As the Lakers embark on a 6 game road trip (aka The Grammy Trip) questions surround the team, and the NBA in general, regarding trades. After the multiple LA fires last week (still ongoing), the Lakers know how to deal with distractions. Seeing entire neighborhoods wiped form the face of the planet has a way of making you appreciate that your job is to play a game. Or at least it should. So the Lakers did well in getting the roadie off on the right foot and tuning out trade chatter and that jazz.

1. AD dominated. As he should have done with Draymond Green out of the lineup. Davis had a monster game: 36 points, 13 rebounds, 3 dimes, 3 steals and a block. He got to the line 12 times meaning he was operating in the paint and was playing with force. He also had the jumper working from midrange (5-6), although he missed his three 3 pointers. When AD plays like this it makes everything so much easier for the Lakers.
2. A defensive identity. With Rui Hachimura out (calf), fans pining to see new acquisition Dorian Finney-Smith get the starting nod got their wish. He did not disappoint. His rangy arms and solid defensive fundamentals were on full display. His 3 and D role was essential in helping the Lakers overcome a dreary night from three (DFS: 2-3, rest of team: 8-26) and he did a great job on switches and help situations. While I highly doubt one game will uproot Rui from the starting five it was nice to see that, against an admittedly small team in Golden State, the starting 5 of Reaves, Christie, DFS, LBJ and AD can get it done at a high level.
3. Dalton Knecht had a solid overall game. Since December DK4 has struggled. A lot. Since December 1st he’s made 21 three pointers and taken 86 good for 24.4%. That shows you what his ceiling is because for the season he’s still shooting 35.2% which means he was hot enough from three point land early on to balance this shooting abyss out (slump seems too kind at this point). His overall aggression has suffered as a result of the shooting abyss. Since December (24 games) he’s made multiple threes in just 7 and had donuts (O fer’s) in 13 and since his 5-13 barrage to close out November when he was still in the RotY conversation he has not attempted double-digit three-pointers once. The reasons for all of this are many: defenses realigned their focus to cover him when he was on the floor, his minutes have gone down since January mainly due to his role shrinking a bit due to his defense, and he’s a rookie. He’s going to struggle to find consistency at this level of the sport. It’s also a mental issue, in my opinion. Since he had a run of bad shooting games to you’ve seen him pull back on his aggression and audacity. If you’re going to be a swashbuckling NBA sniper daring-do you need to play like a swashbuckling NBA sniper daring-do. So it was nice to see the young man have a solid overall game.
4. The Reaves/Christie back court works. They compliment each other very well, they’re fast enough to keep up with the majority of the players and they’re both high IQ players. Max has taken on the role of defensive stopper and offensive release valve a lot better than hoped for (shout out to all the Max Christie supporters who never stopped believing, all 3 of you? lol JK.). Are there better back courts in the NBA? Sure, but for this team with AD and LBJ being the focal point of the offense it’s really a luxury to have 2 players who are doing a lot of the little things to enable their success at a high level.
5. THE RETURN OF THE VANDOLORIAN!!!! After a year-ish of waiting the return of Jarred Vanderbilt couldn’t have gone much better (wish he had hit that corner three but it looked good, just a little short…which is to be expected after not playing for so long). He was the only guy off the bench that impacted winning in a positive way +/- of +6, rest of the bench all had negative ratings)despite only taking 2 shots (the other was a bunny on a put back) and he was disruptive on D which is what his role is. Again, Rui Hachimura was out, so his minutes will eventually come from someone else (a combination of Knecht and Hayes in my opinion) and I don’t see him playing much more than 20-25 MPG, in general, but to have a weapon like that in conjunction with Christie, DFS and AD makes for some really intriguing defensive line ups and combinations.

(Sigh)

Last night….eh….(sigh).

1. (sigh…)
2. Defense was OK until the 4th…eh…….(sigh).
3. Rebounding was, yet again…ah forget it…(sigh)
4. (sigh sigh sigh)
5. Hey we play the Heat, likely without Jimmy. Trap game.

Effort needs to be there for 48. Not worth my time to say much else.

After the Lakers finished the season sweep the Lakers made a choice few around here believed they would make: a trade. While the win was important (vaulting us into 5th place at 18-13) the trade has the potential to redefine the Lakers defense, especially with injury concerns to Vanderbilt, Wood, Hayes, Vincent, and Reddish. All in all, a big day in Laker Land!

