Well that was fun. The 7 game winning streak is over and in our first test against 5 teams with winning records we seemed content to play a little too care-free and never adjusted to the intensity of Phoenix’s pressure. Toss in the return of the “Who Is This Guy?!” Laker defense and you have all the required ingredients for a blowout loss. Tip you hat to Phoenix, who came into the game geeked and ready enough to sustain the loss of franchise player Devin Booker after a scant 10 minutes of action. Hopefully this can serve as a quick reminder that, in this league, you can’t just show up. You need to be prepared to go to battle.

1. Luka trying to do too much in this one. The stat line looks pretty solid right up until you get to the turnovers. 9 turnovers to 5 assists tells the story of the game in a nutshell. Forcing plays that just aren’t there and not really ever adapting to the defensive pressure deployed by Phoenix. This was a game with a quiet whistle, if there’s one thing Luka could do better at it’s recognizing when the refs just aren’t going to call certain fouls in that game. As a rule, the Lakers are overly dependent on drawing fouls and, when those calls don’t come, getting overly invested in chirping back at the refs. Did Phoenix push the boundary of physicality? Absolutely, but that’s something that we’ll need to be able to adjust to better going forward.
2. Taking scrubs seriously. Once Devin Booker (21.5 ppg) went down, and when you add in that fact that the Suns were missing Jalen Green (15.5 ppg) and Grayson Allen (17.9 ppg) and the scoring punch was, in theory, off the floor. Collin Gillespie, Dillon Brooks and last season’s Laker fan favorite Jordan Goodwin picked up the slack and nobody on our team seemed prepared for it as we failed to apply meaningful defensive pressure to stop any of them. It’s easy to look at guys who don’t play a lot and expect them to flounder when their moment comes. Nick Smith Jr. on our own team had such a moment and went off and it’s on the staff and the team to understand that anyone can be a Nick Smith Jr. on the other team on any given night. Let a guy who doesn’t play a lot make a shot or two and suddenly you’re in for a very long night. Let three of those guys shake loose and you’ll get blown out, like we did.
3. Lakers need Gabe and LaRavia to hit shots. Especially with Smart dealing with a bad back, which can be tricky to come back quickly from the older you are (as I know from personal experience lol), our bench can fall into a very deferential style of play and just settle for the shots Luka, Reaves and LeBron can create for them. That won’t cut it all season, both LaRavia and Vincent can more aggressively hunt their own shots. LaRavia in particular needs to work on his handle because he doesn’t handle pressure well while dribbling and once he turns the ball over. Vincent seems quite content to let the play come to him on every single possession and we saw in preseason how well he can play with the ball in his hands. This needs to be addressed sooner than later, both these guys need to be averaging 10 ppg for the bench to have any relevance. Currently Jake is at 9.0 ppg and Gabe is an anemic 3.9 ppg.
4. LeBron’s streak continues. With a three in the 4th The King hit his 10 point milestone. And there was much rejoicing (yay).
5. Rui’s vanishing act. 1 shot. One. You can argue that part of the Sun’s game plan was making sure the release pass to Rui was covered by a lengthy defender at all times. You could argue that the Lakers didn’t look for Rui often enough. You could argue that Rui didn’t do much to get himself involved. You’d be right on all three. The Lakers, as a whole, don’t run nearly enough plays for their best shooter. Additionally, when the defense is keyed in on him, Rui needs to be better at adjusting his level of aggression in demanding the ball. The staff needs to recognize when the outlet pass from the drive is being covered and help make an in-game adjustment. All parties involved need to work on this because to have a weapon like Hachimura go basically un-used in a game we lost by 17 makes no sense.

With the win last night and another game tonight the Lakers are coming up to the quarter pole in full stride and have found a solid groove. By embracing the midrange and continuing to attack the paint it’s given the shooters time to find some mojo from beyond the arc in the last 3 games. At 15-4, winners of 7 in a row and cruising through an easy part of the schedule (at least records wise), the Lakers should try to pad the record during this stretch of very winnable games. The mark of a good team means taking care of business against lesser opponents and not playing to their level of talent. The mark of a great team is doing that consistently and getting some 4th quarter rest for your star players. The Lakers are making strides in both areas.

