FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:
Down Luka Dončić and Marcus Smart, the Lakers won another close game, beating the Toronto Raptors 123–120 on a last-second Rui Hachimura game winner. It was their second victory at the buzzer after Austin Reaves sank one in Game 5 against the Timberwolves.
With another win in a close game, the Lakers remain the only unbeaten clutch team at 7–0. Even the juggernaut Thunder have dropped one and sit second at 9–1.
After a disappointing loss against the Suns, the Lakers bounced back again and still have not lost two consecutive games this season, picking up a huge road win against a surging Raptors team that ranks top ten on offense and top five on defense.
Two players I was critical of as a defensive hustle combo in my 20-game check, Rui Hachimura and Deandre Ayton, made the two winning plays on the final possessions — Ayton getting a crucial stop on Brandon Ingram’s drive, and Hachimura sinking the game winner from the corner.
And lastly, LeBron James, like so many times before in his career, chose to make the right play over chasing his own shot that would have kept his 1,297-game streak with at least 10 points alive.
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Today’s notes:
A tightly connected, resilient group (
VIDEO)
Austin Reaves keeps showing he is an All-NBA player (VIDEO)
LeBron compensating struggles with IQ and playmaking
Increased hustle for just enough stops
More Adou Thiero minutes please (VIDEO)
Bonus: a quick Celtics preview
1-A tightly connected, resilient group (VIDEO)
I am often critical of this team’s lack of cohesion on defense, but I think that’s mostly due to a lack of defensive talent and athleticism. What the Lakers keep showing us this season is that they are a resilient group that responds to disappointing losses with bounce-back performances and keeps winning even when missing several key players.
The play that led to the game winner was the perfect example: Reaves patiently waited to draw a late-clock double team, then gave up the ball to James in the middle, and James made the right play by swinging it to Hachimura in the corner. After going scoreless on one shot in the previous game, Hachimura calmly sank the game-winning three.
2-Austin Reaves keeps showing he is an All-NBA player (VIDEO)
With Dončić unavailable, Reaves showed once again that the Lakers have another creator who could easily be a primary option on almost any other team. Reaves had another astonishingly dominant game, scoring 44 points on 13-of-21 shooting, 5-of-11 from three, sinking 13 of his 15 free throws, and adding 10 assists. His 22-point third-quarter scoring explosion was reminiscent of the best Dončić or Kyrie Irving takeovers I’ve seen over the past couple of years.
The Lakers are 3–1 this season when Reaves is the main cog with Dončić sidelined, and Reaves is averaging 41 points in those games.
The Lakers might not only have the best scoring duo or the best backcourt in the NBA, they might have two legit All-NBA players at the moment, with Reaves joining Dončić in the top ten of most advanced metrics this season.
3-LeBron compensating struggles with IQ and playmaking
If Reaves’ ascendance to All-NBA level has been the most positive big-picture development for the Lakers this season, LeBron’s physical struggles have been the most concerning.
For a third game in a row, James looked to have no lift on his drives or his shots, struggling to finish at the rim. He shot 4-of-17 from the field last night, scoring only 8 points after scoring 10 and 13 in the previous two games. On top of that, many of his misses at the rim function like turnovers, as he often doesn’t get back in transition, giving opponents easy opportunities. The Raptors outscored the Lakers 21–11 on fast-break points. Postgame, James explained that he’s still trying to find his rhythm after missing training camp and the first 14 games of the season, but watching one of the greatest athletes of all time look like a mere mortal is rough at the moment.
However, even playing without the athletic edge for the first time in his career, James is still a superior decision-maker and passer. In addition to the final delivery to Hachimura, he made several other plays for his teammates and finished the night with 11 assists.
4-Increased hustle for just enough stops
This was far from an impressive defensive performance. The Lakers’ recipe for wins this season has been awesome offense and just enough hustle on the other end, and this was another exhibit of that. Led by Reaves’ shot-making and another super-efficient 8-of-11 night from Deandre Ayton, the Lakers scored at a rate of almost 134 points per 100 possessions, which should get them the win on most nights. In this one, it almost wasn’t enough, because despite the Lakers being the visibly better half-court offense (there was a 23-point-per-100-possessions gap in half-court efficiency), the Raptors made up for it with transition play and by outhustling the Lakers on the offensive glass.
Source: Cleaning the Glass
Just enough hustle and defense is the other Lakers theme this season, and last night was an upgrade in that department compared to the Suns game. The Lakers had one of their better offensive rebounding games as well and finished with seven steals and seven blocks. Jake LaRavia earned extended minutes and justified them with one of his better hustle games, providing much better resistance against Brandon Ingram than Hachimura did. Both big men, Ayton and Hayes, blocked and contested enough shots, and Gabe Vincent had some good hustle moments too.
Overall, there were still too many breakdowns, especially defending away actions for Ingram and defensing the Raptors stretch bigs popping up for threes. Once again, the starter stints in both halves were uninspiring. But addressing those, as I wrote in my 20-game check, will require rotation or roster changes.
