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

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

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

The patient isn’t well. There are, literally, almost zero excuses left. The Lakers entered a crucial stretch of 4 games against sub .500 opponents and won…one game of the four. This has dropped them into a three way tie for 6th along with the Mavs (who own the tiebreaker) and the Trailblazers (winner of Friday’s contest will hold the tiebreaker). To say the Lakers dropped the ball is a massive understatement. The identity of the team has crumbled down the stretch and we can no longer even claim to hang out hat on defense at this point. We’ve lost 6 of 7 and seen what cushion we had to avoid the playin evaporate faster than water in the California desert. Call the doctor.

1. The experiment continues. Frank says otherwise but I ain’t buying it. While it’s true that the Lakers have been beset by injuries often forcing bench players into starting roles there also feels like a lot of unsettled issues regarding the rotation. What was one of our greatest strengths last season has become a liability. In 2020-21 the Lakers had 12 different starting line ups all season long with the variations generally coming out of a guard spot. Of the 74 games played 54 of them had the same 4 starters with the only ones flipping being Avery Bradley (32 games) and KCP (22 games). Contrast that with this season’s whopping 22 different starting line ups and we begin to see the reason why inconsistency has been the most consistent thing about this Laker team. The line up that has played together the most this season has been the James, Davis, Schroder, KCP Gasol combo but for only 20 games in which we went 15-5. Two line ups with Drummond (who does not have a winning record as a Laker) in it have a winning record and the only losing record that features Gasol as a starter also featured Wes Matthews. Injuries, Drummond and the coaching staff constantly searching for a combo that gels has led to far too many different starting combinations. Especially down the stretch when you want to see more consistency, not less.
2. Start Gasol. Drummond isn’t helping right now. Frankly, trying to integrate a player of his stature, talent and skillset in a season that has so many injuries to key guys, no practice time and is this compressed may not have ever been possible. There are a plethora of ‘ifs’. If LeBron and/or AD had been healthier. If the season wasn’t crammed into a sardine tin. If practice was still a thing in the NBA. Those are the laments of a team that has lost it’s way. The Lakers need to go back to what worked earlier and let Drummond know it’s not him, it’s us. We, as a team, simply do not have the time to get Drummond up to speed in the kind of role he wants to play or that we as fans would expect him to play. Last season’s buyout player was Markieff Morris who started in 2 playoff games against Houston. He had a role and he excelled in it. This season our buyout player is expected to seamlessly integrate into what was already a fluctuating and fluid situation in terms of who happens to be a starter in such and such game. It’s just too much for a player who has limited skills in terms of the modern game but plenty of talent and desire. Drummond was never my first choice, there were other players that I had hoped we could corral onto the Lakers but this is the situation the team is in. There’s a better option than Drummond for what we need out of the center position. He might not be a better player at this point in his NBA life but, for what the Lakers need right now, Gasol is the best fit.
3. Intensity, effort, desperation all kind of mean the same thing now. All the Lakers a re saying, it’s so en vogue right now. “We need to play with more intensity, a sense of desperation, our effort just wasn’t where it needed to be.” All the same thing. The defensive side of the court is the one where all those adverbs rear their heads. This was the case last night where we allowed the Raptors to coral 13 offensive rebounds, score 21 points off of our 14 turnovers and generally out-hustle us all game long. What about last night’s game looked like a team preparing for the gauntlet of the NBA playoffs to you? I’ll wait but it ain’t likely that there’s an answer that will bring a smile with it. The notion that the weeks off rehabbing injuries would refresh AD and LeBron is gone. These guys both look done mentally. LeBron may have come back from his high ankle sprain too soon to try and save the season for the Lakers. Ad hasn’t looked right all season. We go as far as those 2 take us, same as last season and it will be the same next season, too. Don’t blame the play-in tourney, it’s added a level of competition and excitement to the NBA that is vital for it’s continued success, nobody likes to see teams tank and the play-in has done a lot to amend that.
4. Kuzma’s bounce back. man was Kyle on fire pretty much all game. Made it even more head-scratching when he wasn’t on the floor when we were getting our asses handed to us. Kuz was, by far, the best Laker last night after a virtual no-show against Sacramento. Nice to see but, again, we’re in a place where we need some form of consistency. Can’t be here one game and gone the next. We got KCP for that.
5. Get the vaxx. Schroder is out for NBA H&SP which, to me, means one thing and one thing only: the man ain’t got his shot yet. Well Dennis, now you’re hurting the team as you won’t be available for the stretch run to the playoffs. There is not one thing, not one, that signals to me that Dennis is worth more than 12-15 mil and if he gets more from the Lakers than that than the fleece job will be complete. Color me disappointed with the play of Dennis Schroder overall this season. Flashes of good stuff, terrible as a lead point guard though. Doesn’t take care of the basketball and doesn’t do a good job of setting teammates up. Admittedly, that’s also a problem with the Frank Vogel offense which was why Rondo was so instrumental last season. I was excited when we got him because I had thought we had managed to acquire a Rondo-esque player but the differences are both stark and palpable. I don’t see a future for Dennis here as the lead guard but I don’t run the team.

