Don’t let the similarities of the game one loss to Portland and what we witnessed tonight fool you. Houston has a defensive identity that starts with P.J. Tucker and ends with a well-orchestrated switch and collapse scheme the Trailblazers can only hope to deploy. Harden and Westbrook are better than Dame and McCollum. Eric Gordon’s 3rd option skill set is a better one than Melo’s (I consider Anthony to be the superior player, however). Lakers have their work cut out for them. Still, there were a lot of elements of this game to the one against the Trailblazers.

1. We lost the battle of the boards 41-41. That’s not a poorly typed sentence my friends. By playing to a draw on the glass the Lakers lost the rebound battle. Sure, we grabbed more offensive rebounds (10-4) but that’s s much a byproduct of us missing a bunch of shots as it is box out acumen. But we didn’t get after it on the glass. Give Houston credit, they have the players suited to play their style of basketball and it’s giving the Lakers fits. Everything about how Houston plays funnels into itself to turn what feels like what should be a negative is re-routed into something positive. No player close to 7 feet tall? No worries, long shots lead to long rebounds and our guards have been crashing the glass for months. Lakers need to be better on the boards to have a shot at moving forward.
2. James Harden and Russell Westbrook were better than LeBron James and Anthony Davis tonight. I’m not talking about the box score, even though that also reveals that our superstars were thoroughly outplayed, but our two guys just didn’t bring ‘it’ never reached that 5th gear. Had no pop in the 4th when we had some chances to make it a game. They need to find that extra gear by Sunday and I think they can
3. That felt like a lot of Rajon Rondo. Personally, I think they should start Caruso. He’s good enough. I don’t think they will, I think Vogel goes with Rondo as a starter and it’s going to be painful. Playoff Rondo may win you a game but there’s no denying we need better shooting and defense from that position in this series. Also Rajon hasn’t played in, like, 6th months. I get it, he’s chomping at the bit and has more than a modicum of mamba mentality. But he doesn’t need to play 25 minutes per game. I’d rather see Waiters. But if anyone’s minutes suffer it needs to be Rondo’s. Even though KCP has really started slow, Rondo doesn’t look like he’s up to playoff speed.
4. Using our advantages better. Entertain, for a moment, a world in which Frank Vogel makes zero rotation adjustments. Doles out minutes roughly the same. A world where our only real adjustment is to just, you know, play better. What does that world look like in a win? It looks like Anthony Davis posting up 7 or so feet closer to the basket for a lot more our possessions, he can’t let Tucker stop him twenty feet out and expect to break him down. It looks like LeBron James showing up in the 4th quarter. James did not seem engaged, especially in the second half. Not at the level we’ve grown accustomed to seeing. Kyle Kuzma needs to play as well as Eric Gordon. Didn’t happen tonight, Kuz seemed to be off his game. Like how pretty much the whole team was. Caruso needs to not commit fouls. He had a great game cooking but picked up some bad fouls and that sort of forced us, evidently, into so much Rondo.
5. The question of energy. I, for one, was skeptical but willing to entertain the idea that the Rockets were a team playing on fumes. Seeing How Denver came out flat and looked gas after their 7 game series seemed to open the door a crack that, maybe, the Rockets would have a similar showing. Nope, Harden looked solid, Westbrook played with the pedal to the metal and the rest of that Houston squad looked sharp and ready to go. We need to bring that energy to game 2.

Feels good. Feels real good to see the Lakers moving on to round two of the NBA playoffs. There’s no getting around it, this is one wacky season of basketball. Let’s dig in.

