With the news that AD is out for a minimum of 4 weeks I thought it worthwhile to look at the overall state of the team rather than rehash the latest loss to the Bulls. In general, this season, like last, is being defined more by who isn’t playing rather than who is. Be it injury, COVID, wanting to be traded or anti-vaxx stances the players that haven’t played this season have garnered as many headlines as the ones who have suited up. All of this has impacted the Lakers in one way or another so let’s dig in. At least 2021 is at an end.

1. The Lakerteers. Russ, AD, and LBJ have played 13 games as a unit and that trend of one or more of them missing will do nothing but continue due to AD’s knee injury. If we’re lucky he’ll be the only one that misses extended time but let’s face it: LeBron has entered a fairly injury-prone era of his career missing several games already due to various, and differing, injuries. Russ has been the most consistent of the three and his play has steadily improved. AD started strong but has really fallen off after lower leg injuries seemed to sap him of his ability to hit the outside shot that made him such a deadly player early in his career. He compensated by scoring inside more but with him being out for 4, or more, weeks what was already a small team got smaller. If LeBron and Russ can both stay on the floor, elevate the role-players to a decent level and share the ball properly I think we’ll stick in the 8-5 range of seeding but if they struggle to blend or the guys brought in to do a specific job don’t get it done we could see a Laker team loaded with HOF, top 75 All Timers, numerous All NBA this or that’s, MVPs, DPOY, ROY and so on have to play in to get to the playoffs.
2. The role-players. There’s no way to sugar coat, the Laker struggle to find the right blend of role-players to slot in around AD and James. Adding Russ only seems to have exacerbated that issue which is just another reason it’s mystifying to me that we let Caruso, who had proven he could fit in on a team like this, walk. Regardless, what we have now is a collection of aged vets and young up and comers with the tilt leaning heavily on the aged-vet side. Gone are the elite role guys we saw in the Bubble like Green, Kuzma, KCP, Caruso, and locker-room stabilizer Jared Dudley. Much has been made out of who has left the building but we really need to figure out how to elevate the guys in it now because help is definitely not on the way. Unless you count G-Leaguers or over-seas vets earning a dime as help. I do not. IT has shown he can still score in addition to showing that he will never be a plus defender on any team in the NBA going forward. His lack of size and steps lost in addition to it never really being a strong aspect of his game means he will struggle. Why we chose IT over James Ennis, a SF, will be yet another mystifying aspect of this season. One that has seen Rob Pelinka consistently choose the older player who requires more of the ball and/or a VERY specific role for said players for them to be most effective. The Laker role-players have struggled a lot this season as they have lacked for exposure as to how our Big Three function which has trickled down to very uneven play across the board.
3. COVID season 2.-uhm…no. The NBA will not be postponing anything unless the Federal government steps in and starts issuing shelter i place edicts or some such. There will be no Bubble playoffs, we will have travel and really the only question is to what degree do the NBPU and the NBA board of governors and owners disagree on vaxx mandates. If we continue to sieve players like we have been and we get what amounts to a replacement league season just without a lockout one has to imagine the topic of mandatory full vaccinations and boosters will at least get floated and looked at. Yes, there will be some hue and cry from the players but ultimately the things that they work for the most: the ability to earn money on the open market, legacies and rings, will win out. Sure, we might lose Kyrie for the season. But the latest tweak to both how replacement players affect the salary cap and the insistence that enough players be signed who can suit up rather than postponing a number of games or shutting down for a short time tells you all you need to know about the League’s stance on another semi-shut down: Hell no.
4. Help on the way? Unlikely. because of injury, COVID, contract rigmarole and poor play in general it’s pretty safe to say the Lakers do not have the assets to swing a big trade that would end up being favorable to them. Frankly, I don’t see a move the Lakers can make won’t amount to essentially admitting this season was a disaster from the start, a PR nightmare I believe the front office is very keen on avoiding. AT this point they have so many baked-in excuses as to why the team has struggled as much as it has (injuries to stars, injuries to young players, injuries to key players, injuries in general, COVID, fake COVID, time needed to gel when no time is available and so on) that it almost makes sense for them to move forward as is and hope for the best. The only tradable contracts are Nunn and THT. Toss in a vet minimum player that couldn’t find a better deal elsewhere to start the season and that’s the package we have to offer. Underwhelming seems a kind term, really. Unless you want to see John Wall or maybe Kemba Walker manning the point you can throw out any and all Russ trades, I don’t care how the trade machine works it out. If Philly was interested it would only be to toss us bad deals in the form of more players added for a Ben Simmons deal and frankly we can’t offer them a pick until almost the next decade unless we involve the draft pick Godfather Sam Presti in OKC. This amounts to gutting the team in mid-January which will also not likely be happening. Is there a team that views Westbrook as the missing piece to a title? Maybe, but it’s a lot more likely that he gets traded this summer if that’s the case when his deal is expiring and the Lakers are over a barrel with cap issues, again. Why help the Lakers now if you know Westbrook can be had this summer as an expiring along with likely coercing Pelinka into tossing in THT anyhow and the 2027 1st rounder when it’s that much closer? SO I don’t see any trade other than something more minor, possibly with the Kings or Pacers, but even those teams can likely get better picks somehow and will covet said asset.
5. Thankfully the western conference is kind of a mess this season. The top 3 spots are locked in between the Warriors, Suns and Jazz. Memphis…without Ja Morant who is back…has started separating themselves from the pack, as well at 19-13. After that it’s a jumble of .500-ish teams with injury or roster issues as bad as ours. SO 5th seems to me to be the highest seeding we can hope for given everything above. TO date our only consistent aspect of the team is it’s inconsistencies. Being slow, small and old is not generally a recipe for success in the NBA and yet that’s the very team we have assembled. That being the case we desperately need Frank and Co. to figure some things out better, especially on defense. We also need lady luck to blow some wind our way on the injury front in the form of a quick recovery for AD, no more COVID games missed, and fewer injuries in general. Also, we need to get Nunn on the floor at some point since he is now the only Laker signed this summer who has yet to play in the regular season.

