5 Things: Lakers end Thanksgiving weekend by feasting on Spurs, again

While it’s a scheduling issue the Lakers might want to take up with the NBA we won’t play the Spurs or Pistons again for awhile. It was good to see the Lakers beat teams they’re supposed to: the Spurs feature young players and are clearly rebuilding.

1. Russ is tough. Nobody would have blamed Russ for sitting out the rest of the game. Dude had his forehead split open by an obvious flagrant 2 and could have gotten seriously hurt. Who knew the Lakers employed Mic from Rocky on the sideline. Russ came back out, no stitches needed, to finish the game. The thing that stood out to me was how LeBron had Brodie’s back, helping him keep his retaliation to single tech level, talked about how he and Russ are, and have been for a long while, close off the court (they now live across the street from one another). This is a marked departure from the summer of utter BS we endured about “how LeBron is pissed at Russ” or “he would NEVER sign an extension until Russ was traded” and so on. Funny how crap you read in the internet isn’t secret truth but actually just crap.
2. Scored 143…gave up 138. It took an incredibly efficient performance from LeBron, another mighty disparity in free throws and Wenyan Gabriel going 2-4 from three to beat a beatable team. I think it’s great WG flashed some range, that Reaves was nearly perfect, and that the Lakers increased focus on attacking the paint resulted in the keys to victory. These aren’t sustainable things, though, and we need to defend better and keep the opposition off the glass. Speaking of which…
3. The Spurs killed us in the glass. Especially on the offensive board side of the equation. 3-17 in offensive rebounds which resulted in the Spurs shooting the ball 24 more times along with us turning the ball over a little too much. In a lot of ways the Lakers were quite lucky to pull this win out.
4. LeBron looked great scoring the ball. We won’t get into LeBron or any other Laker’s defensive shortcomings, suffice to say everyone had a hand in letting the Spurs running up 138 points. Still, in a season defined but what LeBron will or won’t be able to do it was really nice to see James s prong with ease from his favorite spots. While this game won’t go down in history as a great game for LeBron it should help raise the spirits and elevate the prospects of his Laker teammates. If they execute their roles, play a little better on defense, and we can keep AD and LeBron on the floor together we got a shot most nights.
5. Real test coming up. Pacers, Blazers, Bucks, Wizards, Cavs, Raptors, 76ers, Pistons, Celtics, and the Nuggets over the next 10. Honestly , .500 feels reasonable but will require the team to play a lot better on D. Can they respond? We will pass through the 20 game mark Rob Pelinka said was an evaluation period. What the criteria of that may be is unknown. One would hope that getting to .500 would be a benchmark of some kind. What that means is a mystery. If we’re playing well does that make a trade less or more likely? If we’re awful do they look to next summer and keep the picks? Russ has done everything asked, does that mean they won’t trade him simply for addition by subtraction’s sake? Who knows.

The Lakers still look like a playin team, at best, to me. This upcoming stretch of games will tell us a lot. Here’s hoping expectations are exceeded! Go Lakers.