The Lakers returned to Crypto on Saturday after a major league drubbing in game 2 at Chase Center. The Warriors have won everywhere in every scenario, riding a stellar game of shooting from everyone, and boasting a healthy roster. The game was over by halftime. The Lakers defense and style of play, especially at home, was just too much for the Warriors defense to overcome. What adjustment they can make is the question now.

1. Get up for game 3. There can be no sleepwalking, there can be no taking a quarter or a half off. We must come with another elite effort and keep on winning at home. The Lakers need to get excellent and stay excellent at 2 things: winning a game on the road in the playoffs and defending home court. To date the Lakers have done both and they need to maintain that level of focus and execution. The body will not be ready, you will be feeling fatigue. That’s where the mind comes into it and the Lakers need to be mentally sharp and rise to the challenge of going up 3-1.
2. Lonnie Walker’s big game. I’m not talking about his stat line, especially pre-garbage time, I’m talking about his appearance in the first half when he came in when Troy Brown normally does. He didn’t try and light it up, he didn’t force his shot, and he didn’t loaf on D. he did his job, he’s been an incredible professional (especially since the trade deadline when his minutes all but evaporated) and he has stayed ready and in sync with what the team is doing. He may not be a Laker next season but I can honestly say I am now a big Lonnie Walker the Fourth fan. I don’t know what role he has consistently on this team, especially during the playoffs, but the level of maturity and team before me LW4 has shown is really impressive.
3. LeBron taking less is more. 2-4 from three and he didn’t shoot the ball once in the first quarter, or the first 4 minutes of the second? That should be a recipe for Lakers disaster but it wasn’t. It gave D-Lo the room to start the game like a star exploding. It gave the Warriors a defensive problem because they know he can’t play decoy the whole game so they still had to have at least a body leaning his way, often two in the vicinity. It also saved him for an incredible stretch in the 2nd and 3rd quarters where he orchestrated the demise of Golden State in game 3 with an efficiency we haven’t really seen from him the playoffs until Saturday night.
4. AD wakes up. I know what he’s been saying, that he doesn’t play any differently from one game to another. The eye-test tells a different tale. More FGA’s in the paint than from outside. More engaged on D. A better player. Maybe it took him a film session to see how they switched up their coverage? Maybe he ate a better breakfast? Who knows and who cares, we just need that version of AD tonight…and as I’ve said a grip of times…in every game going forward.
5. Pound the paint and don’t stop doing it. Every settle-for jumper, every early shot clock three, every shot that isn’t a kick-out off a drive is a bad shot for this Laker squad in the playoffs. I accept a few D-Lo/LeBron heat checks from three. Other than that, drive it, relentlessly, into the defense and force the action at the rim and in the paint. It’s why we have such a wide free throw discrepancy, because we’re playing with power and strength. Golden State is, by far, the prettier team. But they don’t have an answer for AD in the paint altering shots and accumulating blocks. They don’t have an answer for our ability to at least show at the three point line and recover back into the paint. A lot of that is AD’s elite defense but there’s a lot of support coming from his teammates in the form of on-point backside rotations on the baseline and staying on guys in the corners. It all works only if it’s working together. that’s what was so impressive to me about LW4 coming in and executing the defensive game plan as if he had been running with the starters the whole time.

Another must-win game for a team playing must-win games for the last 2 months. Fire forges steel. The Lakers have been in the fire for a good while now and we see the team has forged into something that has special potential. Need to back the potential up with results and those happen on the court. Go get another one tonight. Go Lakers.

If you didn’t have ‘James’ or ‘Hachimura’ on your jersey last night you might as well have also gotten a ‘DNP-Content’ next to your name in the stat box. Seemingly content with their game 1 victory the Lakers looked sluggish, tired and generally disengaged for most of game 2. While it could also be said the Warriors were fighting for their playoff lives, the Lakers overall lackadaisical approach to game was frustrating for this Lakers’ fan.