1. Davis and James were incredible. No stats needed, as we’ve said we’re going where they take us. But last night felt like something more serious, like they had finally chosen to start using the pick and roll a little more, that they’re finding the groove they need in order to know when one or the other needs to take over a little more and how to diversify that attack to keep defenders back on their heels. Davis’ personal 11 point run to all but seal the game was great to see as a long suffering Lakers’ fan. Kudos gents, on to the next round.
2. Laker defense won this series. For all the talk about how our three point shooting was lacking or we looked like we couldn’t get the looks we need to the real thing that carried this series win (which will be the exact same thing that enables us to win any other series) was our team defense. Tip of the cp to Kyle Kuzma on this one. WHile certainly not the best defender on the team his willingness to step up and play with a lot more focus and passion on that end is a big reason why this series ended in 5 games. He and Caruso off the ben ch together are allowing James and Davis to not have to carry the load on both ends. The starting five is solid but having two more guys who are locked in on D coming off the bench is a luxury few teams have and one that may just help us take this all the way to the trophy presentation ceremony.
3. Round of virtual applause for the Trailblazers. It took a lot out of them just to get to the playoffs and they had enough left to Iverson a game out. That was about it though. Lillard got hurt (and even prior t getting hurt looked pretty gassed), the short rotations got shorter, and the trio of McCollum, Dame and Melo just wasn’t enough without another guy stepping up huge every night. That team is a couple healthy guys and a Hassan Whiteside trade away from being a pretty thorny team to contend with. Ariza not being there hurt but it also allowed Melo to shine at the 3 (and shine he did). Regardless of what happens going forward this Portland squad has nothing to hang their heads about. They fought hard, competed with honor and gave it their best shot.
4. Some more rest. Sometimes too much time away from the court is a bad thing. In the Bubble this would seem especially concerning, especially if OKC forces the series to a full 7 games. But for the Lakers I don’t think that’s the case. We got veteran guys in roles they know, we got a solid coaching staff that will have time to prepare and now that the Lakers have moved on they can invit more people into the Bubble. Hopefully some quality time with friends or family will get the team even more locked in.
5. Bring on the next opponent. Personally I’d rather OKC take Houston out in the first round so we can mercifully see the end of that experiment. Houston on defense at this point is a lot of holding, cheap fouls and threes followed by a grip of whining about everything. Pretty sure that team calls to complain to the hotel staff on the reg. OKC is like a slightly better version of Portland. Traditional bigs down low, PG with epic skills, decent parts around that configuration. The Rockets are going to try and score 150 points per game to beat you. If I’m being honest, I think it’ll be the Rockets. wah wah waaaaaahhhhh…

So enjoy this Laker victory, we’ve moved on to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since Phil Jackson was head coach, and I hope we continue to move deeper into the playoffs. It’s an odd and exciting time to watch basketball is the only sure thing right now.

Wow. While I had hoped that we would win the game on Mamba Day I didn’t know it would take on an unearthly quality. When we went up 24-8

I had a feeling that something special was in the making and it was.

Let’s dig in.

