Life has been crazy since a little after my birthday (11/8) and I haven’t carved out time to post 5ers. So thanks for your patience, folks. We square off against a Knicks team that has been playing really well, especially on defense, and the combo of Randle and brunson is meshing better and better. They have high impact role-players and tough-minded coach. Could be considered our ‘sister team’ in terms of overall identity except that our stars are better than their stars, usually.

1. Anthony Davis matters more than LeBron in terms of impacting overall winning. Don’t get it too twisted, LBJ still the King and scoring gets a lot more difficult without the gravity he creates simply by dribbling 35 feet away from the hoop, but on the other end the Lakers take a massive step back without Davis. If our last game against the woebegone Spurs didn’t prove that to folks I’m not sure what will. The SPurs handed us the business over the last 5 quarters we’ve played them starting with the 4th quarter of the game we won. Barely. Without AD stymying the Spurs in the paint and his ability to hedge and allow lesser perimeter defenders to close we couldn’t keep the Spurs from bombing away from distance. Add into that our rebounding woes (something both Hayes or Wood seem incapable of doing well) and we’re a terrible team on D when AD sits.
2. Developing youth while trying to win. This is always the issue with teams built around aging stars. The Warriors are going through it now, too. With a core pf AD and LeBron the playoff window is firmly open now. So how do you add development into that, especially when development in the NBA means on-court time during games that count towards making it in the playoffs? It’s a balancing act that even a decorated coach like lil Stevie Kerr struggles with as he faces the task of possibly phasing out banner winning players from their assumed roles in favor of younger, hungrier players albeit with far less polish to their games. So second year coach Ham certainly has a daunting task of figuring out how to get guys like Max Christie meaningful minutes to see what he can do at this level. In about 5 mor MPG than he played last season (which were generally garbage time minutes) his efficiency is down. He’s taking more shots (4.4 vs. 2.6) and making about the same (1.7 vs. 1.1, respectively) and coupled with his assist not ticking upward while his turnovers are and his overall lack of an impact on defense it’s easy to understand the chorus of lakers fans clamoring for more of an end of the bench role for Max. The issue of course being some young Laker at some point is going to have to stick besides Reaves. So, while I’m not championing an increased role for Max specifically, his deal is up and we’ll likely lose him to free agency (unless he’s a throw in for a trade that seems equitable to another team as a late first rounder/second round pick would be). The Lakers need to develop from within to get quality role players on cheap deals to augment our super star duo, there’s no way around it.
3. The vet minimum guys. We’re seeing what the NBA vet minimum gets us: guys like Wood and Hayes who have limited use on the court. Cam has stood out because, of the three, he seems to realize that his next deal will also be another vet minimum if he doesn’t find a way to be a contributor. Not everyone can be a star in the NBA. Everyone in the NBA was probably “the guy” on their various teams…until they got to the NBA. Then you go from getting the ball on most plays to being asked to box out and set screens, do the grunt work you used to get someone else to do for you. Cam, if he keeps balling out on D and making the open shots that come his way, will get a raise next summer. Hayes and Wood? I’m not so sure. Hayes looks like a high upside guy until you watch him not play with verticality (he starts well but that arm just can’t stop itself from reaching for the block) and Wood is streaky that his outside shot isn’t enough of a threat to create meaningful space. Teams will happily and gladly let Christian Wood try to beat us and since he’s neither a good defender or roll man he found himself at the end of the bench until injuries gave him an opening. We saw how that worked out in the 4th quarter against our “win” against the Spurs when they started attacking him and stormed right back into a game we should have controlled.
4. Austin Reaves off the bench. Of all the moves Ham has made this season this one has worked the best by a country mile. Reaves has not only found his offense torching other bench defenders but he’s making more and more plays for his teammates. If he could work on his defense and just get better at cutting off drives he’d be in the convo for 6th man of the year. He gamely tries to take charges but good defense is so much more than stats like that. Honestly, good defense generally doesn’t show up on the stat sheet and is often un-rewarded come contract time. Still, it remains THE key component of teams with banner aspirations and for Reaves it’s still a work in progress.
5. Should the Lakers make a trade? You guys know me, I’m Mr. Stand Pat and see how it works out. This season, given LBJ and AD’s age and the tools we have to work with in terms of draft capital going forward, I don’t see how we can’t and expect to get to the NBA Finals. The number one player I’d expect the Lakers to try and trade would be none other than D’Angelo Russell who has shown to be basically what he was as a laker. A streaky combo guard who has a limited impact on D. When he’s on he can be great. When he’s not we are left with a gaping hole in the backcourt. It’s not being filled by Max, and certainly not by “why did we pick this guy” JHS. Reaves and LeBron can’t fill it and so that leaves us with what could be available for a package built around DLO and likely Max in a trade. Complicating matters is that DLo’s deal isn’t an expiring one, he has a player option he’s pretty likely to pick up. While not a guarantee I don’t see his earning power as having increased this eason in a meaningful way. As a young player Max will be in line for a new deal (thanks Rob…) so the package isn’t really one based around salary relief. You have to want to want DLo and see something worth paying Max for to get anything other than some draft picks several years away. Those, while valuable, aren’t as compelling as what other teams can offer for prime talent. So we need to scour teams imploding who want to change things up without blowing it up. In my opinion those teams are the Bulls, Grizzlies (especially if they struggle when Morant comes back), Jazz, Trailblazers and Raptors. While I don’t think we have enough to offer for the prime talent on those teams there are players who are attainable in the price range we can meet. I expect us to deal with one, or more, of those teams as the deadline approaches. I also don’t see Gabe Vincent as viable trading chip until he proves he can play. He’s got two years left on his deal after this one, teams aren’t going to pay a guy to sit with a bum knee for that price tag for a couple of draft picks 5 years out.