1. I want to believe AD is ready for the next step in his career. But I can’t. Not because of a lack of talent but his overall mentality and disposition have shown us that he just ain’t that dude. Mongo been saying it since before he got here and ever since. At times, I’ll admit, I allow myself to be fooled. For a game or three AD will look unstoppable on both ends. Blocking shots, fighting for rebounds, scoring inside and out. You get caught up in it and believe he’s figured it out, he’s found that gear, whatever parable one wishes to create. Inevitably it’ll be followed by a game (or worse, a stretch of games) where he simply shows up. Middling impact, drifts around the floor, especially on offense, and isn’t aggressive. That was the AD we got last night. Here’s hoping he goes into hibernation for the rest of what season is left to us.
2. Wasted a vintage LeBron game. Looked like The King of old except that the rest of the team (save for one) no-showed the game. His assists were down, only 3, but that’s a byproduct of the house the Lakers seemed intent on building last night. It’s too bad because one has to wonder how many more of these kind of games, where he’s efficient inside and out, are left in LeBron’s career.
3. Rui found his shot. 8-14, with a sparkling 4-6 from three, Hachimura found that stroke early and kept it going. While he alone was not able to help LeBron keep the Lakers in the game in the second half it was a welcome sight.
4. Laker guards got schooled. All of them, even the ones who played in garbage time (OK, LW4 looked solid off the bench in GT). Simply put we can’t absorb bad games from all of Schroder, Russell, and Reaves. Combined they shot an abysmal 8-26 (1-9 from three), amassed 8 total rebounds and couldn’t stop Curry’s drives or Klay’s shots all game long. We’ll need those three to play a lot better if we want any chance at all.
5. Home cooking and some coaching adjustments. Need some shots to start falling, AD to return to playoff form, and a few tweaks to the D. As AD outplayed the Warrior front line in game 1, so did Curry outplay our back court in game 2. Toss in Klay going off and voila! Loss. We need our guys on the baseline to have one eye on Curry and the other on a potential cutter. That’s not a difficult adjustment but it does require the defender to keep their head on a swivel and not relax. We also need to stop relying on the refs. Yes, you got fouled on that drive. Play on. The whistles will dry up the further we go and we need to rise above it.

Still think we can get this done in 6.

The Lakers will be the road team no matter what path they take in these playoffs, not even if we meet fellow playin team the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. Thus it behooves them to get really comfortable winning a road playoff game and doing so early in the series to keep the pressure on the other team. This was, once again, accomplished last night as the Lakers found the defensive grit and overall tenacity to beat the Warriors in game 1 at Chase Center and take home court advantage for themselves. The work, however, is only beginning.