1. Luka’s overall excellence. The toned, leaner version of Luka is dominating. It’s as simple as that. Other than some missed free throws and a stretch of poor shooting from distance, there’s little to quibble about when it comes to how well Luka is playing right now. He leads the Lakers in threes (56-165, 33.9% and climbing), in defensive rebounds (Ayton has him beat 146-131 by virtue of his 47 offensive rebounds to Luka’s 13), assists, steals and triple-doubles (1). While the MVP race will likely come down to overall record it’s currently a 3 way race with Joker leading, shadowed by Shai and just behind them is Luka. It’s hard to argue against Joker’s overall dominance or Shai’s Thunder sitting atop the league with but a single loss. Luka’s just not really all that far off. Too much season to get into the weeds on this but there’s a world where, if the Lakers are 2nd in the West and LeBron doesn’t meet the 65 game threshold that voters look at Luka’s play and give him some love. We’ll see. I’m sure he’d trade an MVP for a ring, and so would I, but as long as he’s in the convo it means things are going our way more often than not.
2. Reave’s looks like he did in the first couple of weeks. I was worried that LeBron’s return would dim Austin’s impact. Turns out that was a needless worry as LeBron has morphed into the perfect off-ball teammate as if he always played this way (more on that later). After sitting out with a sore groin it took Reaves a week or so to rediscover his shooting touch and he’s pushing that 3 pt. FG% up to 36.1% in a short stretch when just last week he was down at 31.1%. He’s also embraced the midrange game where he’s starting to threaten Rui’s supremacy as he’s shooting 60.1% from inside the arc (97-149). Add in the free throws he generates on drives and his improving assist to turnover ration and it’s easy to see Reaves making his first All Star team this season.
3. DeAndre Ayton might be the perfect center for Luka and Reaves. I have to say, I am impressed with Ayton this season. He’s filling his role admirably, shooting an insane 71% (125-176) and, unlike Hayes (an equally impressive 74.5% (38-51, mostly dunks) his shot chart stretches out to 15-20 feet. He’s the third best scorer on the team, leading us in rebounds and blocks and has the kind of vibe you need on a team full of guys chasing history. That vibe is intense but fun. Loose but professional. Island time, baby. Ayton has had some rough patches to his career but it’s hard to be anything but excited about the foundation he, Luka and Reaves can provide for this franchise for the next 4-5 years.
4. LeBron James doesn’t need the ball. The King has found yet another way to dominate the NBA. This season he’s become the ultimate off ball threat using his still impressive athletic skill and talent with his beyond elite4 hoops IQ to pick perfect moments to cut, slip, and still be the primary creator/scorer when needed. He’s dribbling the lowest amount of his entire career to get his points, he’s already helped the defense, and when Luka and Reaves rest he shows us he can still be “the man”. I’ve got nothing but admiration for the guy so very many people want to pigeonhole as a social media diva. When every little gesture, tweet or press release from your agent generates bullshit article after bullshit article, mountains of meaningless drivel and clickbait, it’s so refreshing to see that LeBron had chosen all along to simply put in the time and work. Maintenance will be the big key when it comes to James. It feels unlikely he’ll get to the requisite 65 games that would allow him to qualify for end of the season awards…but I’m not comfortable counting the man out until the benchmark has come and gone. Because with LeBron you just never know.
5. Rui Hachimura. Want to talk about the secret weapon of the Los Angeles Lakers? It’s Rui Hachimura. Smooth like Jamal Wilkes, maybe too deferential but on this team I don’t see that as a negative. There are a lot of guys looking for a payday this summer, Rui is one of them. He’s leading the non-centers in both FG% (54.5%) and three point percentage (46.1%) by a country mile. He impacts winning at a high level despite a usage rate (15.9%) that’s lower than the brick laying Dalton Knecht (16.2%) and Marcus Smart (16.6%) and just north of the equally effective Jake LaRavia (15.4%). My one note for Rui would be to continue hunting his shot, backing the smaller guy into the paint and being the ultimate release valve on offense for a team that absolutely relies on that role. Rui won’t get much press, won’t win any awards, and will likely get a small raise this summer. I hope it comes from the Lakers.

In the modern NBA no lead should feel safe. Up 11 with about 4 minutes to go? Meaningless, a couple stops and a couple of threes can get the other team right back in it and ramp up the pressure. It’s why I’m still annoyed Redick bailed on the Atlanta game at the end of the 3rd quarter. That game alone could mean the difference between home court advantage in a key playoff matchup. At any rate, the team has been finding ways to win, despite the math of the modern game, although it feels pretty unsustainable. At some point the guys who need to make shots need to start making shots.

