5 Things: Lakers sloppy defense fuels loss

In another game where LeBron attained a lofty place in NBA history the Lakers made it a point to play like crap. They came out hot on offense but managed one quarter of decent defense (the first) before getting lazy with their rotations, inept with their footwork and none of it was helped by Vogel choosing to guard 7’3″ Kristaps Porzingis with the likes of Bradley, Westbrook and other small players. Thus, despite LeBron moving to second on the All Time scoring list the Lakers fell to 30-41 with a meager .5 game lead over the Pelicans.

1. LeBron is number two. It’s an amazing accomplishment over-shadowed only by how utterly awful the Lakers have played in all but a handful of games. Accumulating that many points in the NBA requires, luck, skill, durability, great teammates, and above all dedication. Honestly, just about everything the Lakers a re seemingly lacking in this season. Still, for a half it looked like the Lakers might do right by LeBron and make it a winning affair. James, if he plays another 2 seasons of relatively healthy basketball, will surely pass The Captain and occupy the number 1 spot all by himself. While the impact of the three point shot, the fact LeBron came out of high school, and that he was always a featured player in every season he played all played a part in LeBron getting to this point it’s indisputable that LeBron has put in the work and dedication to his craft required to get to this level.
2. Westbrook’s great night. It occurred to me that we may have just watched one of the last great shooting nights of Russell’s career. Never a highly efficient scorer Russ was on fire from all over last night. So much so that I was hoping Russ would have been a little more aggressive looking for his own shot later in the game. While that didn’t happen Russ still had a great follow up to his game-saving antics the night before.
3. THT’s not so great game. Another donut for Talen who really looks lost to me this season. Making terrible reads on defense, not attacking the basket like we know he’s capable of doing, and generally playing like a guy who didn’t deserve a raise last summer. If there ever was a debate as to if the Lakers chose the wrong player betwixt Talen and Alex (for me there never was, I’d have gone Caruso in every scenario imaginable) one would imagine this season of mediocre play, regression and general malaise from a young player who hasn’t done much would be enough.
4. Refs an easy excuse but faulty. The issue was more with our general lack of defensive intensity and poor match ups. We also got lazy on offense in the 4th when LeBron ran outta gas. I wish the team and/or the coaches were as good at recognizing when LeBron has hit a wall as I seem to be. When he does hit that wall we need him to go into decoy, off-ball mode not 35′ three point hero ball mode. Monk didn’t get many late looks, we generally just went to the LeBron/Melo two-man game that lives on the perimeter. Need to do better. If you don’t attack the defense you don’t get to the line. Was there a rather large difference between the free throws awarded to each team? Yes, but there was a legit reason why. I counted 5 free throws I thought we should have been awarded, mostly in the first half except for one Westbrook drive. That’s not enough for the game to swing our way. Wizards were the aggressor, credit goes to them.
5. Missing the playoffs has become a real outcome for this season. San Antonio is 3 games back and could knock us out of the playoffs. We play New Orleans twice in the next couple weeks and with 11 games back and our post ASB winning percentage being what it is and the general lack of interest the Lakers have shown regarding competing for 48 minutes I can quite easily envision a world where we lose all but one or two games going forward and San Antonio sneaks past. If that happens nobody, and I mean nobody, with a meaningful job title should be around next season. Our talent evaluation other lan late round draft picks is garbage, the front office is run by the superstars and the coach defaults to them, as well. In short this team is an utter mess and frankly deserves to miss the playoffs the way they play on most nights. After deriding the playin last season LeBron will be counting his lucky-ass stars that it exists now because otherwise they wouldn’t have a hope of sniffing the playoffs. That could still happen.

Another game Monday against Cleveland, not sure which version of the Lakers will show up and honestly I don’t think it matters anymore. this team can’t sustain effort for 48 minutes which means they’ll be done no later than the 1st round. Davis coming back or Nunn “lighting it up” in practice means nothing now. Too little, too late. The habits we laughed off as “it’s just one game!” months ago are now the habits that will lead this team to become possibly the most disappointing Laker team every assembled.