1. The James Gang is apt because this ain’t no one-man show. LeBron James will not be putting the Lakers on his back like he’s done with so many other squads in his lengthy career. In what can only be described as a mediocre (for him) showing from LeBron we still won the game. In the playoffs. On the road. LeBron still had a tremendous impact on the game but was neither efficient nor the best player on the floor. I’m sure there are a few incredible games left in LeBron, and hopefully they come in wins, but these NBA playoffs (and frankly since he passed Kareem) have shown a LeBron who is starting to decline in small ways. Luckily he now has a James Gang to support him and help him on his journey.
2. Anthony Davis and all the torch talk. Personally I still see this as a partnership between two superstars whose bodies aren’t their best friends. Still, if there is a torch being passed from LeBron to AD this season it’s also changing the appearance of the torch. The new torch is a defensive monster who outplayed Golden State’s front line almost single-handedly. The new torch is a shot blocking beast who altered even more than the stats will reveal. The new torch doesn’t rely on threes or fadeaways (although they are technically in the bag) but on abusing opponents in the paint and at the rim. Last night AD made history by joining the likes of Shaq, Kareem, Wilt and Elgin Baylor as the only Lakers to have scored 30+ points and grabbed 20+ rebounds while dishing out 5+ assists. Legendary stuff. I’m sure he appreciated the win more, though.
3. Jarred Vanderbilt’s defense. Still pumped we managed to get him as a throw in in the trade for Russell Westbrook. He makes everything work better, like the Lamar Odom’s and Rick Fox’s before him. The fact that he asked to guard Curry shows you how much belief he has in himself, how much humility and respect for the game he has (because you don’t ask for that assignment thinking “I’m shutting down Steph!” you ask for it knowing that your job is to make him work) and what an astounding work ethic he has. There will be adjustments made to neutralize The Vandolorian’s impact on Curry but that in and of itself is the sign of ultimate respect. Amazing game by JV.
4. Winning the rebounding game. Looney pulled down 23 rebounds (7 offensive which helped contribute to one of my Scary Stats regarding the Warriors) but no other player for Golden State pulled down more than 6 (Wiggins and Curry w/6 apiece). After that the drop off is even more precipitous with no Warrior grabbing more than 3. The Lakers did just well enough in the rebounding game with solid gang rebounding from the team, LeBron pulling down 11 of his own and AD matching Looney with 23 boards himself (only 4 offensive). This is the stat, along with turnovers, I’m watching the most. Lakers need to do their level-best to limit the number of extra possessions they give up.
5. Dennis Schroder’s huge impact. We’d been (OK, maybe just I…) waiting for a breakout performance from Dennis who was largely marginal in the Grizzlies series. Check that box. Pouring in a crucial 19 points Schroder filled the “Who is gonna step it up?” role in this win using efficient scoring, near-perfection from the free throw line, and z-e-r-o turnovers which helped keep the Lakers under 10 in that department (you know how I feel about those) and played the scrappy defense we’ve come to appreciate.

One last thing, don’t let the free throw discrepancy fool you. That’s a by-product of some bad defense by the Warriors (Looney smacking AD in the face, Poole choosing not to play defense on Schroder for much of the game and just slapping at the ball) and our overall style of play. We pound it inside and we don’t relent. We may not see that wide of a gulf again but I also doubt the Warriors will make so many threes.

When the bell rings to start the second round of the NBA playoffs for the Lakers and Golden State it will be an incredible series of games combined with a whole lot of colliding history. How it all shakes out is both compelling and legend defining for both franchises. Which team moves on will only add to the legacies of several players who have already notched their names in the NBA Book of Legends. Let’s shake this down.