The Lakers face the Suns, with Book, and I think we’ll be right back at .500 after tonight with a 16-16 record. The Suns are rolling the way the Lakers were after losing to the Celtics way back in ’07 – ’08. Determined. Focused. Good. In all reality we could close out the year on a multi-game losing streak unless we manage to beat Houston or San Antonio. If we kick off 2022 looking up at most of the western conference expect all the hot coaching seat noise, trade rumors and overall malaise around the team to deepen if not get worse. We can do better than that, it’s just nigh-impossible to expect this team to turn the corner given all that ails it at this point.

It took not 1 but 2 last second shots for the Lakers to overcome the short-handed Dallas Mavericks but overcome they did. With Wayne Ellington forcing overtime off of a broken play where the loose ball came to him when it looked like the Mavs had won to Austin Reaves canning a three while getting no-call fouled the Lakers showed a lot of grit in pulling out the win last night. While one of it was very pretty at the end of the season that W will look a lot like all the other ones.

1. The Three Lakerteers. Last night saw one of the more balanced outings from the Lakers superstar trio. They shot the ball about equally (AD-18, Russ-18, LBJ-19), scored pretty equally (AD-20, Russ-23, LBJ-24) and played about the same number of minutes (AD-39, Russ-42, LBJ-43). In a game where LeBron was pretty focused on getting his own scoring going, AD was knocking off some rust after sitting out for a little over a week and Russ continued his integration process this was a nice game for the Laker big three.
2. Wayne Ellington’s big bucket. It’s easy to forget that Ellington’s clutch shot off a totally broken up play sent the game into overtime because of what came next. But Wayne was much a hero as any Laker last night with 9 points (3-9 from three, no two pointers) and some solid defense (3 steals). Wayne has upped his defensive intensity over the last week or so and it’s paying off. He was a starter last night and was on the floor for most of the 4th and OT when the game hung in the balance. While it’ll take a lot more defense to shake his gunner legacy Wayne has been putting in work on the right end of the court for this team to have success.
3. Austin Reaves big bucket. For me the biggest aspect of that shot wasn’t that he took it and made it (when you get the ball with 1 second left you better shoot or you probably don’t belong in an NBA uniform) but that it came after an on-court dressing down from LeBron about a blown defensive assignment. The rookie stuck with it, stayed within his game, and knocked down the winning three much to Mark Cuban’s disbelief. Reaves is going to have plenty of growing pains (as the dressing down regarding his defense indicates) but he seems like a hard-worker who soaks up what he’s taught. Keep that mentality and good things will come of it.
4. 3 game winning streak and a .500 road record. There will be nothing historic about this Laker regular season in terms of team victories, records or streaks. Steady progress and growth should be enough for these guys to be ready for the playoffs if everyone can stay healthy (a seeming impossibility but more on that later) and if that road can be navigated successfully we’ll be good come May. The Lakers didn’t give up an absurd number of points in the paint (although early on it looked like we might but they turned the screws a bit and tightened it up) or too many free throws or threes. Some of that was the Mavs missing shots and some was good D but the manner in which the results were achieved is slowly becoming inconsequential as long as we keep pace with the middle of the pack while learning on the fly.
5. More guys out for tomorrow. With Russ and Bradley being added to the growing list of players who are out due to the league’s health and safety protocols the Lakers will need more from LeBron, AD, Reaves and whomever else can suit up. Also, welcome back Mr. Isaiah Thomas! A name that has been consistently dangled in front of Laker fans IT is returning to lend whatever help he can. While it’s a ten day deal and will only last until someone else can play it’s always nice to see someone get a second chance and see what they can do with it. Here’s hoping IT proves the doubters wrong and finds a way to stick in the NBA. Like Boogie, serious injuries with terrible timing have derailed his career.

