Lakerholics

The Lakers’ win over the Wolves last night included everything their fans and coaches could want, including Davis continuing to take the torch from James and the purple and gold putting on offensive and defensive clinics.

The 39–38 Lakers are currently in 7th place in the West, 1.5 games behind the 41–37 Warriors and Clippers, who are essentially tied for 6th and 5th seeds in the West. Lakers own tie-breaker over Warriors but not Clippers.
Lakers have 5 games left: @ Rockets, @ Jazz, @ Clippers, vs Suns, vs Jazz. Warriors have 4 games left: @ Nuggets, vs Thunder, @ Kings, @ Blazers. Clippers have 4 games left: @ Pelicans, vs Lakers, vs Blazers, @ Suns.

Last night’s game was the Lakers’ biggest win of the season. With Davis again playing like an MVP and James slowly working his way back into game shape after missing over a month, the Lakers wil be a playoff nightmare.
Like Isaiah Thomas said, there’s no team in the West that wants to face the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. Right now, it looks like the likely #3 seed Kings are the team the #6 seed Lakers would play in first round.

With just 4 games to go, the Lakers right now have a lock on the 7th seed at worst and a good chance to move up to the #6 seed and get a week off for injured superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis to rest and recover.
The Lakers can expect a lot of strategic positioning moves over the last few games as teams try to win or lose games to avoid having to play L.A. in the first round of the playoffs. Going to be interesting to see what teams do.

With the West wide open, the Lakers sent a message to the rest of the NBA with their dominating win last night on the road against the Timberwolves: Expect the 2023 NBA Championship to go through the Los Angeles Lakers.

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Anthony Davis Takes Torch from LeBron James

Anthony Davis’ injury woes the past three seasons have led many Lakers fans to lose faith that he could ever prove to be good or healthy enough to take the torch from LeBron James as the Lakers leading prime superstar.

With James still working to get back to superstar status after being out for a month, Anthony Davis came to the rescue again, taking over and carrying the Lakers on his back for a second straight MVP-quality performance.
Anthony Davis not only led the Lakers to the team’s biggest win of the season but he did it on a bum ankle that he sprained early in the third quarter just as the Lakers were surging to get back into the game.

I remember thinking as the game went to commercial that this might be the end of the Lakers’ season and wondering whether this also might be the injury that finally forced the Lakers to consider trading Anthony Davis.
Fortunately, Davis was able to walk off the injury and elevated his play to another level as the Lakers halfcourt defense shut down the Timberwolves and the Lakers closed the game by relentlessly going to AD in the post.

If the Lakers are going to win their 18th NBA championship this season, it will be because Anthony Davis finally elevates his game to MVP level and at last takes the torch from LeBron James and the Lakers become his team.

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New Lakers’ Starting Lineup Sizzles

The Los Angeles Lakers’ new-look starting lineup of Russell, Reaves, Vanderbilt, James, and Davis has now played together for 25 minutes and posted a sizzling 132.0 OffRtg, stifling 108.5 DefRtg, and +23.5 NetRtg.

The new-look starting lineup provides the Lakers with a balanced two-way lineup that possesses excellent size, length, athleticism, and versatility while balancing the team’s need for shooting, playmaking, and defense.
Russell and Reaves provide the Lakers with a backcourt that can shoot, playmake, and defend. Davis, James, and Vanderbilt provide the Lakers with a front court that can switch and defend every position on the court.

As the Lakers head into the playoffs, Ham is also smartly narrowing his rotation down to 8 key players, the five starters plus Schröder, Hachimura, and Gabriel with additional spot minutes from Brown, Jr. and Beasley.
The only possible change could be the re-insertion of backup center Mo Bamba into the rotation. While Gabriel has been playing well, getting Bamba back would give the Lakers another desperately needed big man.

The Lakers greatest challenge to successfully finishing the season is health. Rob Pelinka’s moves at the trade deadline clearly gave the Lakers a major roster upgrade. The only question is whether the trades came too late.

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Lakers’ Defense Dominates Timberwolves

After trailing the Wolves 65–55 at halftime, the Lakers essentially came out and shut Minnesota down, holding them to just 18 points in the 3rd quarter and just 18 in the fourth quarter plus 10 garbage points in last two minutes.

With Anthony Davis, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Rui Hachimura protecting the rim in the second half, the Lakers turned the Timberwolves into a jump shooting team as they went from down 10 to up 7 to start 4th quarter.
Besides Davis and Vanderbilt, Shroder, Hachimura, and Gabriel all had outstanding second halves as they led Lakers’ dominant defensive charge, making steals, deflecting passes, blocking shots, and taking charges.

Overall, the third quarter was probably the best defensive quarter the Lakers have had all year long. Ironically, right in the middle of this great 3rd quarter defensive run was when Anthony Davis twisted his ankle.
If there was a moment this season when everything hung in the balance, it was there in the third quarter when AD went down in pain holding onto his ankle. Fortunately, AD said later he was playing Sunday for sure.