1. If you though containing Ja Morant was a task, wait until we try and contain Steph Curry. The short answer is you can’t. Not just because of Steph’s considerable individual greatness but because most of the Warrior’s offensive schemes are designed to shake Curry loose for a critical half-second and it’s those tiny little moments he gets a quality shot off. Hit the screen hard, Draymond Green or Kevon Looney will take the hit and maybe get a foul called on you. Go under and you’ve added another half-second of time for one of the greatest shooters to lace ’em up to get an even more high quality look. Fight through too hard and Steph will time his shot so you knock into him and get the foul called his way. I don’t think it’s as simple as “put _______ on him” because of the schemes and screens the Warriors deploy. They will seek out a favorable matchup in the half court. In short you’re not containing Curry because the entire Warriors team is built to either get him a clean look or provide a high quality release valve for a Curry pass.
2. Contain Klay Thompson then? Sure. Maybe. Put Vando on Klay and deny him open looks could help swing the series our way, a little; but you may be looking at a series of high output/high efficiency games from Steph that may be too much to overcome. Again, because of the sheer volume of screens the Warriors can deploy in the half court you really can’t assign a defender to anyone player. The Warriors find shreds of space and make the absolute most of it. Klay is one of the games best and most intense competitors and will find a way or drive himself mad trying.
3. Shut the rest of the Warriors down then? If you watched the Sacramento series (especially the games the Warriors won) the balanced attack they can deploy comes from three areas: outside shooting, mid-range shots in space (which are the shots most teams willingly give up nowadays) and offensive rebounds is nigh-impossible to simply defend and win against. Again, in the half court, the Warriors will beat you…eventually. The Warriors are built and designed for the playoffs when the fast breaks slow down, when tendencies of a specific player or two can be exploited and where the fundamentals shine brighter than the athleticism is capable of. You absolutely have to control the glass which means shutting down both Kevon Looney and Draymond Green along with the board crashing Wiggins and Thompson. This will require a team-wide focus on putting a body on the closest Warrior, even if it’s not your man. We need to win the rebounding game to have a shot of any kind.
4. Sounds bleak dude, any other helpful tips? Play at a high pace. Control the tempo. The Warriors play their worst when you speed them up, this is why they struggled so much on the road in the regular season but are doing OK there now in the playoffs. It’s a slower game, more akin to Chess than a pickup game in a park in your neighborhood. You have to match wits and methodology with speed and force the Warriors to play faster than they want. This is something Sacramento lost by the end both because of injuries to Fox and mainly not having much (if any) playoff experience on the squad. the Lakers have players with experience who can play fast, that’s the advantage I believe we possess.
5. Can’t play sloppy. Turnovers will lead to break away threes and twos. Too many turnovers (and not boxing out and controlling the glass) will be the death of us so we need to play our best basketball in this series. Chemistry is on the Warriors side, rest is on ours. Win game 1 and get that out of the way, put the pressure (what little they will feel) on the Warriors and defend Crypto. Lose game 1 and all of the pressure will be on guys like Russell, Hachimura, Reaves and The Vandolorian. Every error magnified, every mistake an epic one. Win that first game and try to keep it rolling. We can win if we value every single possession like it could be our last.