Got to win tonight folks and get back on the right side of winning. Losing tonight probably knocks us back to the bottom of the playin. We need to stay in the top 6, hopefully fight our way into the top 3 or 4. Only way to do that is by beating quality teams and that’s something we’ve been pretty iffy on this season. So far.

I guess it was more of a ‘clunk’ than a ‘clang’, honestly. Not much, if anything at all. good to take away from this one. Effort? Nonexistent. Execution? Abysmal. What’s even more alarming was that this loss continues a to this point season-long trend of not meeting the moment against playoff caliber teams. Sub .500/fringe contenders? We’re killing it. Elite teams? Ehhhh…notsomuch.

1. AD was shown the business by Embiid in every way possible. OK, they both had 11 rebounds and a block and steal. That’s not the issue, though, the issue is that when his team needed a bucket Joel got one and he got one from wherever he was. Three pointers, offensive rebound tip ins, pick and pops, you name it and Embiid canned it. We got two quick fouls attacking him in the fist quarter and then basically turned into midrange jump shooting team. AD passed up several open three pointers for meandering dribbles and lazy possessions. Every Lakers fan would love to see Davis in the MVP convo and last night was a stark reminder of why that’s unlikely to ever happen.
2. Lakers had no answer for Maxey. The game’s leading scorer was unbothered by any defense the Lakers threw at him. He carved us up off the dribble, he carved us off of screen and rolls, honestly I didn’t see this much carving since Thanksgiving a couple days earlier. He left the Laker defense in tiny chunks of meat scattered over the court. Feel free to blame injuries but at some point it’s really just a matter of effort and pride, two things we didn’t bring to the game at any point. That’s on the player’s for playing like utter shit and the staff for not looking like they had ever seen the guy play before.
3. 76ers letting it rain. Not only could we not stop Maxey or Embiid but we basically stopped closing out on three point shooters after the jump. All but 3 players on the 76ers made a three pointer and they played the entire team last night. Of the meaningful players only Tobias Harris went 0fer from distance. Again, a matter of the heart you have for the game. Or in this case a lack thereof.
4. LeBron james has played the most combined NBA minutes of anyone on planet Earth. Whee. I think he feels about the same why I do, too.
5. Redemption? After the off day today we have a roadie back-to-back against Detroit and OKC. I’m sure a lot of fans have that Piston’s game circled as an automatic win but if what we saw last night is representative of what the Lakers are capable of that could end up being one of the most unexpected losses of the season. Here are some tips for the team: stop whining to the refs on every shot. Did you get hit? Probably but it’s not gonna change the tenor of the game they’re calling. Should the 76ers have been called for at least one defensive three seconds call? Sure, but we lost by the amount of money my wife saves at the store when she uses coupons so we’re talking about a drop in the bucket. The only way to be better is to compete harder, not look at a the refs to bail you out of your terrible choice. Be better.