The Lakers are holding onto 6th place in the west and are starting to get a little separation between themselves and the lower tier teams in the western conference. 6 or higher is a must for an aged team like the Lakers. the more rest and fewer games played the better, especially games like the play-ins. So the Lakers need to keep growing, improving and staying afloat for a few more months. With a little luck (which seems in short supply) they’ll do just that.

It’s no mistake that I didn’t do a 5er after the win over Boston. I was excited, I was pumped, I was stoked because for a few moments I thought “we’re turning a corner here!”. Then I remembered how the only consistency thus far for the Lakers has been inconsistency. So I waited a game to see if we would play the way we did against Boston or continue our Paula Abdul “Opposite’s Attract” theme by taking a step forward followed by a step back.

Cue the Cat:

1. LeBron’s declining impact. I’m not wondering anymore, it’s here. The decline has begun and you see it in the pace we play (something that can be traced back to the post-groin injury in year 1), his shot selection (weighted more and more towards the 3 point line, and in how he finishes or rather how he doesn’t. It’s early-ish but The King is on pace to shoot, by far, the most threes/game of his career. 40.6% of his shots are from beyond the arc but 54..9 % of his points are of the 2 point variety. In short, the King is settling for threes. Often after dribbling out the shot clock. No offense to one of the greatest to ever play but is the definition of bad basketball. If it holds up over the course of the season his 8 3PT FGA/game would represent a career high (one which he set 2 season’s ago at 6.3 and replicated, exactly, last season) but he’s only making 2.6/game for a mediocre 33%. It’s showing a lot in his rebounding which is currently 5.9/game (rookie season is his career low at 5.5 other than then and now no season where he averaged fewer than 6+). He’s also picking up more fouls than he generally does. Some of this are his minutes at center, I would imagine. That being the primary defender in the paint, having to rotate out onto guys on defense rather than hiding on a dude in the corner is sapping him of valuable energy. Look, the man is 36 years old, this was always going to happen, and the Lakers are simply ill-equipped to absorb an ever-aging LeBron on this roster. We have almost no up-and-coming talent; no offense to THT but we’re basically hoping he tops out at KCP level impact if one is being realistic. Russ has been doing his best for the most part, but there is simply no replacing what LeBron brings. Could some of this be alleviated by pulling him out of the center rotation? I’m not so sure. Age has a way of just affecting everything. It may be that he’s working his way into game-level conditioning which, if so, means there are better days to come. I sure hope it’s the last point otherwise the rest of the points below don’t really matter.
2. Anthony Davis has to figure out how to be dominant every game. Watch tape of Shaq, dude. Nobody got beat up more in the post but still brought it hard every single night like Shaquille O’Neal. It’s not like AD has been playing poorly, he’s been fine. But with roughly a 1/3 of the Lakers cap space occupied by his salary and given LeBron’s decline we need him to be more than he’s been on a nightly basis. We need more than fine. We need 30 points a game and 10 rebounds and that’s all there is to it. Be a champ on D, sure, hold guys accountable and thank you for doing so, but we need you to be the difference-maker on offense we all know you can be. AD is, again, not really in the MVP conversation. If he can average 30 and 10 he will be and he needs to get on that ASAP or, frankly, the season is done. Russ and LeBron with the rest of this team is not enough to win a title with AD playing a side-kick role. Time to put on the super suit and take to the air, Mr. Davis, the hopes and dreams of Laker Nation are counting on it.
3. We need one dominant quarter from Russ/game. There should never be a game where THT takes more shots than Russell Westbrook does. Russ had scored all of his 9 points in the first half and was largely shut down after that by…himself. 4 shots in the second half. I didn’t see the Grizz scheming for him to not get the ball or aggressively doubling him when he drove. He just kind of took himself out of the game. Again, as a player that roughly 1/3 of the Laker salary cap is dedicated to that simply doesn’t cut it. We absolutely need Russ to p0ut the kind of pressure on the defense that he is still capable of doing. That means more than 9 FGA. That means capping the turnovers at 3/game (he had 6 last night and half of those were just him losing the ball all on his own). Russ is the wild card superstar as he can turn a competitive game into a blowout but can’t seem to be the one that helps the team win on a consistent basis.
4. The rest of the team. I mean…we’re old, man. Outside of Monk and THT (and Nunn who has yet to play and Reaves who is a rookie) there’s not an impact player on the roster under 30. So, with that in mind, it’s small surprise we have trouble staying in front of guys and defending at a level we’d become accustomed to as Laker fans. They all score in ways relative to their roles and they’re doing fine at it with nobody really distinguishing themselves from the rest in terms of consistency or impact. if anything the only thing that’s certain is Monk is our best young player to date passing THT fairly easily. THT still seems to be the apple of the organization’s eye but one has to wonder how long that will continue. Asking more of the role guys is pretty absurd, as well. They don’t bring the ball up, they’re taking up a 1/3 of our cap space each and they weren’t brought here to do that. They take the shots they get, they play defense the best they can in our system. They collect that vet minimum paycheck. Also, hoping Ariza and/or Nunn will drastically change any of this point is fool hardy. Ariza is one of 3 36 year olds on the roster and Nunn hasn’t played in months. Both of them will need practice, game reps and time to get to even so, hopefully they’re contributing come the ASB…depending on if they’re even playing by then.
5. Frank needs to…oh wait, Frank has already changed everything like three times. You can’t coach around age. It is impossible. We play at the slowest pace, with Russ on the squad. We waste entire possessions watching LeBron James dribble and heave. Frank isn’t going to talk LeBron into turning back the clock to 2011. We’ve seen Frank go from one kind of line up to another, from man defense to switching to whatever it is we try in this game or that. As a coach he certainly has limitations but he is also quite open to trying whatever works. The issue being that, because of the duality of the team he was given, it’s overall age and lack of size this is the best he can do. He can’t coach around shrimpy players or aged vets. The irony being that Frank will also be the one to go first because that’s just how it works in pro sport. Coach gets fired, GM next, then players get shipped.