I think this one goes 7 games, honestly. Either both teams will win out at home and it’ll come down to an epic game 7 (maybe the most epic semi-finals game in NBA history?) or the Warriors might beat us in 6 if our lack of chemistry and experience starts to show early in the series. This iteration of the Lakers has done a pretty solid job of playing up to the competition so I’m banking on that grit and moxie to make this a series for the record books.

Talk about making the path forward more difficult than it needed to be. While a win might be a win this one took more out of the team than many, myself included, hoped for or thought it would. The Lakers, after being down 15 in the 3rd quarter, found it within themselves to fight for the better matchup and desperately needed time off. In the end, and in overtime, the Lakers beat the Timberwolves and are the 7th seed for the 2022-23 NBA Playoffs. Let’s dig in.

1. D-Lo’s disappearing act was almost too much to overcome. Credit the coaching staff for basically benching him down the stretch as D’Angelo couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn with his jump shot, couldn’t get into the paint to score effectively and really turned in a pretty awful performance. He semi-atoned for his own personally abysmal offense by dishing 8 assists to 1 turnover but this will be something to watch going forward. Russell is an unrestricted free agent and while regular season numbers matter, playoff numbers generally count for more. D’Angelo will only damage his own value by turning in more playoff duds.
2. Dennis picked up the PG slack. He had an injury scare in the first half when it looked like he came up gimpy after a fall but he soldiered through and left it all on the court. He was the catalyst for the comeback and OT win by getting to the line, hitting 3-4 from three point land, and playing great defense. The mirror opposite of D-Lo’s game, Dennis did nothing but boost his value by turning in a gem of a playin game. The rest will only do him and our other vets who are nursing injuries of one kind or another good.
3. Rui Hachimura reprising the Kyle Kuzma role for the Lakers. In our banner winning season Kyle Kuzma was the perfect Swiss Army Knife the team needed. Providing a little bit of everything from scoring inside, shooting the three ball well enough, to defense and just flat out playing hard every minute he was on the floor. Rui played that role to perfection last night and here’s hoping he has more of it in him. We need a consistent scorer off the bench besides Dennis and the list got shorter for who qualifies when we moved Reaves to the starting 5. Beasley is too eratic to be counted on, you basically just hope he’s hot. Wenyan is not a scorer. Bamba is a defensive liability against mobile bigs/small players and doesn’t look, to me anyhow, to have playoff speed or intensity in his DNA. Having a guy like Rui who can pretty much switch onto almost everyone and give them a defensive problem of some kind is a luxury the Lakers lost when they traded Kuzma. Rui, whose defense was one of the bigger question marks when we traded for him, has shown he can rise to that role and we’ll need him to do it more as we go along.
4. How well does Reaves game translate to the playoffs? The high IQ plays across the board, the defensive intensity he brings does, too. But the way he generates offense these days (often by floating into another player and creating contact on jump shots) isn’t a playoff friendly style. Just ask James harden whose FTA’s dry up come playoff time. I’m sure there will be a game here or there where Austin gets that whistle but he’d do just as well by honestly attacking the rim and the paint. He also needs to be a lot more decisive on his drives because the ones that fail (and there were a few last night) are the one’s where he’s driving without already knowing what he’s trying to do. These are his first tastes of the bigger NBA stage and so I expect him to add adjustments and grow over time.
5. Winning without free throws. This is a hard one, and maybe it won’t matter, but I feel like the Lakers rely on free throws a lot to win ball games. This was, again, the case last night and we all know that as the playoffs wear on the whistles sound less. Now, because of the Lakers style of play, we may still end up on the plus side of the free throw line battle but it’s not a stratagem that’s entirely within our control. We need to play better all around defense and execute on offense at a higher level. We can’t have our starting guards and power forward go 5-24 and expect to earn a W every night. That won’t cut it from here on out and the Lakers are lucky KAT faded and Anthony Edwards never got it going. Some of that was good D, some of that was on poor defensive decision from KAT who should have known his team needs him on the floor but, as a team, we’ve really come to rely on free throws. it’s not a workable means of winning going forward.

Next up game 1 against Memphis on Sunday. Same applies across the board. Just because Steven Adams is out indefinitely isn’t an excuse to sleep walk through the first half. The team needs to dig down and figure out a way to play with a solid effort for the full 48 and we need more than 2/5s of our starting five to have good games. if we don’t this series will be both short and embarrassing.

Here’s hoping this is the only playin game we play. If it is that would mean we beat the Timberwolves and are officially the 7th seed in the NBA. Falling to the 8th seed, while certainly better than being wholly eliminated, would represent the most difficult path to the NBA Finals for the Laker’s as it would require playing in two playin games and ending up in the tougher seeding bracket. Beating the T’wolves means we don’t play until Sunday which would be a really great amount of rest for the team. So let’s dig in to some key aspects of this match up and how the Lakers can move on.