I think we get Cam back which should help a little but to expect ond or two guys to be the balm of what looks to me mostly like an effort issue isn’t the answer. The team has to choose to compete nightly the same way they did for the in-season tourney games. That’s it, not brain surgery. Go get it.

That was fun. Maybe a little closer than some fans might have been comfortable with but this ain’t last season’s Rocket’s team. While the record may not show it this team is trying to compete and has the vets to help them do so. So, while not an elite test, this kind of team (younger, faster, looking to push rather than play in the half court) has given us problems in the last couple years and Houston’s time, like the Thunder, is closer than some GMs would like. So in a game where AD fouled out, we couldn’t hit a three to save our lives, the Lakers once again turned to the oldest player in the Association to get them over the finish line.

1. LeBron James, a one man desperado. I’m honestly just trying to enjoy watching leBron do his think at 38 going on 39 in year 21. He just passed Kobe Bryant on the all-time Laker list of 30+ point games (237, Kobe sitting proud at 236 and that was definitely cut short by injury the last few seasons but there it is) which in and of itself is incredible. LeBron has been here 6 seasons and played in 291 games. That means there are but 51 games i which LeBron didn’t score 30+ points. If that isn’t worthy of amazement you might just be dead inside. Also, what minutes restriction? That last one, while seemingly not an issue in November, feels like one I’d like to see Coach Ham strive harder to achieve as the season wears on and we get bodies back. Another 40 minute affair for James and that will add up over time. The team needs to do better by it’s leader.
2. AD vs. Sengun like Godzilla vs. Kong. He held his own against Alperen Sengun but he didn’t seem to faze the young up and coming big man on the other end, either as Davis ended up fouling out against the big man with the herky jerky game.. Call it a Clash of the Titans but this is likely going to be an issue that continues to show itself throughout the season as the NBA is now increasingly populated by talented, multi-dimensional big men. AD looked a step slow against his main opponent all night long and that resulted in him fouling out in a game where the lakers only sent Houston to the line 10 times and went there themselves 29 (the difference in the game, by the way but more on that in a second). It’s not that AD had a bad game, he didn’t, but if he wants that MVP/DPOY crown he needs to try and dominate these marquee matchups a little more, gimpy hip and all. If that’s not important to him, cool,, we got the win but I believe (sic: hope) he wants to shed some of the labels he’s garnered over the last few seasons in purple and gold.
3. Malik Beasleyitis. Also know as Wesley Matthewsitis, Reggie Bullockitis, Danny Greenitis and so on. The Los Angeles Lakers, where three point specialists go to lose money. Where the skill seems to whitcher and die on the vine before our very eyes. Taurean Prince is the latest victim of this deadly, franchise-specific disease and this season’s variant is especially deadly. We are abysmally bad at shooting the three this season and it would be far worse without the lone bright spot game in which we tied the franchise record in made threes (also our only blow-out win). I’ve long contended that this is an issue that starts with the inherent philosophies of the Laker organization. We don’t bring in coaches who fully embrace the modern game, they always have a foot in the old school door, or both feet and just pay the modern game lip service (see Scott, Byron). We have a historic list of big men, we do not have a historic list of ex[pet marksmen. All of our best players thrived at either post play (Wilt, Kareem and Shaq), driving the ball in transition and finishing at the rim (Magic, Worthy, Kobe, and of course LeBron) or the midrange (Kobe, Pau, LeBron and also Kareem who hit the pick and pop 20 footer as easily as his skyhook). The outside shooter list is short: Jerry West. Kinda ends there. Sure we had Nick the Quick and Eddie Jones but those teams didn’t win banners. Fun? Sure, but not legendary. This issue permeates today, we don’t enable good shooters to be the best version of themselves. We tell them to stand around and wait for LeBron or AD to get into trouble with the shot clock and bail them out from wherever they happen to be standing. We don’t run plays for them, we don’t set them up to shoot their shot. We hope a lot that whatever shot they get goes in. It’s not working and won’t until the issue of how the organization values this skill set changes.