1. Laker’s three point futility and feebleness. If the name on the back of the jersey isn’t ‘Hachimura’ it’s likely you suck at shooting three’s so far in the 2025-26 Lakers season. Luka is shooting an atrocious 31.1%, Reaves is shooting an equally atrocious 31.1% and Marcus Smart is shooting a pathetic 24.2%. It would be one thing is these guys were shooting one, maybe 2 threes/game. They lead the team in attempts by a wide margin and it’s killing the offense on a nightly basis and providing a launching pad for teams to make comeback runs against us. Luka launching 11 3’s game is expected but, at the rate he’s missing, it feels like that’s unsustainable. He either needs to start making shots or adjust his attack and get closer because he’s shooting 61.4% from 2. Reaves at 7.9 (making 2.5) is a slightly less egregious offender but what makes it worse is he’s even better inside the arc than Luka is (63.1% on 2 point shots). Lastly, Smart on only 4.9 attempts (making 1/2) is even better than Doncic and Reaves inside the arc at 66.7% (add in that he’s leading the team in free throw percentage at 93.8% and his three point launching becomes even more mystifying to me). Bronny James and Jared Vanderbilt have better shooting touch from three than Smart does, so far. That’s a problem. These guys need to turn this part of their game around or make the adjustment and get aggressive driving the ball into the paint.
2. The Lakers are, once again, really good at scoring in the paint. It’s the main reason I’m befuddled as to why we shoot so many three pointers when, other than Rui, we’re not good at making them. We’re the #1 scoring team inside the arc. We’re 2nd in generating free throws (15th at making them). There needs to be an emphasis from the staff to simply let success be your guide. If the three ball is falling, by all means fire away. But consider the open space in front of you as something more than an invitation to shoot, consider it to, maybe…just maybe, be an invitation to take a step or three in and take the easier 2 point shot. Even better, drive the ball into the paint and attack the rim as much as humanly possible. It’s what makes our offense work the best because the whistles will dry up the longer the season goes.
3. The defense is nowhere close to where it needs to be. Considering our schedule it feels like we can be better. Letting inferior teams back into the game isn’t the hallmark of a great team. What I’m trying to see as a hopeful sign is how effective we are in crunch time. We’re finding a way to win despite all the early issues. The other thing I’m taking as a positive, for now, is that, regardless of the issues, we’re finding ways to win. This is important because not every game is going to be a cakewalk and having the “slog it out mentality” is one of the hallmarks of a playoff team.
4. Maxi Kleber. I like that we’re giving Maxi some early run. As an expiring contract you might as well give him a few minutes, especially early on, and see if he can drum up some mild interest. It feels like we’re a bit guard heavy, as currently built, so you can call me intrigued with any and all trade proposals built around Gabe Vincent and/or Kleber. he hasn’t scored much but he’s been solid in his minutes on D. It’s come at the cost of Vanderbilt and Knecht’s minutes (and Knecht seems to only hurt his trade value when he plays) but that was always going to happen once LeBron returned. It gives us nice option in small ball lineups, I don’t expect it to last, though. I think this is a short run for some guys and we’ll see the script flipped in a couple weeks and get more Vando and Knecht, again, unless we’re utterly balling out against quality teams.
5. The Buss Brothers. Just wanted to say thanks for all the good work Jesse and Joey did for the Lakers. it’s unfortunate that so much drama amongst the family led to them never getting a shot at running things because you can make a pretty decent argument they were the most accomplished in terms of any Buss, besides, Jeannie, in terms of what they brought to the team. They ran the scouting dept. really well and we have had a lot of late round success stories thanks to them in no small part.

Next up is a cross-town battle against the Clippers and a slew of home games. Let’s keep the party train rolling people.

The 5 game road trip is proving to be quite the bulwark for over-hyped, too-early expectations for the Lakers this season. Whether it be a “didn’t show up with the right effort” game against the injury-ravaged Hawks or a “contender vs. pretender” showdown against the Thunder, the Lakers now have a laundry list of improvements and changes to make. Sometimes you need a reality check to help you grow, this 5 gamer can hopefully be that early season checkpoint.