1. Take advantage of the missing Minnesota players. While it’s unfortunate that the Timberwolves won’t have their roster available it’s on the Lakers to press that advantage to it’s fullest. Missing key rotation players in Rudy “Mic Check” Gobert (suspended by team for fighting Kyle Anderson in the last game), Jaden “F#$% THAT WALL!” McDaniels (fractured hand after punching a wall), Naz Reid (surgery) and possibly Jaylen Nowell (knee). That’s a ton of talented size that will be MIA tomorrow night. The Lakers have made a living this season driving into the paint and attacking the rim. This generates both easy points and fouls. It’s imperative the Lakers press this exact advantage to the fullest tomorrow night.
2. Use the right defenders on KAT. Karl has been hurt a lot of the season and is probably one of the healthier superstars going into the post season. The Lakers rely on Anthony Davis on both ends of the floor, heavily. I’d maybe start the quicker and certainly more expendable if foul trouble is an issue Jarred Vanderbilt on KAT. Save AD for the second half, 4th quarter and keep his fouls low. KAT might be over to shoot over the Vandolorian but he’ll be hard=pressed to gain a speed advantage over him. I’d throw a combination of JV, Wenyan and maybe even Bamba (although Mo is awfully slow of foot and will likely pick up a grip of quick reach/hold fouls so we’ll see on that one). I’d rather KAT shoot over guys from the perimeter than get it going on the inside where he’s also likely to get to the line.
3. Contain ANT-MAN. Anthony Edwards could start to see his name appearing as a dark horse MVP soon and he really ought to make some level of All NBA this season. Dude single-handedly carried Minnesota to the brink of the playoffs with KAT missing a huge chunk of the season, the team trading D-Lo, and the kind of mish-mash roster you don’t generally see do well in the modern NBA. No single player will stop this man so the question is containment and how to get it done. Like KAT you prefer him shooting from the outside over a defender or two and you don’t want him to live at the free throw line. Just do your best to keep him out of the paint and throw two guys at him when possible, give him different looks every few times down, maybe zone him up when it’s just Anthony and Karl sits.
4. Don’t sleep on Mike Conley. I feel like this will be LeBron’s defensive assignment although with 40% of the starting line up out for the game he might end up on Kyle Anderson or Taurean Prince. I’d try and keep LeBron off the high energy/hustle guys (like prince) so if it’s not Mike I expect it to be Kyle. Both players can hurt you but Mike Conley is sneaking elite. He can light you up for 40. he can rack up 20 assists. he can put a defensive gem in his crown in any game. He’s a top tier point guard who’s healthy right now (frankly that’s my one gripe is he’s often out for long stretches of a season). LeBron is going to be our weakest link defensively. I’ve watched him not close out, not rotate, not switch or fight through a screen all season long and I don’t think he possesses a magical switch to just turn that all on. Not anymore. So you want him on the least mobile or slowest player. Or at least the guy who is most likely to slink into the corner for an open three. LeBron needs to stymie those kind of plays.
5. The Lakers bench has little reason not to dominate. With a lot of their vaunted depth sapped due to stupidity, injuries or stupid injuries the Lakers’ bench has a golden opportunity to define and dominate this game. If they can put together a solid, focused and effective effort we might win this game going away. If they’re not on point, wilt under the bright lights, or simply get out-played it could make for a tough game indeed. Some guys have been sitting a lot and you may find your number called: be like Lonnie and stay ready. You will not get calls going forward barring something obvious. Play through, play hard, and get it done.

The Lakers need to get this done and start to atone for the many bone-headed losses, subpar efforts and inexplicable choices made throughout the season. Get this win tomorrow, get LeBron and AD into treatment and let the team rest a bit with some film and walk throughs. We have the talent and the experience to go on a deep run and the bracket broke very favorably for us. Now we need to take advantage of those fortunate occurences.

Been swamped at work and at home so haven’t had time to dig into every game. Lots to like, some issues persist but one thing is clear: we won’t miss the playin. Had we won out and not lost to the Clippers we would have been guaranteed to slot no lower than the 6th seed. As it stands we’re probably going to have to play at least one extra game and potentially face the Nuggets or Grizzlies in our first round matchup, should we get that far.