The Lakers have crashed in burned in the month of April (5-15) and started May off on the wrong foot, as well. This team is sputtering to the end in a way nobody in the league excepted, fans, pundits or experts. The biggest issue has been the collapse of the once mighty Laker defense. While the numbers still look good the results have just not been there. If that can’t get turned around it won’t really even matter that we have AD and LeBron, we won’t win games.

I dare anyone reading this to find a better historical record of two Franchises whom…it doesn’t matter who owns them, who coaches them, who plays for them…it don’t matter, they will find a way to wither away.

The Lakers dropped the second game of a back-to-back against the surging Dallas Mavericks. While it may be true that the Mavs have more to play for the Lakers aren’t necessarily sitting pretty in terms of playoff seeding right now. As they tumble further and further down with not even the return of All Star and NBA champion Anthony Davis stemming the tide one wonders what the Lakers can do to right the ship and get back to at least treading water.

1. Unclog the paint. This is a tough one as much has been made about the Lakers ability to acquire All Star talent in Andre’ Drummond but it’s no secret that one of the Laker’s biggest issues on offense is spacing. With our inconsistent ability to hit the three point shot looming larger and larger as the playoffs approach there aren’t many options left for Frank Vogel and the coaching staff to try, The easiest on the court but likely most difficult in the locker room would be re-inserting Marc Gasol back into the starting line up. He plays better from the high post than any other center on the roster and can hit the three. This, likely, would not sit very well with Andre’ Drummond as there is little doubt that Montrezl Harrell is our best-used off the bench and is our best small ball center option after Anthony Davis.
2. Find Ben McLemore shots. The Lakers are not a dynamic offensive team, that horse has pretty much been beat down to the ground here and round the world. Coach Vogel and his staff are excellent at crafting top notch defensive schemes and getting the team to adjust them in-game and on the fly. Where we suffer, and it’s an area I hope Rob and the front office will address this summer, is in creating offensive sets designed to get specific players specific shots. I touched on this on the post game podcast last night but wanted to get into this a little more. We got guys who can make threes but there’s no system in place designed to accentuate any of our player’s skill sets except for LeBron James and Anthony Davis. We under-utilize, in my opinion, the shooting of McLemore (and even Wes Matthews) in terms of setting them up for success. It’s all well and good to have some flow and groove to the offense when The King has the ball but one thing this stretch has shown us is the lack of options the Laker offense creates through schemes. Talent is not enough when your best players aren’t playing, you need something else to fall back on.
3. Live by the three, die by the three. The above point is not meant to highlight our three point shooters, we got plenty of guys who can score from the rest of the floor. We got lazy last night moving the ball meaninglessly around the horn until we were up against the clock and settled for bad three point shots. Shooting volume shots of any kind in and of itself is not a solution to ay problem. You want to create good shots, that should be the goal. If they’re from three, great. If it’s a post up with big on small, awesome. If it’s juking a guy for an open mid-range, fine by me. Without James and even with Davis we are not a good enough offensive team to settle for bad shots.
4. ‘Kieff off the bench ain’t what it was. The difference between Markieff Morris starter and Markieff Morris coming off the bench is jarring. It’s like the guy coming off the bench forgot how to play NBA basketball. In the NBA playoffs Morris was one of our best players off the bench but this season…not so much. The issue is he does not in any way shape or form have a starting role on this team in it’s current rotation. In my opinion this is another area Frank might want to get creative with. Start Morris over either Gasol or Drummond for a couple of games, see how it works out. The dude rebounds bigger than his size, defends bigger than his size. Morris could be our version of P.J. Tucker.
5. The learning process of Talen Horton-Tucker. Sometimes it’s easy to forget this is, for intents and purposes, THT’s rookie season. While the record books will not reflect it as such in terms of his NBA growth I assure you that it is. Talen (hopefully) learned some lessons from this series, lessons in regards to how to better box out without fouling, to use your feet and not your hands and sometimes it’s better to slow down than play at the fastest speed possible. The league is starting to sit on his drives, almost luring him into the paint and then swarming him forcing him into ever-increasingly difficult shots. Use the mid range to shake the defense loose and trust in your three point shot, again. Open up the floor for your drive early by maybe taking some out of character shots from long range. Got to mix it up.