5-More Adou Thiero minutes please (VIDEO)
The Lakers’ lack of athleticism and speed is glaring and well documented, so anytime the biggest internal hope of filling that gap, rookie Adou Thiero, gets minutes, he draws special attention.
Last night, Thiero logged a career-high 10 minutes and showed flashes of why he should be getting more, as his potential development into a rotation player this season would be a big boost. He made an and-one on an up-and-under move, driving decisively against a close-out, then showed off his length and speed by getting his hands on a ball no other player on the roster probably could, and crashed the glass for an offensive rebound.
Thiero has gotten a couple of minutes in six of the last eight games. The next step is for Redick to trust and test him in a longer stint in one of the upcoming games. The risk versus potential reward is more than worth it for the Lakers.
Bonus: a quick Celtics preview
Both teams will be on the second night of a back-to-back, and most of the key stars could be missing. Jayson Tatum and Luka Dončić will be out, while the status of Marcus Smart, LeBron James (he skipped the previous back-to-back game), and Jaylen Brown (illness) is still unclear, which makes a preview hard to do.
What is clear is that whoever plays for the Celtics, Joe Mazzulla will have his team playing hard, especially against their biggest rival. Despite Tatum’s injury and losing three key rotation players in Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, and Kristaps Porzingis, the 13–9 Celtics are surprisingly competitive.
Brown is having an incredible season, averaging 29/6/5 as the head of the snake for the fourth-best ranked offense, while the rest of the scoring comes from their three-guard combo of Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and Anfernee Simons. Ex-Celtic Smart would come in very handy trying to keep up with a fast-moving, trigger-happy Celtics team that still ranks in the top five in three-point frequency.
The Celtics are a slow-paced team (they rank last in pace in the NBA), but that might change in this game. Their guard- and three-point-heavy rotation, with only one true big man in Neemias Queta, might try to punish the Lakers’ weaknesses — defending the three-point line with their bigs and getting back in the open floor.
FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:
Luka injury aftereffect notes, Austin Reaves is him, and Ayton delivers on the DominAyton vs. Sabonis prediction.
Less than a week into the season, the Lakers’ ride already feels like a roller coaster. The high from the statement win and Luka Dončić’s dominance against Minnesota hadn’t even worn off before another low hit, the news that Dončić will miss at least a week with a left finger sprain and a lower leg contusion.
But after the initial shock and gloom of facing a potential six-game stretch without both Dončić and LeBron James, Austin Reaves and company responded with an unbelievable performance, beating the Kings 127–120 on the road, setting another reference point with a hustle-team win for the remainder of the season.
NOTE: Because of the tight schedule, with another game coming up tonight on the second night of a back-to-back, and everything that’s happened in the last 24 hours, I’ll keep these game observations as a mix of quick Luka injury aftereffect notes, key takeaways from the Kings win, and a short preview of the matchup with Portland tonight — hence, a longer read.
Today’s notes:
Luka injury aftereffects: a supporting cast showing skill
Austin Reaves is him
Ayton delivers on the DominAyton vs. Sabonis prediction (
VIDEO)
Glimpse of defensive identity (at least in half-court)
Quick Trail Blazers preview
1-Luka injury aftereffects: a supporting cast showing skill
My first reaction to the Luka news, aside from the obvious hope that this is just the Lakers being overly cautious and not Dončić getting banged up way too early, was simple: how do you replace his 46 points per game and 42 percent usage from the first two games?
The obvious answer, of course, was for Reaves to step up into the primary high-usage offensive hub role — and oh boy, he did (see next point). But even Reaves’ unbelievable start to the season and his career-night Luka impersonation last night aren’t enough on their own. So the two players who’ll need to climb the offensive usage ladder in Dončić’s absence are Deandre Ayton and Rui Hachimura. Both have experience as second or third options with 18–21 percent usage earlier in their careers, and this is the stretch where that should come in handy.
When I was analyzing offensive archetypes earlier in the season, two things stood out about the Lakers. First, the obvious one, they have three elite on-ball creators in Dončić, James, and Reaves. Second, their supporting cast featuring Ayton, Hachimura, Marcus Smart, and even Jake LaRavia is far more versatile than last year’s group built around specialists like Dorian Finney-Smith, Jaxson Hayes, and Gabe Vincent in key supporting roles.
Ayton came out in my clustering exercise as a secondary scorer, while Hachimura landed on the edge between that and a lower-usage role player archetype. Last night, both stepped up, and they’ll need to keep that up until Dončić returns. The additional touches and shots should be good for their confidence and overall buy-in for the remainder of the season.
2-Austin Reaves is him
Ever since the trade — and even more so after his playoff struggles — there’s been plenty of talk about Austin Reaves. Can he really be the long-term second creator, the complementary star next to Luka Dončić?