1. As it has been for months the daily mantra is “kill ’em all”. Not literally, of course, this is a figurative mantra. The Lakers need to keep applying pressure through winning. We went away from our recent tried and true formula of making AD the focal point with Russell and LeBron on the court against the Clippers as Davis shot the ball only 14 times compared to James’ 20 and Russell’s 13 and Reaves’ 11. Hard to kill ’em all with jump shots when we need to pound teams into submission in the paint. This isn’t as much on the players as it is the coaches. Anthony Davis simply must be the main focal point on offense and our chances of winning will go up with the number of field goals he takes. 20 is the bare minimum.
2. Nagging injuries are the bane of our team. Now D’Angelo is nursing a bad wheel? Geeeeez man. Between AD’s floating bone, LeBron’s lower body and now Russell’s hip, back and foot the Lakers have an Operation game on their hands keeping guys available. Hopefully less travel and time between games will help alleviate that although the Lakers are assured zero home court advantage in any series they participate in.
3. The starting line up is as solid as it’s been all season long. Unfortunately that means the bench is now lacking depth, especially on the guard front. All our best players start and play big minutes so one of the challenges facing Coach Ham and his staff is finding reliable production off the bench. Schroder has looked gassed this week in all our games. Wenyan busts his ass every night but is generally facing a more talented opponent and that gulf will only widen once we hit the playin/offs. Our “laser” isn’t firing very well. Our more dynamic athletes don’t get consistent minutes. Of all our bench guys I think I trust Rui the most because his offense is pretty consistent and his defense seems to have already taken a small step in the right direction. Not too sure how much I’d throw at Mo Bamba but, like LW4, he is an option.
4. Coach Ham still struggling with adjustments. This is one of those things that he’ll be working on for as long as he coaches but we need to see more immediate growth sooner than later or I worry about how we’ll fare in 7 game series. We’re just about one season in under coach Ham and the best I can come up with in terms of identity and philosophy is use our defense to get out on the break and play inside out as much as humanly possible with the focus on the inside. Not to be dismissive but that really is a basketball 101 approach to the offensive side of basketball. Like Vogel before him I think Ham is more comfotrable coaching and preaching defensive principles, which is good, but our offense lacks a dynamic look at times, which is bad. Especially when it comes to freeing up guys like Beasley, Bamba, and even LeBron and D-Lo for three point shots. There doesn’t seem to be a play we run that all but guarantees a shot or a foul. While I doubt that changes this season it’s certainly something I hope he addresses over the summer.
5. What destiny we control. Not gonna lie, the loss to the Clippers coupled with a lot of teams in front of us resting key players makes us getting out of the playin rounds a real challenge. it’s unfortunate that we played LeBron, AD, and D’Angelo at less than 100% and still lost because now hindsight is telling me we should have rested all 3 and sucked up the loss in a sacrifice to better health. Still, there’s a small chance we crack through so keep the love light burring, Lakerholics.

This is how it had to start, how it needs to continue and how the season should end: with a W. With the countdown on and the regular season nearing it’s conclusion the Lakers start a 5 (well, 4 on the road and a visitor game against the Clippers) game road trip. They got off on the good foot to kick things off with a dominant 1st and 3rd quarters and held strong for the win. A new starting five and the trio of D-LO, LBJ and AD remains undefeated in three games.

1. The planets were aligned and AD dominated. I can’t go back and forth on this much more. We all know the M.O. When AD plays well, the Lakers usually win. When he takes a back seat, we usually lose. No other Laker affects our winning percentage like AD does. We can say all the platitudes and hyperbolic statements we want but it all comes down to him and his internal fire. Sometimes it’s there, sometimes it ain’t. We need it to be there more than he’s likely comfortable with from here on out. Filed under “We’ll see man…”
2. ‘Bron getting his legs back under him. Moving more fluidly then in his first game back, James looked more like the “turn back the clock” player we’d kind of grown accustomed to this season. Still tied for team lead with turnovers with 4 (some how Malik also coughed it up 4 times in just 10 minutes of play…) but everything LeBron did looked like it came easier. He was efficient, go to the line a little, and generally looked and played dominant when we needed him to be.
3. D-Lo is the grease this machine needs. In only three games together the new Lakers “Big Three” is undefeated. Small sample size notwithstanding it’s plain to see on any level how much easier everything is when D-Lo plays. He and AD already have a nice P&R vibe going, he doesn’t force his offense and has an uncanny knack for knowing when he needs to make a play to keep the defense honest on everyone else. Mainly it’s his poise and composure that seem so different than D-Lo as a Laker 1.0. He and Reaves are big enough in the back court to cause some defensive issues for other teams and hopefully that continues to trend upwards.
4. Playing the right players. If it were me the rotation would like about how it did last night except I don’t know that Malik will get rotation minutes in the playoffs. The money he’s potentially due is the main reason he’s getting any time at all because it can’t be how he’s playing. He’s the third one off the bench between Rui, LW4 and himself. Coach Ham went back to the correct player in Hachimura in terms of favoring him over either LW4 or Malik. Rui is bigger and has the most consistent and dependable offensive game. He can defend as well as any of those three so that’s wash. Stick with this rotation, coach.
5. Smart threes, not volume. I get the theory but this team lacks two things that make a volume three point shooter necessary: the proper offensive schemes to best utilize that skillset and time to implement them and the right players to make it work. We’ve auditioned a “Who’s Who” of three point marksmen of various size and skill. Beasley is just another in a long list of shooters who come to LA to sully their reputation. In a way it’s not entirely their fault. The style of play that best suits AD and LeBron is to attack the paint. This is not a surprise. This is why teams will let the Lakers take threes and midrange shots. So when I see 20 next 3PT FGA I don’t panic. The Lakers might, and should, be at the bottom of that particular stat. We function best as a team that forces the ball to the rim. If that leads to an open three, wonderful, but only if that’s actually the best shot. I’ll take AD shooting in the paint over a three all game long.