Look, it’s not all doom and gloom. We’re still 6th in the west with teams like the Clippers, Nuggets, Mavericks and Trailblazers all under-performing, as well. If we can shake off our habit of playing .500 ball we can certainly get up to 4th and have home court advantage in the first round while avoiding the play-in. Our longest winning streak this season is 3. Our longest losing streak is also 3. So if LeBron can turn back the clock just a tiny bit, Russ figures how to dominate one quarter/game and AD plays at a close to MVP level we’ll be OK. Maybe not win a title but certainly be more enjoyable to watch. As it all currently strands there’s no way we get past the Warriors or Suns in the west. It ain’t happening, we simply lack in too many areas that they excel in.

The Lakers fell to the Clippers with the usual suspects leading the way: defensive let downs, missed free throws and a shaky offensive identity. While the Lakers did do a decent job containing Paul Heorge they let the rest of the Clippers get pretty much whatever they wanted.

1. Too much LeBron, not enough AD and Russ. LeBron had a subpar game shooting-wise. I’m not sure if he was forcing his own action in lieu of going to Russ or AD more butane. We don’t diversify our already simplistic offense we become extremely predictable.
2. Missed Free Throws rear their heads, again.Ninsokution to this other than AD needs to recapture the form he had Laker year 1. Since then he’s been a 70%er and his outside shot has been mostly MIA. I’m sure it’s all still in there he just needs to bring his complete game more consistently.
3. I’m not freaking out about the starters. We only have so many tools in the shed. Few of them are defenders. Most of them are floor spacers and old. This is mostly on the front office and ownership as they had a chance to retain Caruso who hit threes and defended well. I think that until Nunn. Ones back we’ll see Bradley start because you do need someone to come off the bench and score and Monk has been good at that. I also don’t see a trade where we bring in anplayerbthat surpasses what we would have to send out. A lot of this is on Frank and Co. to squeeze more blood from the rock.
4. Waive DeAndre Jordan and pick up James Ennius. There’s not enough time for Frank to tinker and daydream about which big man is the better one. It’s Dwight by a country mile, we need him to play 15-20 mpg and we need another wing defender like now. DAJ is the only true flotsam we have, let him drift on down the river.
5. The time for mucking about and fiddling with line ups ha well -passed. We know Melo and Monk work well off the bench, leave it alone until the playoffs. We know that we want to start a big, make it Dwight and leave it alone. That leaves deciding between THT and Bradley who ought to start. Choose one and let it ride. At this point it’s shaping up to be the mosh mosh of line ups we saw last season and that doesn’t bode well. Find something that works and the. Build it up but stop with the DNP-CD to “hey want to play like the whole game!’ BS. It’s not helping anyone.

