Well so much for hoping a long break away from the game would allow the Lakers to hit reset. Continuing a season-long theme of showing up for 1/3 to 1/2 of an NBA game they are scheduled to play in the Laker no-showed the second quarter and went down by as many as 16. Lacking enough overall talent, a coach who can draw up plays, and one of the three max-salaried players whom we rely extensively on the Lakers lost a close game. Again.
- LeBron’s 25+ point game streak ends. The law of averages finally swung in such a fashion as to end one of the more compelling plot lines of this mostly dreary season. LeBron had a really off shooting night going 6-18 overall and 2-8 from three. He also had a team-high 6 turnovers to just 3 assists. In all fairness, since nobody on the Lakers shot well last night, the dimes being low is understandable. Still, too many of James’ shots came outside the paint on a night he didn’t really get the jumper going.
- Russ being aggressive, but not successful. Stu Lantz has a saying I just love: let success be your guide. Jump shot working? Great, hoist ’em up. Three ball on point? Fire away! Defense can’t stop you in the paint? Drive it in, baby! Russ, like LeBron, didn’t find much success shooting from any distance and also turned in a fairly pedestrian scoring affair. Just one assist, but zero turnovers, shows that Westbrook wasn’t doing a great job getting his team going off the pass. Again, some of that can be attributed to the Lakers generally miserable shooting last night. Westbrook impacts the game for us the best when he is an aggressive rebounder, which he wasn’t last night with only 3.
- Dwight’s big game. Howard turned in a vintage performance and pretty much single-handedly kept us in the game in the first half. 16 rebounds and 3 big blocks helped the Lakers defense and his 7 offensive rebounds were a great reminder of what a true big man can bring to the game. Unfortunately, like so many of our guys off the bench, this kind of showing hasn’t been the norm for Dwight. This seems to be a “once every few games” kind of effort. Some of his earlier struggles were due to COVID and likely Dwight had really fresh legs post ASB so it’ll be interesting to see if he can keep up this level of activity. That is if he even gets to play given Frank’s penchant for wild rotation swings this season.
- Awful from distance. 8-31 is a pretty terrible mark for an NBA team from three and half of those were made by Melo. Of the entire team only THT seemed on point from distance going 2-2 but, like Reaves, he doesn’t really search that shot out. He prefers to drive the ball or semi-probe before moving the ball around the perimeter. LeBron, as mentioned, went 2-8 and the rest of the team went 0fer from three. Not a recipe for success against any team on any night. Hopefully this was just some rust being knocked off.
- Ariza still looks slow and old. The layoff didn’t bring any speed or quickness back to Trevor’s game as he continued his season of playing in mud. 1-5 from the floor (0-3 from three), 4 rebounds and turnover in 18 minutes that could have gone to Monk and Johnson. It took Frank far too long to relegate DeAndre Jordan to the bench and he seems more than willing to do the same with Ariza who I think has had exactly one good game this season. I don’t want to dump on a guy who helped hang a banner but there’s just not a lot of positives to be drawn from the minutes were doling out to Ariza right now.
We’re 5 games under .500 and closer to the bottom of the western conference standings (12 games up on the Rockets) than the top (21.5 back from Phoenix). Think about that for a second. A team that has LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook is in danger of not winning even 40% of it’s games this season. A team that won the NBA Finals just 2 seasons ago could miss the playoffs after they added a 3rd superstar. If that doesn’t debunk the myth of the “3 superstars are awesome bro!” scenario I don’t know what will. I like and admire Westbrook’s game and tenacity, I thought this could work if the Lakers were willing to spend to make it work. Not only was I wrong but people who are paid a lot of money to get it right got it terribly wrong. So, we’ll see. I don’t have much optimism left at this point. We’ll probably make the playin round, might even get out of that just to face a rested and hungry Suns team looking for some fresh meat. We can all keep peddling the line of “Davis and James are dangerous when they’re healthy” but I don’t even buy that anymore. They were dangerous when they were on a good team.
This isn’t a good team.
Go Lakers.
Nice recap Jamie, what really is sucks is the supporting cast played well enough to win. This seems to be a disturbing trend. Last night both Russ and LeBron let us down. Against the Warriors LeBron has an even more Horrid shooting game 9 for 27 and against the Trailblazers AD disappeared. All close games. While superstars can’t be brilliant every game, they have to be at least good. That’s why they make 40+ mil a game. The kids are playing hard enough to keep it close. It’s the 3 guys taking up over 120 mil of the salary cap that have to constantly step up.
1. The 25ppg streak is nice and all, but it’s just window dressing. Numbers lie all the time. The W-L is all that matters. Lebron alone currently doesn’t get you there as is evident.