4. Cam Reddish defensive ace?! If these kind of games keep happening AD won’t be the only Laker in the DPOY convo and Cam could be in line for Most Improved, as well. In his last 5 games (all starts) he’s had 3,3,5,0,3 steals respectively. The 0 was against Memphis and he only played 25 minutes. In preseason I didn’t see the fit but he was one of the first players off the bench once the games started and has supplanted Austin Reaves as a starter with no end to that in sight based solely on Cam’s play. Where Wood found a spotlight early and seemed to quickly wilt away the more Cam is featured the better he plays on defense. He’s disrupting the half court sets by attacking passing lanes and applying stout on-ball defense. This is what probably every coach he’s ever played for wished he had done in previous stops so credit the Lakers and their development team for unlocking this version. While still a small sample size and most of the games being against a lower tier teams it’s worth noting how active and engaged on that end of the floor Cam has been. His scoring has come and gone which has been the status quo of every Laker not named LeBron James so it’s actually been quite essential that he step it up on defense and that’s exactly what he’s done.
5. A tried and true recipe for this Lakers team. Points in the paint and using that to help create a free throw differential that offsets our woeful outside shooting. It’s why the one game we actually made threes was such a route from beginning to end. Imagining how this team could play if it made just 1/3 of it’s outside shots is a fun exercise but so far one existing solely in the realm of imagination. Cause we don’t hit even 30% of our threes so far, it’s so far under what would seem acceptable as to be funny. Except this isn’t a night at The Improv, it’s grown athletes trying to make a shot from 28 feet out or so. 21 feet in the case of Reaves game clinching three (free throws sealed it, fittingly). While I will never be a full-throated proponent of the “three is everything” aspect of the game it feels like the Lakers are trying to build something with some missing tools other teams possess. Making threes opens a few doors for this team the first of which is reducing the wear and tear on LeBron James. The second is making our defense better since missed threes have been a boon to our opponents transition game, for the most part. Thirdly is how it would enable our centers to better function in the post and paint. Our current modus operandi feels like it’s shelf life expires around the playoffs. Free throws dry up, they don’t increase in a 7 game series. You HAVE to make shots in the playoffs, refs won’t bail you out and we saw that last season under a hail of Denver threes we couldn’t match with our style of play. So while it’s fun, in a painful way, to watch the Lakers body blow their way through the regular season even I have my doubts that this style is sustainable in a 7 game series against any kind of good team. Somebody, and it would be best if it ended up being more than one, needs to get buckets from beyond the stripe more reliably or we’re going to need our defense to find a whole other gear I’ve never seen before to keep games close enough for body blows to be effective. We will lose the war of attrition otherwise.

The games just keep on-a-comin and so we’ll see the Lakers hosting Utah tomorrow night in what should actually be a decent test. With Vincent continuing his kendrick Nunn redux vibe, vando still probably a week or more away and the scary fact that those two players basically represent the cavalry we need some guys to find more consistency in their roles. Once we get through the last couple games on this homestand stretch we are on the road for good long while. It’d be nice to see some positive patterns evolving by then, beyond the silver lining of our vet minimum players.

After getting run out of their own building by the Sacramento Kings (the score was closer than the game ever was if you watched it) there are a few things that I think have become clear. While deeper, longer and larger than the first incarnation of last season’s team the Lakers are still faced with a myriad of basic roster construction issues. While there was early hope for the new 5 out set the Lakers debuted this season it’s also safe to say that this, too, comes with several flaws that start with the personnel who are executing it on the floor. Lastly the coach has, again, come under intense scrutiny as every loss creates a magnifying glass fit to fry an ant hill. Sitting at .500 (6-6; 5-1 at home and 1-5 on the road) there are enough games in the can to start to talk about the emerging patterns both positive and negative. Let’s dig in.