Had to do this 5er from the phone in various locals so likely some spelling errors or poor grammar, my apologies. Need to string something together or this season will be defined for all it wasn’t as opposed to all it was.

It started like so very many Laker games have started this season. Easy buckets, poor transition D, offense that looks rudimentary and general malaise about the team. The Lakers seesawed back and forth with the Kings in the first half and would get within five before watching the Kings run out to a 12 point lead before the half. Then Malik Monk made a three point shot at the buzzer to close the first half. It all turned around after that.

1. Dwight Howard’s impact. This game is a perfect example of why I favor playing Dwight over DeAndre in just about every conceivable situation. His energy is better, he knows the frank Vogel defense inside and out, he compliments AD better and he’s never afraid to mix it up down low. If we are going to play a big is simply has to be Dwight and the arguments against are paltry and flimsy, at best. Dwight’s stat line won’t be going in any record books (12 points, most of those in the first half to help keep us close, 13 Union man rebounds with 5 coming on the offensive glass, 2 steals and 2 blocks) but his effort and intensity are what we need as much as his production. Unleash Dwight, Frank, you know you want to.
2. Malik Monk proving his worth and earning his role. Monk hit 6 of 10 threes, accounting for over half of the team makes from distance, played pretty solid defense and continues to be a solid guy to have on the team. If he plays like this all season he’ll likely play his way right off of our team and I, for one, hope he does. We need this kind of impact from someone other than the big three and after THT went out with a leg injury in the first half Monk really shined. His three to close the half started a Laker run that basically went on throughout the rest of the game. He isn’t just a three point specialist, either, Monk can get to the rim, score in the paint and make plays for others. Monk was stellar off the bench for the Lakers last night.
3. Laker bench showed up big. 58 points were put up by the Laker bench and that wasn’t the best stat, in my opinion. The bench also nabbed 30 rebounds and were a huge factor in a game that actually saw AD and Russ sitting on the bench in a win to end the game. I’m not sure that’s happened yet this season, if it has it hasn’t been often enough. The bench came to play, and we need it happen a lot more often.
4. AD and Russ leading the way, of course. Anthony was solid throughout the game, scoring more in and around the paint as has been his way this season. I’m all for it. Yes, he can stretch the floor and of course his three point shot is a weapon. There is just so much more to his game than that and when he relegates himself to spot up shooter or stands around on the perimeter our team suffers for it. Westbrook started slow and got hot to start the second half. While not his best shooting night (some of that due to questionable non-calls) we needed these guys to step up and play large with LBJ going into the NBA health and safety protocols for a minimum of 10 days.
5. 65-26 run to take control of the game, outscored the Kings 67-33 in the second half. The saying “A tale of 2 halves” is a common one and it certainly applied here tonight. The Lakers utterly dominated the second half tonight and hopefully this signals the end of our terrible third quarters. While it’s nice to see consistent effort and great production in every quarter if we have to choose one area to dominate in I will take the second half every time. You can’t win a game in any half, it’s a slow build to a finale’. But if you’re going to have a dominant stretch I feel like the second half is the place to make it happen.
   
   All in all, a solid win. Something to build on in terms of the defensive intensity in the second half. Beating a team we should beat in a convincing fashion is certainly something to carry forward. The next 5 games can really help to turn the narrative and the season around. It’s unlikely LeBron plays in any of them except for, maybe, the 5th as the King has 9 days, minimum, remaining in NBA H&SP. The Lakers have all the tools they need to start to turn this around and redefine a season that has, thus far, been defined for the things they lack rather than the weapons they have. Time to turn the beat around. Go Lakers!
   