Friday in Minnesota is as “must-win” as it can get. The Lakers desperately need that win both to move up and maintain positioning as the games dwindle.

The Lakers lost anyhow. Spoiling what one assumed would a triumphant return the Lakers instead chose Sunday as a Defense-DNP (IDFKW…) game. As a result the game was never really competitive and the Bulls pretty much scored at will, dominated most of the hustle stats, and won the game easily.

1. AD taking a back seat approach. AD should have dominated this game, especially after Vucevic was ejected for losing his cool. Instead Drummond and a bevy of small forwards outplayed him on both ends. This was what I was afraid of when LeBron came back. That AD would exhale and take his foot off his internal gas pedal. PatBev used the “too small” trash talk for LeBron, he should have used it on AD who played a lot smaller than he can.
2. 34 points off of 18 turnovers tells me our transition defense sucked and that we didn’t value the ball. LeBron and Austin had five turnovers each to pace the team but every Lakers that played, except LW4 and Wenyan, had at least one.
3. 54% shooting, mainly from role-players getting what they wanted, when they wanted and no answer for Zach LaVine. Considering that Coby White went 5-17 and the Bulls still shot such a high percentage the outcome could have been a lot worse.
4. The fallacy of the volume three point shooter. Malik Beasley had a solid game, 6-14 from three (all of his shots were from beyond the arc) and still was -11 in +/- for the game. There wasn’t a great amount of space generated by his presence, he was unable (and has been unable) to alter the outcome of most of the games he’s played, and the Bulls happily let a one-trick-pony dance and frolic while they went out and won. Malik would do well to add to his one-dimensional shot selection and drive to the hole from time to time, especially if he gets his man in the air off a pump fake which happens a ton. Yes, the three point shot is a valuable weapon. Yes, it can help to have a marksman that theoretically generates space (but not a team like the Lakers who are designed to punish you in the paint…which we went away from this whole game). Yes, he along with the rest of the Laker bench (LeBron included) were awful on defense and got worked over by Chicago’s bench. Don’t know why we keep playing this guy when Rui is a better defender, rebounder and more efficient scorer. Play the better player.
5. 2 games together. That’s how much the Lakers currently have to evaluate the pairing of LeBron and D-Lo. There aren’t many games left to base opinions on. The fir may be solid…it may not, 2 games is basically nothing. We desperately need another ball-handler that has a better handle than Reaves does. That’s not a dig against Austin, he’s filled in admirably, but the Bulls knew where he was trying to go and stymied him to a large degree forcing him to be more of a scorer and not the multi-threat player we tend to rely on most games. The Lakers have a multi-million dollar decision before them and their two best players have barely played together, that could make for some unwanted and, frankly, un-needed drama this summer.

Revenge could come as soon as Wednesday and here’s hoping it does as the Lakers go on a 5 game road trip (last one at home against the Clippers with the Lakers as the “road” team) that will basically make or break the season at this point. Can’t finish the road trip with a losing record, have to at least go 3-2 and we need to beat all the western conference teams no matter what.