5 Things: LeBron & Lakers defeat Cavaliers

The Lakers rolled to a 10-0, unbeaten road record last night thanks mainly to the superlative game by LeBron James. While he didn’t single-handily beat the Cavs it was as close as you can get with James being far and away the best player on the court last night from either squad. On a night when the Laker offense struggled mightily it was good to have The King.

1. The undisputed King. Last night was LeBron’s best game of this season, one of his best as a Laker and might crack his personal top 10 but that’s a different debate. James went nuts last night: 46 points on a mere 26 shots, a lethal 7-11 from three, 8 rebounds, 6 assists (could have easily been more but the team couldn’t shoot last night), 2 steals, 2 blocks and only 3 turnovers. Stellar effort from LeBron with several highlight plays including a logo three when we really needed a bucket and were up against the shot clock.
2. Lakers three point shooting still coming back down to Earth. It’s not a dig or really even a critique but should rather be viewed as a reality check: the Lakers are not an elite three point shooting team. They’re middle of the pack to above average in that regard and that’s enough given the personnel. KCP was abysmal from distance last night (1-8) but was hardly alone in his struggles. AD was 0-3, Gasol 0-1, Schroder was 0-1 which normally would bode terribly for a decent % by the starters except that LeBron was so good he shot the starters into a decent zone (8-24 for 33%). While the bench also struggled (2-8, 25%) they brought a lot more fire and hustle than the starters did which helped overcome their shooting woes.
3. Gasol, post defense and foul trouble. There doesn’t appear to be an easy fix for this. Marc ain’t fast and if he’s out of position by a few inches on a drive he gets whistled for the foul. His verticality hasn’t been great and he tends to reach when a guy blows past him which is kind of frequently. He’s not fouling at an absurdly high rate but that’s due as much to his low minutes (19.8 far and away a career low) juxtaposed by essentially the same foul rate as other, higher usage seasons (2.5 FPG this season, 2.9 for his career). He’s not getting any younger or faster. He may get a little better at knowing where his feet need to be to better stymie drives to the rim. He hasn’t been an anchor on the defense but he has to foul less in order to be available more. We’re pretty under-sized after Gasol, especially during the regular season when AD is slotted as a 4.
4. Wes Matthews vs. Talen Horton-Tucker. It’s not that Wes has been bad, he hasn’t been bad although he is up for the Danny Green award (given to vets whom I have high hopes for that are constantly dashed on the rocks of disappointment). But he’s not shooting very freely putting the rock on the floor when he shoot just let fly. An argument could be made that those minutes, and they’re not a lot, would be better spent enabling and sussing out what level of consistency and contribution THT can bring. While it’s early and I’m not advocating on giving up on Wes…yet…there’s still a clear debate as to how best to use those 15-20 minutes.
5. The Cavs are gritty, better than expected and that was without Larry Nance Jr. Drummond is an underrated All-Star caliber player, Osman can get hot in a flash, and they have a gritty bench like us. All in all, a tough match up for the Lakers. The Cavs made a real game of it all the way up until the final five when the Laker defense really clamped down and LeBron just kept hitting incredible shot after incredible shot.

As we look back and remember Kobe, Gigi and the others who tragically perished a year ago I’m glad the Lakers are book ending the day and not playing. It’s kind of unfair for any one group of Lakers to be asked to stand up and represent everything Kobe Bryant meant to LA, the Lakers and the world of basketball. So I, for one, am happy there is no Laker game tonight. So take a minute, hug the ones you love, reach out to the ones you can’t via Zoom or whatever techno-app you fancy and let’s honor the tragedy of lives lost before their time by doing our part to defeat COVID-19 and get back to a world where we can be with one another, again. Go Lakers.