This team isn’t going to make it easy, it would seem. Even when we get a big lead against a team we should manhandle we seem determined to let them back into the game. Whether it be sloppy execution, poor D, or a lackadaisical attitude in general this incarnation of Laker basketball lacks a killer instinct. It may come back to bite them but there’s fading hope it will change. After all, you are what you is.

1. Lotta donuts. Avery Bradley and Melo both put up scoring zeroes. Both added something to the box score but starters need to bring more and Melo is our best scorer off the bench. Against the woebegone Pistons who struggle nightly to score 100 points it ended up not resulting in a loss, however for a team that could use an easy win or three it only added to the rep of a team with banner aspirations playing down to inferior opponents. It wouldn’t hurt for us to be able to rest our star players in the 4th, either, as LeBron’s re-aggravated abdominal strain shows. It’d be nice to beat up on teams we should beat up on.
2. Lakers three point shooting remains an issue. The guy taking the most is the guy we want attacking the basket (LeBron) and the guys we brought in are either getting a low amount of shots and/or missing them in bunches. Last night saw the following players go 0-fer from three: Bradley, Melo, and Monk. Key reserves Ellington (1-3) and THT (1-4) made one but this isn’t a recipe for continued success against most teams in the NBA. AD has been so bad (20.5% for the season after last night, around 16% prior to) he’s taking more shots in the paint than ever. Again, no easy answer presents itself as the issue seems to be that LeBron would rather take threes than create them for guys like Ellington, Monk and so on. In some ways that makes sense since LeBron is one of three guys whom most of our cap is dedicated to. In reality I think the team would function better if all the tools were used to the best of their capabilities. Hopefully this works itself out over the course of the season but, so far, there isn’t a lot of evidence to support that notion.
3. Credit that Detroit Piston free throw defense. I kid, but LeBron and Russ need to be better. LeBron and Russ missed key free throws in the triple overtime loss to the Kings, and again missed key free throws down the stretch that could have helped us pull away earlier. We breathe life into teams in so many ways we have to look to cut down in some area or another and free throws seem the likeliest place to start. It’s nice we’re getting to the line more, but we need to make them for it to matter.
4. Small line ups score a little better, get killed on the boards. As Frank continues what one now has to assume will be a mostly season-long experiment we saw what was the only DeAndre Jordan at center line up. other than DAJ it was AD and LeBron manning the center position. In his 21 minutes Jordan managed only 6 rebounds and as a team we got killed on the boards 53-42 with the Pistons grabbing 12 offensive rebounds. This is unsustainable, especially against teams with true centers and a crash the glass mentality. We don’t box out, we don’t jump for rebounds, we simply stand there and hope. My biggest issue with LeBron at center with a bunch of guards isn’t the defense it’s the rebounding. Russ can’t do it all, somebody has to figure out what the phrase “put a body on him” means and box the hell out. Getting killed on the glass has become yet another constant issue in just about every game we play. More oxygen for inferior teams.
5. The ball was moving though! One super positive in my opinion was the 32 assists and the fact that all three superstars had solid and efficient games. This wasn’t a win to celebrate by any means, we should have beaten Detroit even more than we did. But when something goes right it starts to feel like you have to mention it since so little has thus far. So, in the spirit of that, the ball movement was exceptional last night. Also, Russ, LeBron and AD all had solid games without getting in one another’s way. So, if this si something sustainable and can be built upon I’ll take it.

The good thing is that rest of the west is kind of a mess, too. We’re lucky that Denver is this season’s walking wounded team, that Portland didn’t find new fire under Chauncy Billups and that teams slated to be rebuilding teams have, for the most part, played like that. We’re 6th in the west and we need to solidify that spot and look to push our way past the Clippers in the coming games. If we can fight our way into a top 4 seed by the All Star break and stabilize the ship I feel like we’ll be alright. If we keep up with this up and down play, stay around .500 we’re just as likely to have to go the play-in route, again. Nobody wants that.

Too little, too late. After digging themselves into a 25 point hole the Lakers came all the way back to tie the game in the 4th quarter only to see it ultimately slip away. Once our again our 4th quarter execution looked more frenzied than focused and our defense wasn’t able to get the job done early. All in all the loss to the Knicks guaranteed that the road trip will be one with a losing record and tonight the Lakers are trying to avoid going 1-4 on the 5 game roadie.