With no LeBron and now no Luka, he got an early chance, an early audition to prove it.
What we’ve seen so far this season should erase any offensive doubts. Reaves looks like the ideal complement, one that is able to shift seamlessly between secondary and primary roles and thrive in both. His game last night, a career-best 51 points, 11 assists, and 9 rebounds, topped Luka’s dominance against Minnesota. A crazy thing for even LeBron to grasp.
Through three games, he’s averaging 34 points, 10 assists, and 8 rebounds, looking unstoppable attacking downhill and either scoring or drawing fouls in the paint.
“Twenty-two free throws for him? Free throws, free throws,” DeMar DeRozan said with a cynical laugh before leaving the podium when comparing Reaves’ 22 trips to the line, which was four more than the entire Kings team. However, DeRozan, one of the best foul baiters in the league himself, should be the first to recognize and appreciate that drawing fouls is a skill, and Reaves has done it at an elite rate throughout his career.
3-Ayton delivers on the DominAyton vs. Sabonis prediction (
VIDEO)
In my preview, I speculated that this could be the night for Ayton’s first dominant scoring game, based on his history of success against Domantas Sabonis. Ayton delivered even above expectations, posting 22 points, 15 rebounds, and 1 block (I had 3 per my notes/tracking) while showing his full versatility: finishing as a short-roll and pocket-pass release valve option, making competent decisions in 4-on-3 situations, and serving as both a lob and post-up threat.
But this wasn’t just a good scoring night for Ayton. What stood out even more was his effort and often-criticized motor. He ran hard in transition both ways, hustled for multiple offensive rebounds, and contested a ton of shots in the paint. Not only did he have three blocks, he was also the closest defender on a game-high 24 shot attempts, with the Kings making only 10 of them, or 42 percent.
Because of his reputation, Ayton will be under the microscope throughout the season, and his final audition should come in the playoffs. But regardless of how that turns out, having a big man capable of delivering a 22 points and 15 rebounds stat line is a massive upgrade over the void left last season after Anthony Davis’ departure.
4-Glimpse of defensive identity (at least in half-court)
Another side effect of being without Dončić and James was that Redick had to lean into a more defensive-minded, hustle-driven rotation. The Lakers’ three best perimeter defenders — Smart, Vanderbilt, and LaRavia — all logged season highs in minutes. We even saw intriguing defensive playmaker Chris Mañon, recently signed to a two-way contract, make his three-minute debut, recording one block and another strong defensive sequence.
Last night the Lakers matched the intensity of the Kings’ elite hustle players in Sabonis, Westbrook, and Ellis. They won the offensive rebounding battle and were even in the turnover department. If they can do that, they’ll be in a good position most nights, because their half-court offense will be better than the opposition’s — especially once Dončić returns.
The problem for the Lakers remains some sloppy turnovers and getting punished in transition. Apart from individual outbursts from LaVine and DeRozan, it was clear the Kings struggled to create quality looks in the half-court but stayed in the game during the first half thanks to several easy transition opportunities.
The Lakers are still one or two players short of being a top-10 defensive team, but if they can maintain the effort and intensity they’re playing with right now, they should settle comfortably in the middle of the pack — somewhere in the 12 to 15 range. Which, if Dončić and Reaves maintain their current level of play and James returns healthy, should be a recipe for the Lakers to be a very competitive team.
5-Quick Trail Blazers preview
The Lakers have no time to rest on their laurels, with a quick turnaround to face the Trail Blazers on the second night of a back-to-back at home. Portland will also be on a back-to-back but won’t have to travel, having played the Clippers in Los Angeles last night.
Gabe Vincent’s injury further depleted an already thin ball-handling group, and it remains to be seen if Smart will play on the back-to-back. That could be a problem against one of the league’s most aggressive ball-pressure defenses — Portland currently leads the NBA in opponent turnover rate. The Trail Blazers’ rotation features several strong on-ball defenders in Toumani Camara, Jrue Holiday, Matisse Thybulle, and Deni Avdija.
Portland Trail Blazers rotations – first three games
The feisty, aggressive Blazers beat the Warriors and pushed both the Timberwolves and Clippers to the wire in two close losses. The Lakers’ sloppiness on inbound passes, play initiations, and dribble handoffs has been an issue against both the Kings and Warriors, and they’ll need to be extra cautious against Portland. The Blazers are another team that struggles to score in the half-court, but Shaedon Sharpe is an elite athlete, and Avdija is one of the best transition players in the league.
Shooting and shot creation remain the Blazers’ two main issues. They lack a primary creator on Reaves’ level, and Avdija, Camara, Holiday, Sharpe, and Thybulle are all streaky, often unreliable three-point shooters. Donovan Clingan is an excellent rim protector but too slow to keep up with Reaves’ downhill speed in pick-and-roll situations. Hopefully, a motivated Ayton, facing the team that gave up on him, can capitalize on the advantages and gaps Reaves will create as either a pocket or lob finisher.