1. The win over the Kings was born of a solid mix of OK defense and timely shot-making. The Kings had no answer for AD in the paint as he put Sabonis in foul trouble and bullied his way to 36 points (11-13 from the free throw line) and along with Reaves applied the right pressure to Sacramento’s defense to complete the sweep. Reaves and AD have a nice chemistry on the floor and, in general, Austin has distinguished himself as a capable (though not elite) offense initiator.
2. Rui Hachimura should be considered as untouchable as Reaves. The dude just makes shots off the pass. He’s hitting 47.7% of his catch and shoot threes and he’s leading the Lakers in three point efficiency by a country mile at 45.2%. The next closest player is Dalton Knecht at 36.7%. Rui has become the ultimate release valve and is doing it while playing a variety of roles on defense. Small ball center? Rui’s got you covered. He’s averaging a steal/game for the first time in his career and if he upped his rebounding we’d really have something cooking at the 3 spot.
3. Dalton Knecht re-emerging from his slump. After a few games of virtually vanishing from the offense and seeing his playing time decrease Dalton rediscovered his shooting tough on Christmas and carried it over to the game last night. Dalton has a solid shot at winning ROY and needs to keep impacting winning like he has. He’s not afraid of banging on defense, he’s a decent rebounder and he cuts well off the ball to open up his inside game. We need all of those things on a more consistent basis.
4. The Trade. Nobody saw it coming, in fact I thought Memphis had locked up DFS yesterday as it sounded like it was a done deal. As always the NBA keeps one on their toes. The trade for Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton was for DLO, Max Lewis and 3 second round draft picks. One has to imagine that Memphis balked at the inclusion of a FRP or was concerned that DFS would either not pick up his player option and walk or that he would and mess up some potential salary cap plans. Regardless the Lakers made the right move. Adding DFS and Milton helps two areas of need, especially with Vincent being out with an injury mid-game last night. DFS allows us to move one of Hachimura or Christie to the bench and augment our shooting and defense while doing it. My personal preference would be to move Max but I feel like Hachimura may end up the fall guy. However it goes this was a solid move by the front office if for no other reason than we made a move that helps preserve the cap space DLO would have cost us had he simply moved on as an UFA.
5. Speaking of DLO. I want to thank him for his contributions. Coming over as the centerpiece to the Westbrook deal after everything that went down when he was a Laker there were a lot of questions. I think he answered almost all of them, although not all to the liking of the fans. Gone was the immature kid posting Insta videos of his teammates without them knowing and instead we got a quality player on the floor and in the locker room. Helping us get to the western conference finals that season was an awesome journey for him to have taken. It’s unfortunate that Coach Reddick didn’t unlock DLO’s game as hoped for and it felt to me like Russell took a small step back this season and so hopefully he can showcase his talent in Brooklyn and get himself a solid contract this summer. D’Angelo Russell, thanks for everything.

If only there were multi day breaks scattered throughout the season. As it is, the Lakers seemingly have maximized their non-participance in the NBA Cup 2.0 by finding a grip of days to get LeBron rest, the team to get back on the same page, and to get record on the right side of the column. After struggling on defense for most of the season the Lakers have turned in 2 decent performances on that end and the result has been pleasing, Time to turn this thing around.

1. Defense first. It’s weird how often I write about this. I often feel like a wise man, shouting into the wind as everyone else who appreciates basketball screams “shoot more threes” back at me. Then we lose, often a lot, and eventually everyone else comes around to my way of looking at things, mumbling about defense does in fact put banners on walls. There was string of games where the Lakers were giving up close to 120 points per game. Utterly pathetic. We were getting run out of the building because of silly live ball turnovers, non-existent transition defense, and anemic defensive rebounding. While those will surely be issues for the under-sized and soft Lakers all season long, they did start to right the ship and seem more focused on limiting those opportunities after the long break. Time will tell how much of this is an actual sea change and how much of this is a result of a long break early in the season.
2. The LeBron question. It’s not a question of the stats. They look, for the most part, like they always do. Fairly efficient scoring, solid all around play, defense is the area where he needs the most team help. It’s what he needs to do in order to be ready to do this effectively in the playoffs. LeBron has looked decent since his long break. Unfortunately the NBA isn’t in the habit of putting a week or so in between games. So, to this, I hope LeBron, the training staff and coaches are looking at the season and circling games he absolutely needs to sit out in order to maximize off days and increase rest. It’s all for nothing if he grinds himself down to dust and can’t find another gear come playoff time.
3. AD taking the baton. Can we just stop with this being a question now? It’s obvious he cannot carry a team by himself, that he is more suited to being the second dog at the feeding bowl and that his best focus is on defense and scoring can come second. There is no other version of AD that I’ve ever seen show up consistently. Yeah force-feeding him worked for about a month, maybe 6 weeks. It’s not happening anymore because teams are junking up the paint fronting him, having a secondary defender lurking and quick defenders scouring his passing lanes waiting for lazy passes that will happen over the course of every game. A lot of our turnovers are off of ridiculously difficult passes into AD, trying to short cut the play (possibly) and not running a proper action. This is now by defensive design by the opponent. Call me crazy but when you broad cast to the world your plan,, go about executing and then it gets scouted…you need to adjust.
4. The value of Austin Reaves. The reason I prioritize getting another off the bounce distributer at the point guard position is because of the ceiling it seems like Reaves has hit. He’s having a solid season, one could say Tony Parker-esque, It doesn’t seem like enough unless one of DLO, Rui and Max has a pretty error-free, high-impact game. Reaves’ stats won’t wow you but the eye test shows us his value in how he attacks the defense and loosens up the interior with drives. Nobody else can really accomplish that. DLO does his thing with his misdirection, flip shot/sneaky pass game he’s developed but it’s limited and really doesn’t work come playoff time (a well documented issue we need not harp on again). There needs to be another option because Reaves has to eventually sit and, given his styler of play, has a knack for getting banged up. We have serviceable center options on the team, they’re just hurt. Getting Wood and Hayes back would represent the same basic idea of pulling off a trade for another one-dimensional center (like Valanciunas, for example) and if we can get them both on the floor I’d prefer to keep or focus on improving the point guard position or getting a wing defender. This is because Austin Reaves can get it done…barely. If we could get him some help (or if JHS could ever stay healthy AND prove he belongs in the NBA) it would go a long way to improving our title chances.
5. Max Christie: starter. The fact that this is the possibly the best answer to our rotation woes does nothing but illustrate the gaps in the overall roster in a glaring fashion. Pick any top 5 team in either conference and Max Christie is definitely coming off the bench as the plucky guard who can get a stop or two and maybe hit a corner three. End of role. On the Lakers he’s expected to be a steady rotation player, play solid on-ball defense for 20+ minutes/game and score at least 10 ppg. Frankly, that seems unreasonable. He’s not that player, at least not yet, and this really can’t be a season of growing pains. When (if?) Vando comes back I’d rather see him start at the 2 for a month or so.