2. Russ, please, shut it down. You’re a net negative out there when it comes to winning. Call up someone from the G league to take his spot. Go focus on selling cars (I, for one, will NEVER buy a car from a Westbrook dealership after this, but nonetheless), your days as a winning NBA player are over. Enjoy getting bounced around while the league plays hot potato with you for the remainder of this stupid contract. You’ll be the cautionary tale at the next CBA negotiation as to why the super-duper max needs to be done away with.
3. Dwight at least has some relevance as a spot-duty NBA big. While his bonehead plays and bad hands are still obvious, he’s certainly better than Stanley Johnson against anyone over 6’8 in light action. Blowing a night when he’s actually a net positive is extra disappointing. May only have 1 of those left this season.
4. Let’s face it, this ain’t a great 3 pt shooting team. I put some of that on coaching. These dudes aren’t getting great looks and chuck up out of rhythm. Lebron in particular, but at least he can get it going from there on occasion. Him getting cooking on those wonky looking, off axis 3’s from deep may be the only way the team squeaks out a few more w’s. I’d focus on getting Monk & Reaves better looks in the flow of the offense, but I think that sort of work is above Frank’s head.
5. Trevor and the other one foot out of the league Vets (AB/DJ) should be cut and replaced with G-league stars. It’s obvious they’re not contributors on an even mediocre NBA level, much less championship contributors. Experience may be nice and all, but wtf good does it do you if the body can’t respond anymore? Appreciate you Trev, but it’s lookin’ like time to think about the next chapter.
All in all this season has been my LEAST favorite as a Lakers fan and all my fears when they let Klutch in the door have come to fruition.
-Lebron got too old to carry the load but still carried an outsized paycheck and weight on the organization in proportion to his performance on the court.
-Too many roster concessions were made for Klutch clients
-Bad roster decisions were made in last ditch attempts to stay relevant at Klutch/Lebron’s urging and pressure to make worse decisions to compound the problem going forward
A lot of sunshine pumpers will keep pointing to the bubble ring, but we can debate all day what that was worth. I’ll take it, but it’s apparent no more are coming. Marching into another decade of irrelevance to appease a player and his bellhop/agent plus their oft-injured buddy just ain’t worth it. Get some pieces while you can for them. I’d love to watch a group of young pieces and assets build something for real as opposed to watch another old star with no loyalty to the team decline even further.
This team bounced Shaq, who was beloved and brought in 3 rings and league dominance. How there’s even debate it’s time to get Klutch TF outta town is hilarious.
@Therealhtj
Wow, my goodness. Man, I feel your pain but you nailed it. There is nothing here for me to dispute. Just facts. I feel the same way just like you, only that you saved me time to explain how hurt I am this season.
“All in all this season has been my LEAST favorite as a Lakers fan and all my fears when they let Klutch in the door have come to fruition.”
That’s exactly my feelings too, and that’s putting it plainly. What an excellent rebuttal.
Good fiver, Jamie. Some disturbing stuff and some silver linings.
1. Other than the 4th quarter of the Jazz win, LeBron has had a tough time the last four close games, averaging only 6 assists against a Westbrookish 4.8 turnovers. Rest of the team, especially the young guns, played very well. Russ too. This team will only go as far as LeBron can carry them and that may be in question with the knee and all the mileage and AD being out. Time maybe to rest LeBron for a week or two. Do not want a repeat of a tired and exhausted Kobe tearing his Achilles.
2. Russ has had a positive net rating the last four games but 1 assist and 0 turnovers doesn’t cut it. Lakers need a lot more from Russ with AD out. Russ has a golden opportunity to finish the final third of this season like he has the last two seasons but he’s going to have to get aggressive and really make an impact.
3. Dwight had a great game, especially in the first half. If he can do this, we probably should go with him as the starting center so that we don’t have to rely too much on LeBron, whom I would even consider sitting down for a week or two. The remote chance to win #18 this season is not worth risking LeBron’s health. Time for Dwight to carry the load until AD returns.
4. One of the things we need when we replace Frank Vogel is a coach who understands creating spacing and attacking with constant motion and movement rather than all of this isolation basketball that Frank allows LeBron and AD to resort to. While I’m not suggesting the Lakers hire Mike D’Antoni, I would bet you anything every player on this team would have a higher field goal and 3-point shooting percentage than under Frank Vogel.
5. Unfortunately, Ariza is washed. Add him to DeAndre Jordan and hopefully Avery Bradley. Play Monk, Anthony, Reaves, and Johnson. Stop experimenting with lineups. Put your best five out there and win games.
Where do we go from here? Hopefully, we get 7th or 8th seed so we get to advance. Then a matchup in the first round with the Warriors and then the Jazz and we could make the conference finals against the Suns. Who knows? Odds? Maybe 50-1. That’s what we have left in this crazy Covid season.