This stretch of games coming up is about as crucial as it gets. We need to get back to at least playing .500 ball before LeBron comes back if we want to stay out of the play-in rounds. Although I can think of worse things than a couple tune-up games prior to the actual playoffs for this team the prospect of getting booted before the true playoffs even begin is a specter no Laker fans wants to see looming. All in all, we need a little more from AD and smarter basketball from the squad.

He’s back!!! At least for a half. Anthony Davis was on a minutes restriction (15? 20? didn’t really matter) and only saw some first half action. The second half was left to the Laker Remainders who couldn’t get the stops or hit the shots to beat the Mavs who also saw Porzingis limp off the floor after rolling an ankle. Lakers are putting themselves in a tough sport seeding wise and The King is still a couple weeks away.

1. The return of Anthony Davis. The man looked, expectedly, rusty. Coming off the longest injury lay-off of his career Davis struggled to hit shots form everywhere. That’s expected as I’m sure he got practice in and got plenty of shots up but this was his first NBA action since leaving with the scariest calf strain in Laker history since the hamstring debacle versus the Bad Boy Pistons over 30 years ago. Where Davis did make his impact felt was on defense where he showed he might be able to recapture last season’s defensive impact. That’s where we need AD the most. If he can bring that kind of effort and impact for more and more minutes or playoff chances improve a lot, regardless of seeding.
2. Kentavious rounding back into playoff form? This has been a pretty decent stretch for KCP. He’s being more aggressive with the ball, diversifying his attack and still playing solid D. While it wasn’t enough last night the month of April has revealed that the forks we were all sticking in Caldwell-Pope for a good chunk of the year might be ready to be washed and put away. the man didn’t look done last night at any rate. The bigger question is can he sustain and even improve on efforts like this? If AD isn’t able to recapture his shooting mojo like he did in last season’s playoffs it’ll fall to guys like KCP to bolster the offense and release the pressure created by our drive and dish offense.
3. Talen’s defensive learning process. Last night was a bit of a down game for THT. It’s hard for any player to se their minutes fluctuate like they have for a lot of the guys on the team, harder still for younger players still trying to find their way. Give the Mavs credit, they were ready for his patented drives and forced him into some bad passes. It’s a rare thing these days when THT has more turnovers than assists. Still, despite his atrocious +/- 12 minutes is just too few for Horton-Tucker. The kid needs to play and it’s on the coaching staff to find minutes for him.
4. Three point shooting woes. It’s no secret the Lakers a re not an elite shooting team from beyond the arc. Morris off the bench had a donut to the tune of 0-5, only Schroder and KCP made more than 1 (KCP was on fire hitting 6-12) and neither Kuzma or AD hit one to help open the paint up. Off the bench only Caruso and McLemore (both 1-3) were able to connect. We need to do better, although we kept finding KCP which is line with out team ID. When LeBron returns the paint will be well-packed if we can’t hit threes.
5. Defending without fouling. Too many free throws for the Mavs, who whine enough to get them… Some of that is superstar Luka treatment which i wouldn’t mind quite so much if LBJ and AD got the same. They don’t. Anyhow, some of that is on us over-reaching and not just playing solid D without trying for impossible steals. Just man up, keep your feet active and hands up. if they make shots over you, that’s OK.