1. Defense. We’ve come to the point where the warts and beauty marks have all had a chance to reveal themselves. 11 games in is still the realm of “very correctable issues” but it’s also the point where habits become narrative, good and bad, The lakers currently sit 22nd in the NBA in Defensive Rating at 117.3 (that would be the number of points allowed per 100 possessions). Contrast that with the Thunder who lead the league at 104.4 and the issues of where are team is versus where they want to be start to crystalize. Some of it is still guys finding a level of trust, getting everyone “on a string” doesn’t happen overnight, or in the abridged version of modern training camp or even over the first month or so. That kind of defensive skill and execution comes from a team-wide buy-in, having the right schemes for the right guys, and having the right guys. I’m still parsing whether the Lakers are running a garbage defense, have the wrong players, or are still finding a comfort zone with one another. Likely a little of all of it.
2. Turnovers. The Lakers are also on the wrong end of being a top-five team in terms of turning the ball over sitting pretty at 25th (15.9/game). This is especially concerning when Smart (2.4) Reaves (3.3) and Luka (3.9) account for over half of those/game at 9.8 TOs/game to 20.6 assists. It’s not so much the ratio that concerns me but that the majority of errors come from our 3 best distributors. Too many home run passes instead of just moving it to the closest, easiest open man. Too many batched lobs, and just silly dribbling into the defense when there’s no seam to exploit. Again, this is hard to pinpoint on if the issue is the players tuning out what the coaches want, just not executing a good plan, or not much of a plan other than “run a screen action here or there and hope”. Likely a little of all of it and we’re not great at getting back and stopping a score as we’re 9th in allowing points off of turnovers giving up 1,403 points off of 202 turnovers which I believe comes out to about 1.4 points/possession. We score 1.16 points per possession (middle of the back) and the Nuggets and Rockets lead the league at 1.25. A Laker turnover is one of the best scoring chances a team can have.
3. Ayton starting to show his issues. This road trip has not been kind to DeAndre. He’s either not getting the ball enough (only 5 FGA’s last night and in Atlanta, a trend in losses so far) or the kind of shots they set up for him aren’t really his shots. Ayton will forever be a guy who wants to stop and make a move. He’s not leaping to the rim with gusto a la Jaxson Hayes and he’s not an offensive fulcrum like Jokic or Embiid. He’s a light version of all of that because he has range, makes the pass if one is available and has a light touch in and around the basket. He’s getting outplayed by guys who are just out-working him which needs to change. He also is a liability when the other team goes small. Something LeBron’s return will hopefully help correct. In general, we need to set him up for success in ways that better align with his true skill set and roll the dice. Forever forcing thew lob into him isn’t working very well.
4. LeBron working out with South Bay, practicing with the team. I sure hope LeBron makes his season debut when we get back home, we need him in small ball line ups at the 5 and we need him to better balance the playmaking. All signs point to him ramping it up so here’s hoping we have no set backs.
5. Oh yeah, Nico (finally) got canned. There’s a world where we still have AD, maybe he’s hurt again and maybe not. Let’s assume he doesn’t detach his retina in practice against us but, in general, counting on him was always the biggest issue. For his folly, Nico Harrison lost his job. There’s no world where the mid-30’s version of AD will ever be better than entering his prime Luka. For all the issues facing the Lakers our problems are simple when compared to Dallas. So, one last time, thanks Nico. You made Rob look competent for once.

As can often happen in the NBA, the Lakers had a Jekyll & Hyde game. The Lakers defense finally arrived in the road trip, making a rare appearance out of the locker room after halftime. Along with the return of Reaves and another stellar outing from Luka, the Lakers put together a great half of basketball to turn a close game into a solid win. The capper? LeBron has been cleared to practice with the Souty Bay Lakers in order to ramp up and get ready for his season debut.

1) Smart leading with defense. 7 steaks is getting it done. No other way to put it. Tonight was a great example of the best one can expect and hope for out of the vet. 3-7 from three (4-9 overall) with a 2-1 assist ratio is the kind of  across the board production we could use more of.

2) Return of Reaves. If it wasn’t apparent to someone last season, it should be now: the Lakers need Reaves. He creates a different type of defensive collapse than does Luka or LeBron can. He creates better lob chances because he sells harder on his drives and forces the defense to pull in faster snd harder. This either opens up a lane for a lob more effectively than it does for Luka and Ayton. He’s drawing fouls or creating quality scoring options kn his drives and it makes the offense work.