1. A fitting tribute to Kobe, Gigi and everyone who passed away in the helicopter crash. I watch the Spectrum broadcasts whenever they’re available. For this game I thought it especially fitting. Stu noticed the 24-8 score instantly, it blew up the internet soon after. They went through the names of everyone who died a couple times. It’s easy to for Lakers fans to focus on Bryant, 41, and Gigi, 13, but the crash also claimed the lives of Payton Chester, 13; Sarah Chester, 45; Alyssa Altobelli, 14; Keri Altobelli, 46; John Altobelli, 56; Christina Mauser, 38; and the helicopter’s pilot, Ara Zobayan, 50. The NBA, city of Los Angeles, County of Orange and the NBA all did a great job paying homage. I wanted to do the same. You will all be missed.
2. LeBron James’ masterpiece of a game. All the eulogizing, street naming et al is cool. But I don’t think Kobe would have appreciated anything as much as he would have loved watching LeBron put together as perfect a playoff game as one could imagine. In a scant 28 minutes James poured in 30 points on a ridiculously efficient 12 shots. He was 4-5 from three point line, made 6-8 free throws, made every 2 pointer he tried and he did it in 3 quarters. He dished 10 assists and grabbed 6 boards with a block for good measure. LeBron was other-worldly last night and I hope this level of play continues on all the way to the moment he hoists the Larry O’Brien trophy.
3. Anthony Davis sitting out most of the game. Before he sat out the majority of the victory with back spasms (in his post-gamer on Spectrum he said he could have gone back in, everyone was playing great so he had the luxury to sit it out and is 100% going to play in game 5) Davis was putting as good a game as LeBron was. Portland has no answer whatsoever for AD. Whiteside is too slow, Nurkic too undisciplined, he’s passing well out of doubles…or splitting them…and he’s getting to the line. In 18 minutes he shot 5-8, got to the line 10 times making 8, and added 5 boards, 5 dimes, a steal and 2 blocks. I think it’s safe to say he finally found his All-Star caliber Bubble mojo.
4. The starting five playing like they’re our best players. Everyone in the starting line up played great. JaVale was Godzilla-like on defense blocking shots, grabbing boards and forcing the opposing big to guard him and not sag. Danny Green found his game by not settling for threes and driving the ball into the paint. KCP was solid. The starting 5 shot great from three (9-14), played great defense (2 steals and 9 blocks). The best part was no starter played more than James’ 28 minutes setting us up for…
5. The Bench Bunch! Bench Mob was the moniker bestowed upon the Jordan Farmar, Lamar Odom, Sasha Vujacic-era Laker bench. This is a new bunch and they got a lot of playoff burn last night. This marked the second game in the series where some of the guys on the Laker bench played near starter minutes and everyone but the G-Leaguers got some run. Led by Kyle Kuzma the bench of the Lakers has a lot more to offer than Portland’s bench does.

Portland looks gassed, some guys who don’t play often got in to the blowout last night and you could see why they aren’t getting meaningful minutes. The Blazers are really missing the flexibility Zach Collins brings, Melo and Whiteside are pulling a few too many shenanigans instead of just playing hard, and C.J. can only do so much. They can’t afford to lose Damian (awaiting his MRI from earlier today) and if he’s out for the next game I think we’ll see LT’s prediction of a 5 game series come to be. If he’s in I think Dame has enough magic in him to push it to a game 6. We’ve all but erased any chance of getting to 7 games and Portland’s only hope to pull this out is to force the series to 7. I just don’t see it happening. Too few bodies for the Blazers to throw at the Laker juggernaut which just a week ago looked vulnerable. Not any more.

Wow, that had all the makings of a game 3 disaster. Portland had guys stepping up, we had issues in places that usually lead to losses but in spite of it all the Lakers pulled out the win!

1. Attacking the rim. Lakers missed 15 free throws (28-43)…still won! It was one of those nights where even AD had struggles at the stripe. , he only hit 50% (7-14). LeBron missed 5 and in fact every Laker that shot a free throw missed at least 1 free throw (except KCP, 2-2). We got to the line a ton though by attacking the rim, attacking the mismatch and staying in attack mode all game long.
   
2. Coughing it up. We had turnover issues last night, especially LeBron (8!!!) but we overcame those by staying focused on driving the ball into the defense and forcing the issue at the rim. In all honesty, if you just looked at how the Lakers played in the stat sheet and didn’t see the score you might come away thinking we lost.
   
3. The greatness of Anthony Davis. It’s no secret how up and down Davis has been in the Bubble. Here one game, gone for a few, hey he’s back, whoops-there he goes again… But for 2 games running he looks like the dominant version of Davis we got accustomed to in the regular, regular season. He was in beast-mode on defense (3 blocks and 2 steals), cleaned the glass (11 boards) and hit shots from everywhere inside the arc (0-2 from three, 9-16 from everywhere else) and he forced his way into 14 foul shots (we mentioned his waaaaay below average above, no need to harp on it).. The dude was unstoppable and is the singular reason I think we’ll win the series.
   
