5 THINGS

That was a helluva fun game to watch. Gritty, tough, bruising basketball like we’ll soon see in the playoffs. The Knicks did everything they could but some unheralded stars came through and helped push us over the finish line to bring home the win. Good stuff.

1. Thanks Spike. Mr. Lee made the journey to Los Angeles to catch the game and proceeded to heckle the Lakers right into a win. Spike did the right thing. But in all reality the resurgence of the Knicks is great for the NBA. Julius Randle has turned into a dark horse MVP candidate, certainly the front runner for Most Improved. Thibbs could easily win Coach of the Year. They have a collection of good to great players that play with a lot of fire. Hats of to the Knickerbockers and welcome back. Should have gotten something for Randle…
2. THT and his one-man rodeo show. This easily could have ended a lot worse for Talen. His 7 turnovers were astounding both in their volume and the manner in which they came about and I’m sure his film session will be interesting. The man has no quit, though and he kept his head up in spite of the turnovers and an inability to stay in front of Rose. His three pointer to push the Lakers ahead for the final margin in OT was ridiculously clutch, especially when you consider that he had to make it a step-back based on when he caught the ball. A huge shot. I love this guy and have high hopes we keep him. Has a learning curve to max out his potential but there is a lot to admire in THT’s game. Like the rest of the team I would say feel free to cut down on your turnovers.
3. Health still proving elusive. LeBron coming back, Caruso and AD might be out, Schroder still in H & SP… The one thing about this team is that we just cannot catch a break where injuries are concerned. This is the one thing that can derail the Lakers repeat ability more than anything else. We’re not winning anything without major contributions from Davis and James. We’re not winning anything without a semi-consistent rotation. Those things just don’t exist for the Lakers right now. Hopefully we can get some nagging injuries right before the playoffs.
4. The Frank Vogel roulette wheel. A week or so ago Frank insisted he wasn’t experimenting with the rotation. I begged to differ then and I beg to differ now. Look no further than the Gasol/Trezz experiment or the inexplicable 5 minutes of nothing we got from Markieff Morris. Injuries and inconsistent play has forced Frank to tinker far beyond he ever did last season. We’re looking at 25 different potential starting line ups this season. That is astounding. Don’t hide from it, Frank, we can all see the reasons why this situation has come about. Injuries have decimated the rotation and that’s the end of it. Nothing to be ashamed of.
5. Ad got beat up last night and should have shot more than 5 free throws. He got walked under, pushed off his shot and generally manhandled by the Knicks. It’s a credit to him that he doesn’t flop for fouls but sometimes I wish he would. The man should average double-digit free throws based on the NBA rules for contact on jump shots. Call it the same for AD that you do for James Harden.

Hanging a banner tonight, tune in early. No trap, either, Lakers gonna roll the Rockets and cruise to an easy one. So sayeth the Admiral.

Yup. Land of the rising sun(s).

Nothing is more irksome than obvious and blatant favoritism when it comes to the refs. To be sure there were plenty of issues entirely of LA’s own creation that molded this loss but Portland got plenty of help from the officiating crew of Curtis Blair, Rodney Mott, and Ray Acosta. Lately I’ve taken umbrage with the Lakers heart and hustle, that was not the case last night. I thought we competed hard and fought well. Just too much to overcome.

1. Anthony Davis rounding the corner. As far as benchmarks go this game had a lot of positives. Big minutes with no setbacks physically? Check. Hitting threes at a decent clip? Check. Got to the free throw line? Check…kinda? That is one area that is still confounding as Davis continued his season long struggle from the stripe. Other than that AD was as dominant as we’ve seen him be in some time. By my count Davis should have shot at least 5 more free throws as he was fouled on a dunk and was walked under on his jump shot at least 2 times that was not called. Portland has no answer for AD, especially when one of Gasol or Drummond occupies the center down low. That frees up Anthony to operate more freely on the perimeter. Encouraging game all around for AD.
2. KCP making plays and being aggressive. In a turn of events that should surprise nobody who watches the Lakers at this point KCP came back from a dud game a good game. Whee. Our starting line up features two incredibly inconsistent players in Kuzma and KCP. Against the Clippers Kuzma was “The Can’t Miss Kid” and then turned in a no-show against the Blazers. Wheere, of course, KCP showed up and was a much more aggressive and assertive version of himself. The thing I take heart in regards to both players is that one is not truly a starter for us (Kyle) and the other controls the answer to his dilemma. Caldwell-Pope needs to play with this much force, speed and determination every night if we want to win the game. This is true with LeBron or without. With Davis or no. Kentavious can impact the game a lot more than he has allowed himself to this season.
3. The dunk that wasn’t. Kuzma’s tip dunk was not an offensive goal tend. Plain and simple. I had thought there were official-generated reviews for these kind of things but I guess that is not the case? The ball was out of the cylinder and off the rim and that was obvious on replays. The fact that Dame came down and buried a three made this a 5 point switcheroo for the purple and gold. Telling ya we got jobbed last night folks…
4. 8 turnovers in the first quarter, 6 the rest of the game. A lot of those came from our starting front court of Drummond, Kuzma and Davis: a law firm that puts the ball in YOUR court. Take out what was a pretty awful first quarter and this was a stellar game by the Lakers. Since we can’t take out the first quarter we’ll just have to live with the results. But things are working when your starting guards commit three total turnovers and dish out 7 assists combined. Both Caruso and KCP did a pretty good job of protecting the rock and, along with KCP, I though Caruso did a good job of staying in his game but still applying offensive pressure to Portland. Feels like Caruso ought to have shot one free throw in this game but, again, only two Lakers shot free throws all game (Davis 10-15, KCP 6-7).
5. The nine man rotation works Frank. This looked and felt right. I’m sure Trezz wqasn’t happy but to win the individual must sacrifice for the greater good. I also think we’re locked into Drummond starting, whether that’s a result of what Frank wants, a shake and wink deal with Dre’s agent or whatever it feels like the starting line up is fairly etched into stone. That works because it allows the starting unit to have an identity, whether it’s the identity every fan wants to see is a different question entirely, and gives Frank the ability to decide which of Gasol or Trezz is up to bat in any game or series. So, barring a blow out, no more 11 or 12 man carousels that just make no sense to anyone. Please and thank you.