1. How is the overall team performing? Stop me if you’ve heard this one before but injuries to key players have managed to obfuscate the actual potential of this team. Of those injured players it’s pretty easy to see that the lakers are missing Jarred vanderbilt’s energy and hustle on both ends but especially so on defense. The Vandolorian may not put up big scoring numbers but he shows up big on all the impact stats, things that the vet minimum signees haven’t really been able to replicate, at least not as consistently as we saw Vando do in the regular season and on into the playoffs. Also MIA for more games than not was splashy free agent signee Gabe Vincent. With these two out as much as they’ve been (Vando out since early in camp and Gabe has only played in 4 games this season) a lot of the playmaking duty has fallen on the shoulders of young Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell when LeBron is out or playing tired. In general the lack of hustle-focused players has led to a pattern of first quarter deficits, terrible defensive rebounding, and 50/50 balls generally not going our way. Sometimes you gotta make your own luck.
2. Didn’t we improve our three point shooting a lot? In what is now a mockery of an annual rite of passage the Lakers accomplished the following: signed some decent looking shooters over the summer, crowed about how we improved our three point shooting, and then proceeded to stink it up by shooting a league worst in just about every three point metric until our game against Memphis in which we tied the franchise record for makes while hardly missing a shot. That game, however, was the aberration as the lakers reverted to type against the Kings and returned to the brick yard. I’ve thought about this a lot and, in a lot of ways, it comes to down to the Lakers as an organization not embracing the three point shot as weapon to install into game plans and plays. The best shooters get plays run for them, screens set where the guy will take his shot in rhythm. We don’t do that, we throw it to dudes willy-nilly and pray for rain to fall. This is a consistent pattern back beyond even Frank Vogel and into Kobe’s last years with the team. Until we embrace getting guys their shots this will continue to be a weak link, hopefully not this weak all season but certainly not a strength.
3. Longer, larger…and slower. Much hype was bestowed upon the Lakers for all the size they brought in. 3 centers, retained Rui Hachimura, even signed a two way center. That ended up leaving a glaring hole at the guard position where a lot of hope continues to rest on Max Christie and Austin Reaves’ young and un-proven shoulders. As it turns out this is becoming a major problem as teams are out quicking our big line ups and our lack of penetration to the rim means we’re not really able to properly collapse the defense. This is turn has affected our shooting across the board. If the Lakers do make a trade it cannot be for another forward/center. It absolutely has to be for guard and preferably a quick one that can also defend at a decent clip. Since those are the most in-demand players across the Association that feels unlikely to happen unless fortune truly smiles down upon the purple and gold.
4. More diamonds in the rough. As has become the annual tradition for the Lakers, they signed two quality players to bargain vet minimum deals with those players hoping to capitalize on the Laker power of “Come Here and Revive Your Career!”. This season features Christian Wood and Cam Reddish. Both have had their ups and downs already with Wood looking like he’s really pressing in the last few games whereas Cam has found a comfort zone I don’t think I’ve ever seen him play in. Both have contributed to wins and both have not shown up in games we probably coulda/shoulda/woulda won with our better players, had they been available. As it is, if i were a betting man I’d wager that the players whose minutes suffer the most when Vincent and Vando return are Taurean Prince (not doing much of anything, reallly) and Christian Wood (not defending or rebounding well for a 7 footer and slow of foot when we need to get quicker). Cam could still maybe close games alongside LeBron, AD and one of Vando, Reaves, Hachimura or Russell if he’s got it going on both ends like he’s shown he can. Both players need to find a level of sustainability in their games, however, as the variance can be a killer.
5. LeBron passing the torch to…LeBron?!?! As many of the preseason plot points have fallen by the way sie (our depth isn’t what we thought it was, our shooting is incredibly worse than last season, Darvin Ham will takes his hands out of his pockets more) the one over-arching storyline the lakers pushed was that AD was FINALLY going to take “the torch” from LeBron. The King said as much on media day (“It’s AD’s team”) and yet, 12 game sin, it’s clear that the Lakers cannot compete when LeBron sits. For all the hype surrounding the “Running it Back” guys they still can’t sustain winning habits without the gravity on the court created by LeBron’s mere presence. While not a huge problem now this will become a major issue in the playoffs and there’s really only one player that can alter this: Anthony Davis. Problem there is the dude is simply wired to defer that responsibility to other players. Even in NOLA he ended up deferring to Boogie Cousins until the latter tore his Achilles. I love the Run It back Guys, they’re plucky and they fight hard. But pluck ain’t enough to sustain winning and our record shows it in every way.

