5 Things: Lakers let down in the 4th, Warriors win

This was a solid “test” game for the Lakers. We’d been beating up on under-talented or imploding teams, as we should be doing, and hadn’t faced a true test since much earlier in the season. While the Lakers didn’t win, thus in some ways ‘failing’ the test, nothing I saw last night derails my thinking that we are the team to beat. In the end, this was a bigger win for Golden State than it was a big loss for LA.

1. Second half sputter. We had a poor overall showing in the second half. Didn’t score well, allowed the 2nd unit for the Warriors to eat into a big chunk of our lead and had some major defensive breakdowns. These are all fixable. Our transition D and get-back was poor last night, just one of the reason Golden State almost equaled us in points in the paint, done largely without budding star James Wiseman who played a scant 13 minutes due to foul trouble. The coaches will go over the film and the breakdowns will be mitigated or resolved altogether.
2. Poor three point shooting. Just didn’t have the tough from distance. It happens but on a night when Steph wasn’t Steph it would have been nice to can just one more. LeBron will talk to Kentavious, he’ll let fly with more ease but everyone of the starters struggled from three point land. Plenty of blame for them to share, as they say.
3. Stu’s Rule: no new superstars. We utterly failed on this letting Eric Paschal shake loose for 19 points (on 11 shots), the struggling Kelly Oubre Jr. to go off for 23 and third option Andrew Wiggins to pour in 18 (on 11 shots). Too much efficient shooting from guys we need to lock down. Credit the Warriors, though, for sticking with their game plan, hitting the open man and those guys for hitting some timely shots.
4. Anthony Davis and his season long struggle from the stripe. It’s no secret Davis is starting slow, slower than LeBron James. While I sort of expected his defense and overall aggressiveness to take a small hit due to the quick turnaround, his free throw shooting was literally the last thing I expected to see suffer. Especially to the degree that it has so far this season. While he is shooting 75% that is down from his career 80.1% he’s shot for his career and well below his personal best 84.6% he made last season. I doubt he’ll be able to replicate that lofty percentage but he needs to get back on track. AD wasn’t alone, though, we missed some key freebies down the stretch that could have altered the complexity of the game.
5. No home crowd. We’re seeing a strange, though not wholly unexpected, trend in the NBA this year: no home crowd leading to home team let downs. It sure seemed to effect the Lakers last night and our home record reveals the season long struggles we’ve had winning in an empty STAPLES. As vaccinations roll out I hope the league takes every precaution to maintain everyone’s safety and well-being but man would it be nice to have at least some people cheering the purple and gold on at home. That being said, we’re heading out on the road again for 7 games so we should be good to go. It’s also led to some odd refereeing, I believe, as the intensity is always bland which is an extra hurdle during the regular season.

It’d be easy to say everything that we saw last night will be fixed with time or a couple film sessions and practices. But one thing that troubled me was how ineffective our small ball was against Golden State’s version. This may be partly attributed to the fact we played the team that made small ball a thing but it should be a cause for alarm as the Warriors show everyone that the fork isn’t needed and please don’t stick it in, we’re nowhere near done, yet. Still, all things being as they are, I’ll take the Lakers in 7 over anyone right now. Go Lakers.