This was a game we could have won if we clean up some issues. For me the big thing is we’re keeping our turnovers low. That’s a huge key to playoff success and something that is a fixable issue. Lakers need to get this one back in the next game against Dallas or we’re going to be putting ourselves in a sticky situation.

“Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you”, Big Lebowski. The Utah Jazz, with a healthier roster than in the previous game, easily handled the Lakers last night in a fairly one-sided affair. The Lakers never led, the same starters who shone a couple days ago couldn’t replicate that effort and the Jazz shot the lights out. One to forget because sometimes you just get you ass handed to you.

1. Starters get whupped. The same group that all had heady +/- stats in the previous game all had equally abysmal +/- ratings last night. Not surprising really as it was our hodgepodge collection of “starters” competing against the true Utah Jazz starting five, minus Donovan Mitchell of course. As we’ve said several times this collection of guys was not meant to carry the Lakers for a stretch like this. They’re above-average players, a step or two above role-player, journeyman status, but they’re not All Stars. Maybe Drummond has AS potential, not sure about anyone else. Asking them to beat the #1 Jazz is a tall order considering the Jazz had all but one of their players.
2. The Gobert Effect. Much has been made of the diminishing role of the true big man in today’s game but Rudy Gobert completely flipped the game for the Jazz. With Rudy patrolling the paint on defense and offering an easy scoring release valve for the guards the Jazz dominated the glass, dominated the points in the paint and that opened up their three point game like it has all season long. Most people point to the French Rejection’s defense as the main game-altering ability he has but his ability to finish in the paint and control the glass is huge, as well.
3. The diminishing Montrezl Harrell. Trezz has seen his minutes dwindle as Drummond has asserted himself into the line up. It feels like it’s affecting his game and the staff needs to figure out how to unleash him, again. When Trezz is going we are scoring in the paint, putting a lot more pressure on the defense. That was not the case last night as Harrell only got 4 FGA and no FTA. We’re going to need a lot more from him if we want to pick up a couple more wins.
4. THT’s monster game. I give this kid a ton of credit, he’s taken a lot of the adjustments the NBA has made in regards to his ability to get to the rim and added some moves and wrinkles to keep his flow going. By far the best Laker on the court last night, Horton-Tucker is making a case to be in the starting line up now and the starting PG next season. Worse things could happen, given our cap situation.
5. Time to give Wes Matthews minutes to Ben McLemore. No more reasons, it’s just time. Make the move, Frank.

Not going to read too much into this or overly bemoan the lack of energy and fight, the Jazz are the better team right now. We’ll see how this looks if we meet in the playoffs and we have James and Davis. This was no playoff preview. Time to prepare for the Mavs on Thursday.

The Lakers will take all the wins they can get while AD and LeBron get closer to returning. This is a quantity not quality state of affairs. In terms of how the team fared I would say they acquitted themselves well enough. It took a little luck, a lot of hard work and some clutch play but they got the job done. Still have some mountain left to climb, though.