Need to keep feasting on teams we should feast on. Another trend is that the Lakers are generally struggling against playoff caliber teams and fattening up n the sucky ones. That’s fine while we find our identity and work out the rotation while getting guys back but at some point we need to string some quality wins against some quality opponents.

So far the closing trio of LeBron, Davis and Wood has shown itself to be pretty capable, especially when the other team is also fielding a large selection of players. In a game where D’Angelo Russell had his first big game and Davis played like the beast we need him to be for the full 48 it was the trio of James, Davis and Wood that stood out.

1. AD in beast mode. Since his second half no-show (and the global clamor it created) AD has been engaged on both ends. In all fairness to Davis I challenge anyone to remember a game he didn’t show up on defense for. His issues are getting and staying engaged on offense. We need him to be a constant threat both inside and out or it won’t matter who he’s on the floor with, we’ll be having a hard time scoring the ball. He was stellar in the paint, grabbing boards (something the rest of the tem is struggling with so far) and affecting the other team’s ability to score with blocks and steals.
2. LeBron over the line again. Last night he only played 33 minutes but it came on the heels of a back-to-back game. I’ll admit I was surprised to see him n the lineup and it shows how dedicated he is to putting together a solid season to get the team into good position for the playoffs. Win a lotta games, earn some home court advantage. Sneak in like last year, face an uphill climb the whole way. While he didn’t have a superlative-generating game he was solid across the board. More importantly he looks like he’s moving well, even after a long game the night before.
3. D-Lo busts out. His shot was sparkling as D-Lo was masterful scoring inside and out. Why this level of aggression can’t be an every game thing is the only mystery to me. He led the team in points, assists, made threes ( ona another night most of the team couldn’t find the mark from distance) and was a a consistent threat to score all game. I’d rather he defer to pretty much nobody at this point, D-Lo has all the tools and just needs to use them more often.
4. Reaves and Vincent coming around? They both had probably their best game of the season, which is scary considering the overall results were pedestrian to say the least. Still, it’s encouraging to se what are certain to be 2 key players start to find the groove a little bit.
5. Wood cementing a role and Hayes getting some solid run. Both played a season high in minutes and Wood was on the floor down the stretch to help close the game. Honestly, if I’m Darvin Ham, I look at moving James down to the guard position and putting Vando in while moving Reaves to the bench if the latter continues to struggle and get hunted on post ups and hard rubs. There will be a crunch when it comes to minutes when Vanderbilt returns and his game isn’t likely to show much rust because it’s built pretty much on hustle and defense. Wood and AD are showing some nice synchronicity out there and it allows LeBron to defend a zone on the perimeter rather than bang as much down low. It also allows AD to be more of a free-roamer on D while trusting Wood to rebound and alter shots with his length. While this may not end up happening any time soon (at least not until Reaves is given a nice long leash to return to form), I won’t be surprised if one of the first moves ham makes to alter the rotation is to move Wood from the bench to a starter.

Got a big one tonight against in-house rivals the Clippers. not so much because of the super epic and amazing trade that went down (whee) but rather because the coat-tail riders have been smoking us like cheap reefer for a couple seasons now. Time to light them up.