4. LeBron James flirting with a quadruple-double!!! OK, one of those would have been 10 turnovers so not THAT exciting but the dude is locked in and focused. Shot great from three (4-8) grabbed one more board than Davis (12) and even shot and made more free throws (12-17). The last stat is good news for Laker fans and James himself, he had not been getting any love from the refs having to endure hits to the head, dudes all over his arms on his drives and the regular level of increased contact that is allowed in the context of his game. Hopefully we can bottle most of this performance (with the TO’s filtered out, please) and brew a batch of 14 more.
   
5. Alex Caruso looking good. AC was a dynamic force once again. Asked to be the back up point guard it took Alex a few games to re-acclimate himself to that role, again. He’s looking like he’s finding the right mix, especially on offense where he was aggressive and accurate. His 7 assists were huge as they allowed James to focus more on his all around game and not just directing the offense. When Caruso plays like that, hitting the open shots given to him, finding his teammates for baskets in the flow and being his normal defensive ace self he helps to unlock the best versions of his teammates.

It was just one game, Dame looked like he was still adjusting to playing with a dislocated finger, Melo was off early but really caught fire after the first quarter, and CJ McCollum was only good, not great. For Portland to win those three have to be more efficient than they were (credit the Laker defense a little but they also missed a fair number of make-able buckets) and they need someone from their bench to contribute something. Gary Trent Jr. was the only guy off the bench who brought much game and the Lakers exposed his lack of size on LeBron all game long. Trent is game but there’s no question he’s out of his depth on that match up. I expect Portland to make some adjustments between now and Monday and that we won’t get quite so many favorable whistles, either. We’re a long way from moving on to the next round but this was a great effort.

8 years, 3 months and 2 days or so. Last Laker playoff victory. Mike Brown was the coach. D’Antoni didn’t win one. Luke never got there. Here we are. Very enjoyable.

1. “Here we go!” That first quarter was a long time coming and when I was watching it I could only think one thing: Blazers are in trouble. We were defending hard and with good instincts. Danny Green still couldn’t throw it in the ocean but he was stellar on D. McGee was outplaying Nurkic on both ends, LeBron and AD were more engaged. Most of all Kentavious came ready to play and got off to a great start. Second unit didn’t let their foot off the gas, either. But the starting 5 were all stellar tonight, set a tone and the whole team carried that energy throughout the game. That’s how we need to be every night.
2. “Nobody is gonna stop-” a Laker team that’s playing like this. This was as perfect a playoff game as the Lakers could play. Conversely this was just about as bad a game as the Blazers could play. So now an odd conundrum arises, as of yet to be fully defined, is how does a total lack of home court advantage affect an NBA playoff series? My bet is quite a bit, that teams with more inherent talent come out on top and that while there may be more upset games there will be fewer total upset series. We shall see, we shall see.
3. “Lit to pop.” Because of the margin of victory and complete lack of shots made by Portland the score was as wide as it was. But don’t let that fool you, we hit a ton of shots when the game was yet to be determined. KCP was hot from three, AD was on fire and somehow J.R. Smith cast up 9 (5 more than any other Laker!) three-pointers hitting 3. A luxury for the team with some key guys still adjusting to getting some playoff-level burn.
4. “And the water will run.” The modern NBA game is all air and fire these days. Chucking and gunning, defense when the game is on the line…maybe. The Lakers have one of the earthier line ups in the NBA, as throwback as it is analytical, but it’s at it’s best when it flows like a powerful river. Our defense is rarely on a string, rather we have excellent free safeties in Davis and James. But their ability to disrupt an offense is enabled by other guys controlling the flow, funneling players like rocks in a stream guiding water. Even our fast-break has a slow flow rather than an explosive burst. Like a kayak about to encounter some rapids. Tonight that was on full display. While we didn’t out fast-break Portland we held our own and didn’t let their leak outs disrupt our flow.
5. “Hum, hum along with me. Hum along with the TV. Go!” This shit is weird man. It is, no other way to describe it. The Lakers are the more talented team, if our guys play to type we ought to dominate the glass more often than not, ought to force turnovers with the best of ’em and we just need some guys to hit some shots to support LeBron and Anthony. LeBron scored 10 points and we blew them out. Wacky man.