1. Dennis Schroder doing a little bit of everything. There have been some real forgettable games from the Laker starting point guard since the superstar duo went out with injuries. This wasn’t one of them. Schroder scored, defended, assisted and pretty much made all the right plays in this gritty win. He was aggressive in terms of looking for his shot (24 attempts, 6 from three) if not incredibly accurate (only 11 made shots, 1 from three). But the fact that he was aggressive made it harder for Utah to set their defense to guard the team. Schroder applied that much pressure. The key for him is keeping his turnovers low and if that means a few less extraneous passes, so be it.
2. Andre’ Drummond playing big. It could be argued that we should have found a few more FGA for Dre’. He was a solid 10-15 and made 7-8 from the stripe. With no Gobert there was no Godzilla for Kong to fight and so the one man monster destroyed the interior defense that Utah could muster. He pulled down 8 rebounds, dished 3 assists and nabbed 2 steals with a block. The steals both resulted in highlight plays in which he took the ball the length of the court for easy scores. As LRob noted when we first acquired Drummond the man has extremely quick hands for a big man. The other thing he does well is play to his size, nothing more annoying than a true big man who can’t play big. Don’t think we’ll ever say that about Andre’. The man moves little dudes out of his way with legal moves and the only thing I wish he would do more of is finish strong. Fewer hookity-flip shots and more rim-rattling dunks.
3. Laker front court was aggressive on the offensive glass. Every front court starter had 2+ offensive rebounds and ‘Kieff had a whopping five which helped give us an 11-5 edge in that department. Morris and Drummond were more aggressive on offense than Kuzma was tonight (in the first half Utah did a solid job of forcing Kyle to pass which he did) but they all did solid work rebounding the ball and giving us second chance opportunities or limiting the Jazz to one.
4. Managing the turnovers. While it certainly started with Dennis Schroder the team in general did a solid job keeping the turnovers to a respectable level, especially against a tough, defensive minded team like Utah. 15 for the game is good, not great, but certainly an improvement over the 20+ turnover games we’d been having of late. Turnovers are a part of the game and this Laker team takes risks with downcourt passes and a lot of interior paint passes. Those have a high turnover potentiality but they’re also a part of what makes this team unique. If those passes find the mark they’re often going to result in open shots and easy buckets. The key is lowering the rate of failure.
5. The Standings. None of this would have mattered if we had been able to establish a larger cushion in regards to the play-in tournament. If we were still sitting 5 or 6 games out of a play in spot we could cough up more games down the stretch with nary a worry. As it is we’re still just 4 games up on the Mavs (who lost Friday, thanks Julius Randle and the Knickerbockers) so we need to pull a few more wins along with a rabbit or two out of the magic top hat. Sounds like Donovan Mitchell will be out a couple more games and it’s imperative that we capitalize on this opportunity. No tears are shed for teams with injured players, injuries are a part of sport. Just because a team has injuries doesn’t mean they’re going to lay down for you, the Lakers need to learn this once and for all, now, and seize this moment and beat Utah tomorrow night. If they get Conley, Gobert or Favors back it changes nothing. Play harder, compete better and go get that win.

We needed this game a lot more than the Jazz who, even if they fall behind Phoenix in the standings, are situated very well seeding-wise. One way or another, barring some sort of epic collapse they’re playing one of the tourney teams. Not too sure there will be much difference between who ends up being 7 and 8 after the play-in rounds. Could still be any one of 5 or so teams, hard to even come up with a game plan which is an odd advantage to being 3-6 in the seeding game. You know who you’re gonna play but the 1 and 2 seeds need to plan for several different scenarios. Just another odd thing about the NBA, pay it no mind.

Bit late on this one, work is blowing up as we prep the college to re-open to a small degree. Also, I had a chance to attend the Celtics game in-person but was not quite ready to take that step yet (plus the tickets were $200 bucks each). Anyhow, the under-manned Lakers not surprisingly lost to Boston but the real news is Anthony Davis is returning soon. Hopefully.