It took a lot to even force OT, and that goes double when your coach is still working out who should play when and with whom (his words, paraphrased for brevity). Having defensive stalwart Jared Vanderbilt unavailable for most of the preseason has had a cascade effect of a dual nature: roles and minutes have opened up for some guys who might not have gotten the shot and the defense has looked God-awful most nights. So, even with DeAaron Fox going down and out for a short period of time in the 4th quarter with what ended up being a fairly serious ankle injury, the Lakers were unable to eke out a win in one of the tougher road venues in the Association. Still, a couple positives can yet be gleaned.

1. Wrong lineup to close the game. Not too sure what the coaching staff has seen from gabe Vincent that makes them so certain he should be on the floor for the closing moments…and in OT. Shooting 33.3% overall and 0-fer from three is the kind of offensive punch that means you’re a defensive ace in the hole. Unfortunately that’s not really true, at least not yet. It’s not that Vincent played badly, per se, it’s that Coach Ham broke one of, maybe the first, cardinal rule of basketball: stay with the hot hand. It looked like Rui Hachimura had found his groove a little bit in the 4th quarter, hit a three, hit a step back, was rebounding the ball well, not turning it over…and was yanked. In his time in the 4th and OT Vincent attempted (and missed) 1 total shot meaning the bulk of everything fell to LeBron, DLo, Prince and AD when it came to the offense. Would have liked to see a better defensive lineup and hachimura likely has plenty in the tank unlike…
2. Taurean Prince closing games is another question mark for me. His shot was falling early but he looked pretty done towards the end while racking up 41 minutes. His defense was certainly cooked by then. This is another one of those cascade effects of two factors: Reaves sucking big time and Vando being out. Coach Ham has to either put a lineup out there that tries to help space the floor or stop the other team from scoring and, unfortunately, closing lineups with Prince don’t honestly do either one. Teams will forever let Taurean Prince launch as many shots as he cares to take from three over letting AD and LeBron dominate the paint and they’ll do it with gladness in their hearts.
3. Speaking of dominating the paint… We didn’t. Here’s a Nostradamus for ya: we will lose every single game of the season if we’re not within +/- 5 points of the other team in paint points. Last night we lost that battle 56-44 (-12) and the incredible thing about that is we lost that battle while dominating them in fastbreak points (22-7). That tells you one thing: our half court defense was absolutely hot garbage last night. Not having Vando and Gabe Vincent not being quite the defensive pest has hurt us already this season. D-Lo may have made a small improvement in that area but the flip side of that is teams now hunt guys like Prince or Reaves.
4. Another curious choice regarding the rotation. Much has been made of Coach Ham’s predilection (addiction?) for trotting out 3 guard line ups. Sure enough during a disastrous stretch in the 4th we saw Reaves, Vincent and D-Lo out there, unable to rebound or stop guys from getting to the hoop. Domantas Sabonis fouled out with a few minutes to go in regulation and we responded by…staying with the same guys. No hachimura (+9 for the game in PER) and no Christian Wood (team leading +12). Wood had a perfect game going, too. No misses from any kind of shot you can take in an NBA game and 5 boards to boot. Yet, somehow, the two most effective bench players saw zero minutes down the stretch of the 4th quarter or OT? I’m not ready to proclaim any player other than LeBron and AD as “must play in crunch time (when actually playing)” but Wood and Hachimura had shown themselves to be at least as effective as Vincent was. Defensively I get it, but you’re telling me you can’t rotate guys by possession to make sure you score enough to win a basketball game? That after Fox was so very obviously limping you couldn’t go to a more physically punishing line up and force him to either play defense without fouling (finished the game 5 fouls) or get to the rim? Please…
5. The team went away from AD even when he cleared out and demanded the ball. AD had 5 fourth quarter shots (made 1, another reason a little more C-Wood would have made some sense given this was the first of a back-to-back) and but one shot and bucket in OT. They missed him in favor of three pointers multiple times in OT after Sabonis fouled out. We did not exploit the most obvious weakness in the Kings which was an injured point guard whom we didn’t put into pick and roll actions or a missing All Star center for AD to bully. This isn’t rocket science, the coach sometimes has to tell the players to exploit the obvious advantages. It’s hard to stomach winnable losses and, for me, this was one of those.