No crowds, all televised. Going to be hard to maintain a normal playoff-level focus. Need to bring a quiet intensity every night.

The Lakers, like the Bucks, may find that they are running short on time. The juggernauts that were rolling pre-COVID are now sputtering on fumes in the Bubble. They roll hard in fits and spurts but just do not seem to resemble the well-oiled and fine-tuned machines that we saw back in early March. Talked about adapting today, now we see where the rubber meets the road.

1. Patterns in the Bubble. As much as inconsistency has defined the Lakers Bubble reboot there have been some things they seem to do consistently. One of those things is start poorly. That held true tonight, again. Sloppy, uninspired play from the starting 5. This won’t do in the playoffs. You can’t cede entire quarters to the other team on a regular basis. Whatever changes need be made should not be off of any table, board or iPad at this point. It’s the playoffs, adapt or die.
2. No motion from either KCP or Danny Green on offense is one of the biggest issues. Green is doing his thing, KCP is doing his thing…but both their things overlap, it’s too much of the same thing. That’s on the staff for not recognizing that through 8 seeding games. The mistake has been trying to replace Avery Bradley rather than redefine the starting five’s roles. With Bradley, well, it doesn’t matter ’cause he ain’t here and for good reason. I made that mistake in my mind, too, but I’m not on the staff. I have now long been of the opinion that we should start Waiters to get a more aggressive, decent ball handler, with a solid chip on his shoulder, alongside LeBron and AD to start games. Whether it’s Green or KCP that goes to the bench doesn’t matter to me, you have the same role with different syntax with either player.
3. Lakers Largers showed up big. Both McGee and Howard came to play. Both were victims of terrible play by their teammates or not being on the floor when it mattered. Both will be needed as we move on through the playoffs. AD doesn’t want to bang with centers. Ever. He’ll do it here and there but I distinctly remember a possession where he and Morris were on the floor and Hassan Whiteside floated into the lane for an uncontested dunk because both guys were defending perimeter players and forgot one of them was the center. In a playoff game. The Lakers are going to start one of McGee and Howard every game during the playoffs. Likely McGee. They will not be starting Kyle Kuzma save for injuries sake. It’s what has gotten them the number one seed in the western conference. They won’t be going away from that except, maybe, against Houston and I don’t think they’ll do it for the first game, maybe not even the second. But they may be forced too against the Houston Lilliputians, er Rockets…
4. Crunch time execution. We just didn’t have it. Under two minutes we didn’t look like we had a clue where we wanted points to come from. That’s on us, Portland is not a top flight defensive team, they outscore teams. We let Portland get what they wanted, where they wanted, from whom they wanted when the game was on the line with guys you would expect to be better. Too much KCP for me in the 4th, would have put our best line up (Caruso, Green, LeBron, Kuzma, Davis) in around 3-4 minute mark, just another reason we need AD and Dwight for the first 43ish minutes of the game.
5. Making free throws but also the referees. I haven’t really brought it up but it has to be said. We’re getting whistle jobbed in the Bubble. LeBron isn’t getting any respect at all, there’s a different set of rules for pushing off for us, had to take a coaches challenge, early, to reverse an obvious charging call. Having said that, AD was 12-17, those free throws change the complexity of the game. LeBron missed two in the final 5, that changed the complexity of the game. Your superstars need to make them.

We got time. We showed some solid stretches in the 2nd and early 4th quarter. Let the odd whistles mess with our mojo. Couple things go our way in the 4th, different ball game. Move on, keep improving. The same lack of energy on our supposed home court won’t be there for theirs. One of the reasons I said 7 game series was just as much a matter of adjusting to the reality of these playoffs as anything else. No crowd has to be super odd, for all parties, refs included. It was never supposed to be easy.

Go Lakers!!!