3) Luka aka The Don. While I appreciate the sentiment when people call him Luka Magic (because some of that shit is straight mystical) I prefer The Don. First there’s only one Magic (I am recalling how classy Albert Pujols was j. Rejecting all comparisons to the OG MLB Machine, Stan Musiel) but Luka had all the tricks working last night. He scored from all over snd we even got a driving dunk in the lane. The potential for him winning MVP will be one of the season’s enduring plot lines, and a lot of that will resolve based on overall record along with gaudy stat lines, but we needed this version of Doncic to right the ship.

4) Rui returns to form. He finally shot below 50% from the field in the loss, making it a key and stat to track when he got back over 50% in a win. Rui, when he’s aggressive, can completely change the offensive dynamic. When passive it allows his man both to rest in D and lowers his on-court worth. When he’s working his man down, making him defend in an island on the weak-side, he helps create the kind of matchup problems coaches live to exploit. Great bounce back game from Rui.

5) Controlling the glass. I thought the Lakers both improved from the Atlanta game and bumped the effort tip in the rebounding department in the 2nd half. When the other team wants to play more quickly than you, you need to both limit their chances by grabbing defensive rebounds and limit the leak outs in defensive rebounds. The team did well as a collective with Hayes and a Knecht adding 5 boards each off the bench. Good stuff and it’s a battle we need to at least be close in every night.

5 Things: Birthday BlueAll I wanted for my birthday , the only thing I asked for, was a Lakers win. That went ‘poor’ roughly 5 minutes into the 1st quarter as the Lakers no-showed the first of their 5 game road trip.

1) Can’t blame travel. The Lakers arrived in Atlanta the day before the game. So, while I’m sure they weren’t fully acclimated to the time, it’s not like the game in Portland where they arrived in the dead of night.

2) No defense. Not sure what the coaches laid out in terms of stopping Atlanta but it didn’t work and wasn’t well-executed. Atlanta hot what they wanted, when they wanted, how they wanted. There was not much positive to illustrate on the defensive end.

3) The other side of the Nick Smith Jr. coin. I’m always rooting for two-ways and young players in general. It takes a lot just to stick in the NBA. We saw the best version of Nick in Portland and, what I hope, the worst version in Atlanta. The problem I had with Nick’s game last night was two-fold: indecision and then a loss of aggression due to not hitting shots. Strategically m, his herky-jerky quickness is his greatest strength. Why then lay back after setting a screen and you get the ball while the defense resets? Time after time in the first half Smith got the rock and stopped. Waiting…thinking…and the hole that had been for a split second closed and he chose to then attack a set defense with multiple players between him and an easy scoring chance.  Nick needs to speed up his decision making process if he wants to find a consistent role in the NBA.

4) Bronny, Vando and Knecht played pretty well.  It would have been nice to see those 3 alongside Luka and Ayton, maybe Hayes to match speed and length with speed and length in the 4th to see if we could have made it game but the coach folded in the 3rd and got pouty. Which is too bad because that trio played hard and deserved as much of a shot to try and pull out a win as any other line up we could put out there.

5) Redick’s regression. If you watched his post game news conference Redick looked, sounded and acted like a kid pissy about his bed time. This is, by far, my biggest issue with our coach (besides no discernible offensive schemes other than give a good player the ball and hope, much like his predecessor Coach Darvin Ham). As an NBA coach your role has changed into general organization of team concepts, inspirational leader and bridge to improvement. Gone are the voluminous playbook days and most teams just run the same basic idea of a play over and over and over. The teams that don’t now generally feel the wrath and petulance of a star player (ask Memphis). But what you have to do, unless you have earned the right to do behave otherwise, I’d keep your cool. Just like he’d ask his players to do. Throwing in the towel in the 3rd quarter when you’re down 20 is not an acceptable answer to any NBA-sized problem. It just shows how not ready you are to handle pressure. Follow that up with a terse, bratty post game interview and it just confirms that view. This is not about the regular season, this is about the playoffs. We’ve seen similar extreme swings from Coach in the playoffs when he played one lineup 24 straight minutes (lost that one, too) and my hope is that LeBron or another person in the organization can get him to understand just how counter-productive this kind of behavior is to his goal. You’re not going to embarrass your team into playing better, not at this level. This is how you lose a super star player or, worse, a team. When I talk about variance, this is my big problem with JJ. He has coaching swings like a two-way player and it never is a good look for him, the team or the record. Just own up to not having the team ready, flush it and move in. Acting like a spoiled brat gets you nowhere.