Back at it tonight at home against the unbeaten Orlando Magic. I’m sure we’ll see the minutes restriction roughly back in place and maybe even a more expanded role for Wood and/or Hayes to give AD more rest. It would help if Reaves could hit the broad side of the barn or Vincent to show the aggression he played with in Miami when they’re called upon.

I’m not going to go so far as to say this game is blueprint-worthy in terms of mapping out a road to consistent success but it did show us a team with a lot of heart and showcased the overall depth and potential that Ham can use to get the job done on a nightly basis. While AD and LeBron featured prominently in the win (like they do), it was a lot more than just the superstar tandem that helped make the first win of the season and the first game at Crypto come out right.

1. The unheralded play of Cam Reddish and Christian Wood. Two dudes with more negative press than they probably deserve. Neither has the rep of defensive stopper, Wood has always been seen as a score-first (only?) player and Cam has been over-hyped at every stop along the way in his still young career. Neither one made a 3 pointer (combined 0-5, an onerous trend on a Laker team purported to have improved it’s three point shooting), nor did they score into the double digit range. Still, Cam had an impact on defense in the first half checking Durant and paving the way for what Wood helped do in the second half. Along with his 10 big rebounds Wood played some admirable defense on KD and got to the stripe despite the jumper not falling. These are the kind of things you need to do on this team, especially when three-point specialist Taurean Prince couldn’t buy a bucket all night long. When the scoring gets lean, turn to your defense.
2. The defense was pretty solid all night long. Other than the 3rd quarter where I thought we picked up a bad habit from last season (the legendary third quarter struggles we endured for 3/4 of the season regardless of who was on the team) we really turned it around as a team in the 4th quarter. We clamped down on the entire team as Phoenix scored 5 baskets in the final frame, four of those were by Durant. 5-20 in the 4th quarter is getting after it and getting it done, I don’t care that Booker and Beal were out. These are all pros, these guys can all hoop, and therefor that was some great team defense.
3. Going back to what works for this team under Coach Ham. Game 1 looked like what people want to see or think the Lakers should be: a team that shoots a lot of threes. We won last night by going back to the thing we’re best at: dominating the paint. There’s just no reason for the Lakers to shoot more than 30 three pointers in any game. Not unless a couple guys get hot and stay hot and that was definitely not the recipe last night. Instead the Lakers returned to their old friend the paint where they utterly dominated Phoenix to the tune of 60 to 36 fueled in part by a 16-6 edge in fastbreak points. Overall I thought our defense led to a ton of our offense, which is pretty much how this team is built to win. There may come a day when the lakers more resemble a modern NBA team with all the threes and such but I still have a hard time seeing this team play in that mode consistently and in a way that will generate wins.
4. 1st quarter malaise. Was it just me or was Crupto really, really quiet for like the first hour of the game. Did everyone get a 3rd quarter shot of tequila or something? Halftime espresso? At any rate, the Lakers woke Crypto up with a stellar 4th but come on people, you paid your money now get loud! In defense of the fans our overall effort in the first frame was not great, almost as bad as Phoenix’s play in the fourth. This is where I think the Lakers truly miss Jared Vanderbilt and his energy and effort. Prince wasn’t hitting his shots, LeBron was still easing into the game, AD was, too. That meant that, outside of our guard corp, there just wasn’t much to get pumped about.
5. Grand larceny. Another stat that jumped out to me was that almost every laker that played got at least one steal. Ironically only Wood and Reddish came up empty in the thievery department but made up for it with stellar defense. While we may not end up leading the league in steals or blocks it’s effort like this that will lead the way on D. There are some wrinkles to work out on offense (like getting Rui Hachimura going, maybe run some plays for the dude?) but if the defense shows up on a nightly basis we’ll be just fine.

Lakers have a couple days off before facing Sacramento (along with Ham’s three time outs to play with in the 4th, I’m pretty sure this factored into the logic of playing James over 30 minutes, as well). The Kings are looking to re-capture lightning in a bottle and, along with every other western conference team that’s played and won a solitary game, sits in a 6-way tie atop the conference in first place. The Lakers a re looking to continue their early winning ways and match their total wins through 12 games last season in game 3.