1. If only we were fixing holes and cracks but it really feels like this team is treading water on a nightly basis. The injuries, new personnel, new offensive system and the new roles for AD and LBJ are all tough orders in the shortened training camp era and for Frank to have seamlessly implemented and integrated all those things off the bat would have been amazing. I’d settle for just one of those things above working and, really, none of them are, yet. Hard to see how it gets better other than from within. Had we changed LeBron and AD’s roles alone, kept most of the roster, that feels like it would have been an easy integration for the core squad from last season to adapt to. However we instead brought in 11 new faces, one a ball dominant guard, so that added a wrinkle to everything in that while AD and LBJ were learning their new roles at their new positions they also have to learn how to get the most out of an entirely new roster. Adding Russ in and of itself wouldn’t have been such a slog but then Frank also added a new offense so not only are Russ, AD and LeBron adjusting to one another, new roles, new teammates they’re also learning a new way to score. Then came the injuries. While not an excuse, it feels like the Lakers chose the most difficult path to get back to title contention they possibly could have.
2. That first quarter… The one thing this team does consistently is give up big quarters to, well, just about any team. Sometimes it’s the 3rd, it’s also happened in the 4th, last night happened to be to open the game. Regardless, no matter the opponent, the Lakers have a rep already of giving up 30+ point quarters and they usually come when we can’t throw it in the ocean. I don’t know what to say about this anymore, we seem to lose our focus and execution for a solid 10-15 minutes/game. If this trend continues it will be the defining characteristic to this Laker team as it makes it almost impossible to find a way to win consistently if you’re in the habit of giving up 1 monster quarter/game.
3. THT needs to find something that works consistently. We got a donut from THT last night and, if he’s going to be the starter and we’re going to see less of Kent Bazemore who is the better defender, he needs to bring a lot more on both ends. He was totally ineffective and had one of his most unproductive outings to date as he missed every shot he took, didn’t get to the line, and led the team with a -18 +/-. While some of that are the lineups he plays with but, as a starter, he needs to be a lot more consistent.
4. Lakers 3 point shooting woes continue. Other than Westbrook (3-6) and AD (1-2) the Lakers struggled mightily from three. It wasn’t like the Knicks shut us down, we just missed shots and a decent number of those came in the final five minutes of the game when any kind of score would have helped but empty possessions guaranteed the loss. I get it, the modern NBA is infatuated with the three point shot, 3 points is worth more than 2, and so on. the name of the game is still who ash the most points on the board, regardless of where they came from. When you have a player like AD and Russ it’s astounding to me we don’t run late-game offense through them more adeptly. Our late-game offense has consisted far too much of the laziest shot in basketball: the early shot clock three. Had we gotten a bucket or two from down low, run something through AD on the block I think we would have generated much higher quality shot attempts. For the Lakers I do not believe the answer lies solely in more, or volume, but in being diligent in ensuring the quality of the three point shot is high. That means doing more than passing the ball once or twice around the horn and jacking it up. That’s lazy basketball, not winning basketball.
5. Hey, we’re valuing the ball, though! Take away that first quarter and the Lakers would have had fewer than 10 turnovers last night. You can’t do that, though, and so we still ended up with a very manageable 12. That, beyond anything else, was what helped us claw our back into this game. That and a tighter defensive execution scheme in regards to our zone. Keeping turnovers low with Russ (2nd in the league currently in terms of turnovers/game) and LeBron (averages a round 5/game for his career) is a key to us winning consistently. Happy to see that the team is trying to at least create shots every time down and not coughing it up. Clean up a few more of those and we’re on our way in terms of getting the most out of time with the rock.

The bets we can hope is to come home a .500 team 20 games into the season. The trends are plain for all to see: play down to opponents, give up one monster quarter/game, lack of focus or intensity overall, especially on defense. LeBron coming back or trading for player X might help a little but we’re still a couple weeks away from even being able to trade guys we signed over the summer. Plus, THT has been pretty inconsistent thus far and I have a hard time seeing a team giving up an impact player for a project at his price. Lakers need to find the solution from within and the sooner the better.

Almost 17 years to the day was the infamous Malice at the Palace the Lakers and Pistons got together for an impromptu, unscheduled, old-timey re-enactment. While last night didn’t turn into a “one player against the world” kind of thing it was, by far, the most intense on-court brawl in a long time. At the time the Lakers were down and sinking fast. The Pistons came out after the scrum and scored the first bucket for a 17 point lead. Everything started to change after that and hopefully it’s a change for the better and on a permanent basis.