1. Alright fine, we’ll talk about the game first. J-Brown went off, the Laker starters not named Marc Gasol pretty much took the night off and the bench led by THT and Ben McLemore led a furious come back that came up short. This Laker team without LBJ and AD tends to play too many games with a nonchalant “we got this” kind of attitude. I assure you, they do not “got this”. The fact they’ve managed to play .500 ball without their two superstars is commendable but one can only imagine that if a greater sense of urgency was present that a couple more wins could have been squeezed out. Also, once again, I didn’t think the coaching staff had adjustments in mind as they never figured out a way to contain Brown in any meaningful way. Tip the cap, begrudgingly, and move on.
2. OK, the real news, AD is returning in roughly two weeks should everything proceed positively between now and then. Let’s assume a couple of things for the time being:
   -He’ll play on a minutes restriction to start and ramp up from there based on performance.
   -He’ll start and close games.
   -He’ll primarily play the 4 in order to save that kind of wear and tear for the playoffs.
   That means one of Gasol, Drummond and Harrell will likely be on the floor at all times. There are of course in-game situations that would put them all on the bench and slide AD to the 5 but that means he’ll be guarding bulky threes or slight fours. That’s fine. But I would imagine that in an effort to have him be as ready as possible for the playoffs they’ll try to conserve his minutes at the 5 to as low as humanly possible. I also am of the opinion that he’ll start out on a minutes restriction and ramp up from there. Probably 20-25 mpg to begin with. That means we’ll still be asking a lot of the trio listed above to fill those minutes. If Vogel does a good job monitoring said minutes we’ll likely see AD to start the game, for a few minutes to close the first half. That leaves a large chunk of time to fill. How those minutes get distributed is going to be interesting.
3. What does this mean for the rest of the team? In my mind it means fewer minutes for Wes Matthews who has been a small ball 4 for us of late and of course Marc Gasol and Harrell. Gasol is already playing in an emergency capacity at this point and Harrell would primarily back him up and absorb some AD minutes along with Kuzma. Morris would be pushed back to the bench again where he struggled for most of the season. One would hope his aggressive and more consistent play wouldn’t take a big hit.
4. The Marc Gasol question. In my mind Drummond is the better athlete and has the potential to be the better defender and interior presence the team has a need for. I am also of the opinion that Gasol is a better fit in our OG starting line up. This notion, of course, is wholly speculative. We haven’t seen Drummond play with either James or Davis for a single minute yet. But the idea that most defenses will pack the paint and be content with us shooting strictly from the outside does not seem farfetched to me. In fact it feels predetermined that exact strategy will be deployed against us on a pretty regular basis. If that’s the case then I can see a role for Gasol akin to what McGee did last season. Start the halves, sit the rest barring foul trouble/incredible game.
5. Regarding Wes Matthews. Watching Wes this season struggle against his own body more than anything else has been hard. Injuries like the one he suffered are, traditionally, extremely difficult to come back 100% from. I wish we could take his defensive chops and gift them to THT or Ben McLemore because he can still compete at a high level on D. he has a solid foundation, stronger than he looks and understands defensive positioning. But his shot has never been what it was prior to the Achilles. On offense, based on accuracy and skillset, there are better options for our team. On defense he has a role but I think it’ll be as a spot-defender in late game situations. Yeah, he’s had a couple of hot games where his shot was falling but by and large those have been the outlier and not the norm. Wes is a proud athlete and has put a lot of work in but watching him this season makes me hesitate to sign guys with grievous injuries who were great in the past to large role type of contracts. That includes one of my favorite players one Boogie Cousins and frequent trade target by LakerTom Victor Oladipo. Is it possible they figure something out nd discover a way to make their game work, again? Sure, it’s happened before. But they don’t need to do it in a Laker uniform.

I realize this will drop during the Utah game but them’s the breaks for a working man such as myself. Enjoy the game today, Lakerholics.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31262807/brooklyn-nets-forward-lamarcus-aldridge-abruptly-retires-due-health-scare