sorely needed last night.
5. Controlling the glass and keeping the turnovers low. These are things I’ve harped on since game 1 this season. Our team has a turnover issue, well-documented at this point, and we’re a team that needs to control the glass to make our defense as effective as possible. Since we’re the bigger team it stood to reason that we should control the glass. We also forced more turnovers than we committed, aided by some traditionally silly play by one Draymond Green, but it was the rebounding job that impressed me even more. Almost every Laker who played grabbed an offensive rebound (THT and Trezz did not) with LeBron James leading the way for rebounds off our own misses. That was another huge key in us getting 8 more shot attempts than the Warriors got. The Laker defense in the 3rd was where the game turned for us and Frank, to his credit, stuck with what worked down the stretch.

Next up Phoenix. I like our chances in this series and expect us to win in 5 or 6 games, haven’t decided yet. Regardless, it’s going to be tough no matter what as we see 2 more All Star guards in CP# and Booker along with a bevy of solid players who can shoot the three and defend better than advertised. We need to keep the turnovers low on our end and keep playing stout defense. When we do that we can win any game, even one where we shot 40.7% from the floor. Go Lakers.

The Lakers wrapped up the 2020-21 regular on a 5 game winning streak but still could not crack the top six in terms of playoff seeding. This means a one-game playoff date with none other than Steph Curry, Draymond Green and the Golden State Warriors. The winner of that game will go on to play the Phoenix Suns and then the winner of the Denver/Portland series. The loser gets one more shot to clinch the 8th seed based on the winner of the 9/10 seed game featuring San Antonio and Memphis. The path through 7 would mean the only potential Lakers/Clippers matchup could come in the western conference finals. Fun stuff.

1. The Lakers ‘never say die’ attitude. The Lakers could have easily fallen further. With the playin all but guaranteed and Golden State three games back it would have been easy for James and Davis to sit out more games. Various Lakers from Alex Caruso (foot) to Kyle Kuzma (back and calf) and so on have various, some more serious than others, ailments. Lakers still gutted out the 5 game win and, hopefully, developed some much needed chemistry in the doing. For guys like Caruso and Kuzma who were key cogs in last years championship winning machine know what’s expected and what must be given. There are a plethora of other guys that this time with LeBron and AD could yield fruit on down the line. These Lakers have a lot of guts and moxie, traits that served them well in Orlando. We’ll see what they amount to this season soon enough.
2. Drummond fitting in better and better. I have to say that I have been very impressed with the improved play and better fit of Andre’ Drummond over the last couple weeks. I had some concerns that his game was an ill-fitting one when played alongside James and Davis but Drummond has found his defensive groove, is finishing his lobs better and is rebounding as advertised. Between he and Gasol we have 2 very different looks in terms of the traditional center spot. In Montrezl and Davis we have two very different looks in terms of our small ball center look. Between the four we have a lot of options at center which I think will be deployed in a variety of ways throughout the various series we play in. All hands on deck.
3. Health. The biggest issue facing any team with banner aspirations is good health. If you’re key guys are healthy and on the same page it’s a lot easier to make in-game or game-to-game adjustments in a playoff series. If the Lakers can keep AD and LBJ on the floor for 35+ mpg I like our chances in any 7 game series that comes our way. Having guys like Kuzma, Caruso and KCP as ready as can be will help a lot. But there’s no question that without AD and James we’re not going far in any series. With games a little more spaced out we’ll have a little more rest in-between but we’ll also see the return of travelling between games. No more hive-mind, bunker-bubble living like in Orlando. I have always felt that, for a team with a lot of high IQ players like the Lakers have, being confined in one place made it easier for the coaches and players to be on the same page. No airport hassles to wade through, no finding some extra sleep on the plane and so on. Straight to treatment, any notions that came up between coaches and players could be discussed by walked down a couple hallways. Things of that nature will all revert back to the NBA norm. Should be interesting to see how that effects the playoffs.
4. Re-stablishing the pecking order. With James and Davis missing as many games as they did, and toss in Schroder’s H&SP absence an artificial pecking order was established. Not that is was wildly successful one but I do wonder if guys like THT, Trezz and the like can replicate some of their better stretches in the regular season in limited minutes or not playing over the course of a series or so. It’s always easy as a fan to say “Well, such and such should do this or that!” which is all well and good. But sport is as much about groove and flow as talent, skill and raw physicality. While we’re certainly tied to the fates of our two superstars they will not be scoring every point, grabbing every rebound and defending every play. We’re going to need some unproven guys to step up and step up big in a role they may not be all that comfortable with.
5. Can lightning strike twice? In my mind, above and beyond all the points and questions above, the biggest mystery to me is can Frank replicate his perfectly executed coaching mojo like he did in the playoffs last season? If he can get buy-in on reduced roles from the centers, spottier minutes for THT, McLemore and Matthews and finding ways to keep Kyle engaged we have a really solid shot at repeating. if he loses some guys, if traveling somehow interferes with his coaching vibe or something I haven’t touched on upsets the apple cart we’re going to have to over-rely on LeBron and AD. Not that they can’t bring it home, but that it’ll be a lot easier if Frank pushes all the right buttons at the right time, again.
   
   It’s the playoffs! Let’s do this people! Go Lakers!!!!