1. The LeBron James question. Both in the national media and on our Gerald Glassford’s Lakers Fast Break podcast the question has been raised: is Father Tim finally sinking it’s claws into LeBron James. The question is legit as James has been dealing with an abdominal strain that took an extended amount of time off the court to heal, and even when he did play nearly half his shots were from three point land. I actually thought the beginning of the Pistons game showed us that the true LeBron remains. While he was getting hit and slapped on a bunch of his drives he was more balanced in his shot repertoire. 1-3 from three but also three shots in the paint with one midrange step back that he drilled. I am of the opinion that James still has something in the tank and that he’s easing his way into the regular season. This is not only common for players his age who generally play more of a role than lead but it’s been LeBron’s traditional approach for some seasons now. The King will be fine if he can avoid contact injuries and get time on the court with the team. Now, he may end up getting a suspension as a result of his retaliation but that’s up to the League office.
2. Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook found a way. It sure wasn’t pretty but wrestling with a pig never is. Let’s be honest, Detroit’s plan was to junk up the game from the start and the number of free throws shot, the fight that added a 15 minute delay, and the overall feel of the game. Detroit has never been known to field a finesse team, it’s just not in the state of Michigan’s DNA. Piston teams are hard-driving, gritty and play in your grill. It’s why players like Bill Laimbeer and “Big” Ben Wallace are revered there to the degree they are. It took the best quarter of Russ as a Laker and a return to form for AD to pull this one out. Davis swatted 5 shots, Russ started attacking with the purpose to score and not figure it out in mid air. They both played like the superstars they are and we need them to be to have a shot. Davis shot 4-4 in the final frame and was stellar on defense overall. Russ carried the load offensively shaking loose for 15 points. Both guys found each other repeatedly for baskets down the stretch. This is how they have to play all the time, every game. With that intensity and fervor.
3. Carmelo shaking off his road woes. it’s no secret that Melo has mostly struggled on the road. Outside of his game against Boston where he wasn’t much involved but shot well, his road splits have been awful. Last night he came up huge on both ends in the 4th quarter with some aggressive close outs, his shooting and his overall presence which is still one of elite NBA pedigree. While he may not be the Melo of old, he has a ton left in the tank and the young guys react to that in a positive way. Melo is going to be a big part of this team’s successes and it’s been a thrill to watch. I’ve always loved me some Carmelo.
4. Dwight Howard’s monster 13 minutes. We lose this game without Dwight. He was the only one who, early on, rose to the level of physicality that Detroit was playing with. He wasn’t part of an effective unit but he played with the kind of focus and intensity this game required when he was out there. Oh, and he hit 2 threes within the flow of the offense. One to close out the first half as time expired. Clutch.
5. The gritty stats. While we can once again point to a plethora of first half issues defensively we still found a way to win. We outrebounded Detroit by a decent margin (51-39), and did a great job on the offensive glass with 12 boards there (4 of those by DAJ who got the start). Kept the turnovers low when they had crept up early, our defense in the 4th quarter is something I’d like to bottle and save for every single game from here on out and, in general, we found the right kind of hustle this team needs to play with. They stopped relying on talent, stopped begging the refs to bail them out and simply played harder down the stretch for a potentially season-saving and job-saving win. Had we lost (and should we lose either of the next 2 games on the schedule) this will be a losing road trip and ensure we come back no better than .500. Win these next 2 games and everything starts to look a little better: 11-9 with a .500 road record. While not elite, that works for a team that is still figuring out a lot of different things on the fly and waiting for key guys to get back.

The main thing for the Lakers is to avoid the play in which means a top 6 seeding. 4 or higher would be nice but it’s already looking like 1-3 are going to go to Golden State, Phoenix and Utah in some order or another. That means we have to knock one of Dallas, Denver or the Clippers out of the top 6. With 64 games left that seems doable. Who knows with some injury luck on our end and something unexpected happening to one of those 6 teams there is still more than enough time in the season to make a serious move up the standings. I think the team has enough as-is to compete for the title. If we do make a move it feels like this team plays better with a traditional big man, at least to start halves and play spot minutes leading up to crunch time so I would hope that we’d acquire a player to fill that role rather than split it up between Dwight and DAJ. Heck, one potential solution in my mind is to actually try starting Dwight and letting him play 20+ MPG and DAJ is there in case of foul trouble. Super Man has shown he can hit the three, after all.