Anyone else perfetcly happy with Caruso starting and Schroder coming off the bench? I am. If Dennis indeed has COVID-19 I don’t think that’s too far outside the realm of possibility as we’ve seen what has happened to Marc’s wind and stamina as a result. While it’s true it affects everyone differently what is also true is that everyone who gets it returns to professional sport with less endurance. Schroder may not be able to start, physically speaking. Hopefully this is all contract tracing and just protocols and I expect the Lakers to be tight-lipped about it but it’s something that must be considered. Dennis has thrived as the lead guard off the bench, Caruso has shown he can fit seamlessly in with Davis, Pope and James and has shown a better ability to take care of the ball as a starter than Dennis has, albeit in a incredibly small sample size. THT fans may not like this but he is likely the odd man out in a lot of playoff games as I believe Frank will turn to Wes Matthews and his superior defense if push comes to shove. Talen is certainly the superior offensive threat but in a tight rotation his skillset may prove extraneous. We’ll see. SO many unsettled questions about this team…

That was earned. Nothing about that win was easy and the Lakers had to play some of their most inspired defense of the season to pull out the W. It took contributions from all 11 Lakers that played, a harbinger of things to come potentially, and the purple and gold were able to prevail thanks to a semi-return to form for Anthony Davis and some stellar defense all night long. This win ain’t enough, Lakers gotta keep it moving in the right direction.

1. AD looking a lot like AD. This was Anthony’s best game since coming back. He looked spry on defense contesting shots and rebounding the ball. He didn’t settle for fall away jumpers all night, he took the ball to the basket and finished through contact or got to the line. Sure he fell down like 80 times and still doesn’t look aggressive out on the perimeter but the blueprint is there, again. If we can generate more efficient scoring in terms of fewer attempts but the same amount of points we’re going to be looking good on the AD side of things.
2. Gasol staying ready. If this is the role than this is the role. If Marc is only going to be pressed into duty when foul trouble or injuries mess up the rotation than so be it, he’s doing an excellent job of staying ready and contributing when called upon. There’s nothing more for it. I’m sure the Big Spaniard would like to start, play more minutes and so on and so forth. That may not be the path he is on, right now. So, in lieu of his dreams coming true, the next best thing is to be ready when your number is called. There are some matchups where, defensively, Gasol matches up better than either Harrell or Drummond: Jokic is one of those. Marc matches up better physically and his style of defense doesn’t fall for all of Jokic’s feints, jabs and soccer flops. He just stays big and gums up his passing game. That, for a night, worked pretty well.
3. THT going way too fast. There were three or four forays by Talen into the paint that miraculously didn’t result in turnovers. One wild shot attempt ended up as an easy offensive put back, he got some lucky whistles and in general was able to overcome his team-high 5 turnovers, an issue that continues to loom ever larger as the playoffs near. Horton-Tucker needs to play with more purpose, especially if he wants a consistent role in the playoffs. Sometimes you don’t need to make 8 moves to get to the rim: run the curl play, hit the open man, move the ball. It’s not all on you, young blood. Do your thing within the team game plan.
4. Caruso solid as a starter. Alex made some terrible passes last night but also featured an aggression on offense this team will need with Schroder sitting out for a couple weeks. Our playoff lives now hinge on if Alex can maintain his near elite defensive impact while finding some ways to contribute in the scoring column. The defense and grit alone is not enough, at this point. The team needs for Alex to score 10+ points on not too many shots. Last night was a perfect capsule of what his nightly contributions need to look like. We don’t need to carbon copy this game but the blueprint for success looks a lot like this. A few less turnovers would be nice, however, Alex is certainly not alone on the Lakers when it comes to making terrible passes this season.
5. Shutting down the perimeter. The Laker defense did one of the best jobs of shutting off the three point tap for the Nuggets as I’ve seen this season. They held the Nuggets to 6-24 from three (25%) and nobody really got it cooking from distance which helped us absorb our turnover issue (20 team turnovers for the Lakers, just too many and we gift possessions like we’re a mob boss on Christmas). Taking the three point shot away from Denver was one of the big defensive keys to this game and the Lakers did an excellent job executing that game plan and chasing shooters into mid range shots.

The Lakers still control their destiny. Win out and we’re the 5th seed. Simple as that. Play the next game to win, compete hard and let the chips fall where they may. It’s easy to get lost in the back and forth between LeBron and the media, the play-in drama et al but the truth of the matter is the Lakers are still in the drivers seat. All the teams we’re facing have injury issues, all are fighting for seeding and all can be beaten if we commit to defense like we did against Denver. It’s not rocket science, it’s honestly quite simple. Play hard, play with heart and you can live with the results.