5 THINGS

The first visit to Intuit looked, to me at least, like the lakers weren’t into it. They sleep-walked through 70-80% of the game and the result was another predictable loss. predictable in the sense that if you don’t compete it’s very hard to win. That’s a bad habit we’ve already seen far too often this season, especially in games where both LBJ and AD are playing.

1. Giving away shots. 17 total turnovers helped lead to a fairly large shot disparity between the Clippers and Lakers. Yeah the Clippers coughed it off 13 times in total, too, but the Clippers also scored a lot more points off give aways than we did. Reaves and Lebron combined for 10 of those turnovers which is simply unsustainable if winning is the goal. Reaves can be semi-forgiven as he is still learning how to be the dominant guard with the ball but, in general, both players just need to do a better job of not coughing it up.
2. Rebounds, rebounds, rebounds. Clippers beat us in this vital stat and it showed mostly on the offensive glass. AD can’t do everything. He can’t rotate, contest, box out and rebound all on the same play all game long. I’m not sure if it’s an issue with energy, focus, coaching or a little bit of all of that (I suspect that to be the case) but the offensive glass has been an alarming issue all season long.
3. Defense means trying hard. Not showing up, not shrugging and trotting back after you got scored on, but, like, BEFORE the shot goes up. The Clippers, like many teams this season, got what they wanted, when they wanted it and how they wanted it. Christie was getting cooked all game long, Reaves is often the target of the opposition in pick and roll switches and the Lakers don’t really seem to be doing too much about it as a whole. I think that, from a defensive standpoint, it makes so much more sense to start DFS and have Rui augment our impotent bench (more on that in a minute) that one has to hope a change is imminent. If not, we could be looking at more losses like this one.
4. The bench is just…weak. Gabe had his lunar showing a couple games ago and promptly went back into his hole. Knecht continued to struggle when the game mattered (although he shot a decent % last night, half his production came in garbage time). Jaxson Hayes had an OK 14 minutes. The lakers bench is a black hole into which win are forever lost to another dimension. Some kind of change needs to happen and the most likely is swapping DFS for Rui.
5. Energy isn’t matchup dependent. The player chooses to play hard or not. If they don’t feel capable, they can ask for a rest. I’m putting a lot of these types of losses on the players failing to execute and/or play at a high enough energy level. DFS is out there diving and barking at his brand new teammates, that type of accountability needs to become the norm if we want to turn this around and become something more than we currently appear to be. Whether that means getting someone like Vando back, a switch up in the rotation, or playing different players altogether (Cam brings the hustle, sat the entire game) that’s for the coaches to decide so the longer this goes on the more the blame will shift from the players to the coaches refusing to adjust. We’re coming up to the halfway point, there isn’t anything new to discover unless it relates to DFS or an injured player.

Don’t blow it tonight, hella trap game…

Low energy, poor effort and bad defense in the first half proved too much for the Lakers to overcome last night as Houston showed they’re for real with a solid all around effort. In a tale of two halves the Lakers couldn’t quite get over the hump and pull out the win. The Lakers bench struggled mightily, as well, which will only lead to more clamoring for trades and rotation changes. We’ll see if that’s the direction Reddick goes.

1. The defensive glass rears it’s head…again. This has been the defining issue that plagues the Lakers since we won the Bubble banner. We give up a ton of second chance points far too often and it swings more games away from the W column than one should be comfortable with. I’ve seen the hooting and hollering about Jaxson Hayes “losing us the game” and him not being able to stop Steven Adams but if you truly think we lost this game in the whopping 6 minutes Hayes played you’re truly fooling yourself. Hayes didn’t even have the worse +/- split, that belonged to Shake Milton. So all that hooey is just folks pushing their own agendas and I have no time for that. This game was lost in the first half with crappy energy and on the glass. Here’s some fun stats: Rui Hachimura and Austin Reaves combined for zero defensive rebounds. Every starter had a positive +/-…except LeBron at -13. So this game was lost in both the small ball minutes without AD in the line up (specifically in the 4th quarter when AD rested after we had climbed to single digits and, yes, Hayes was a part of that team let-down as was Dalton Knecht, Rui, LeBron and Max Christie) and the first half in general when everyone sucked except AD.
2. Trying to find a winning combination around LeBron James. This has proved elusive this season. LeBron really struggles without AD on the floor and the past way of thinking was stagger AD and LeBron’s minutes so as to spread the talent more evenly across the entire game. That hasn’t worked too well this season as the Lakers tend to crater when LeBron runs the show and AD sits. Injuries and too many specialty players has also made it more difficult than in season’s past to forge a winning identity of and AD-less LBJ. Still, think there are some in-house options. First, unless there are some pick and roll sets using Hayes and James you can’t play Jaxson and LeBron, better to play Hayes with AD. When LeBron is on the floor he needs to be the point forward and work off shooters who can help open up the floor. That also takes out Gabe Vincent and JHS, neither of whom can stay healthy anyhow. I think the Lakers need to develop the best small ball line up around LeBron that they can: LeBron, Max, Rui, DFS, and Knecht. Maybe Shake Milton if you want to play LeBron at the 5 and sit Knecht who has been really up and down since December. I’d give that squad some reps and see how they do.
3. Re-activating Dalton Knecht. It’s unfortunate but true, the Lakers really struggle to win when they don’t get much out of DK4. Other than 1 rebound, Dalton didn’t impact the game much despite playing 17 minutes. I think that a lot of the hopes for the Lakers bench being a factor, especially in the playoffs, revolve around Dalton learning how to consistently be a factor in winning. He needs to be enabled by the coaching staff, they need to get some plays in the book that free him up and get him shots in his comfort zones. He needs to push through the rookie wall he seems to have already hit. He may even need some G League reps, just to get shots up and find a groove. Nothing should be off the table, we need Knecht to perform and contribute in some capacity or find someone who can with his minutes.
4. DFS finding his way. After a rough couple of first games, Dorian has looked very comfortable sharing the floor with some of his old rivals. I personally loved his first interview when he said he had never spoken to LeBron James prior to joining the Lakers. I dig that level of intensity. It took a game or 3 but last night you could really start to see how DFS impacts winning. He still ends up in the wrong spots a lot (not yet practiced with the team) and has a steep learning curve in terms of playing alongside two gravitational forces like AD and LBJ but he’s not afraid to shoot and he’s been as advertised on defense. Even better, there’s a ton of room for improvement. He may or may not end up starting (I won’t be surprised if he comes off the bench for the rest of the season) but I’ll be very surprised if he’s not a key part of closing line ups going forward.
5. Help is on the way? Sounds like Wood and Vando are close to returning. That means even more line up options and possibly an organically reduced role for Jaxson Hayes who struggles with bruising centers. Not that Wood or Vando have that part sorted, I’m just loathe to send out assets in the search for a backup center who is just as likely as anyone on the current roster to be played off the floor in the playoffs. No need to trade for a backup big, if you’re going for a center go for Vucevic, end of story.