Since the trade deadline, the Los Angeles Lakers’ 110.3 defensive ranking was #1 in the entire league. They also lead the league in rebounding and rank best in the NBA in defending without sending opponents to the line.

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Lakers’ Offense Feeds AD To Close Game

One of the major traits of a great NBA coach is the ability to find weakness in the other team’s defense and then relentlessly attack that weakness until the other team makes an adjustment. Darvin Ham is learning that fast.

Once the Lakers had built a 10-point lead over the Timberwolves, they displayed some of their best offensive discipline we’ve seen this season as they consistently got the ball to Anthony Davis where he could score at will.
So many times over the last three seasons, we’ve seen the Lakers find an opening in the opponent’s defense only to ignore it going forward and start playing iso-ball with LeBron or Anthony rather than running a set play.

Last night, we saw the opposite. Even though he was limping a little from his twisted ankle, the Lakers either ran pick-and-rolls to get AD easy dunks or floaters or down-picks so he could catch the ball moving to the basket.
Best of all, Russell and Schröder never let the Wolves off the hook. Instead, every single time down the court they set up plays to get the ball to AD, often coming off a down-pick and/or rolling to the hoop for an easy shot.

The ability to be hyper-focused and successful in getting Anthony Davis the ball to close out games was a huge development in the Lakers’ half-court schemes that should help them in those critical end game situations.

After being on life support for first 76 games of the regular season, thanks to parity the #8 Los Angeles Lakers are perfectly positioned with 6 games to go to jump the #7 Wolves and #6 Warriors and win the #6 seed in the West.

Tomorrow night, the #8 Lakers visit the #7 Timberwolves in a game that could catapult Los Angeles past Minnesota to take over the #7 seed in the West, getting home court advantage in the Play-In Game for 7th seed.
A win tomorrow night would also leave the Lakers 1 loss from being able to use their tie-breaker to knock Golden State into the Play-In Tournament and steal the #6 seed in the West and guaranteed playoff spot from them.

After a season filled with the constant pressure of ‘must win’ games, the last thing the Lakers want at this point in the season is to be forced to win one or two crucial games in the Play-In Tourney to make the NBA playoffs.
The Lakers will be under intense win-or-go-home pressure for each of their next 6 games while still facing a daunting challenge trying to reintegrate LeBron James into a lineup that finally learned how to win without him.

Here are four compelling reasons why the Los Angeles Lakers desperately need to win the 6th seed in the West over the next 6 games to avoid having to participate in what is likely to be a tough, gruelling Play-In Tournament.

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1. 6th Seed Guarantees Playoff Spot

The biggest benefit of winning the 6th seed in the West is the team is one of the six teams who are guaranteed a spot in the NBA playoffs. Unlike the four teams who finished 7th through 10th, 6th seed can relax. They’re in.

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2. 6th Seed Gets Week Off Before Playoffs

The next big advantage of winning the 6th seed is a week off before the playoffs. For a team like the Lakers, getting a week for LeBron and AD to rest and recover and the team to actually practice together would be gold.

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3. 6th Seed Plays 3rd Seed Sacramento Kings

Unlike the 7th through 10th seeds, the 6th seed knows they will play the 3rd seed in the first round of the playoffs. Frankly, there is no better first round opponent for this Lakers team than the playoff newbie Sacramento Kings.

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4. 6th Seed Avoids Nuggets and Clippers

The other benefit of winning 6th seed is not having to meet #1 Nuggets, #4 Suns, #5 Clippers, or whomever emerges from the Play-In as #8. Our bracket inclues #6 Kings, #2 Grizzies, and whoever wins the #7 seed.

Since declaring they plan to re-sign D’Angelo Russell as their point guard of the future this summer rather than pursuing Kyrie Irving, the Lakers had their first opportunity to see Russell and Irving go head-to-head last night.

While it’s just one game, Kyrie Irving dominated play and his match up with D’Angelo Russell as three costly end-of-game mistakes by Anthony Davis caused the Lakers to lose a 111–110 heartbreaking buzzer-beater.
Irving posted 38 points on hot 14–23 shooting, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists with just 2 turnovers in 39 minutes. Russell posted just 11 points on poor 5–17 shooting, 2 rebounds, and 11 assists with 0 turnovers in 36 minutes.

Last night’s Mavs and Lakers game showed why the Lakers could still change their minds and decide to pursue a sign-and-trade for Kyrie Irving as their point guard of the future instead of re-signing D’Angelo Russell.
Kyrie is without doubt one of the most talented and hard-to-stop superstars in the league and performances like he had last night only make Lakers fans and even the Lakers front office more likely to rethink their position.

But the decision is not as simple as deciding between D’Angelo Russell and Kyrie Irving. It’s actually a franchise-defining decision to pursue the three-superstars model or the two-superstars and deep-and-diverse-roster model. It’s about what is the right strategy considering where the Lakers are right now as a team, what resources they have to make changes, and what kind of roster do they need to build around LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

As great an offensive player as Kyrie Irving is, D’Angelo Russell is still a better overall fit for Lakers than because he adds continuity, is younger, is taller and longer, is less expensive, and is more trustworthy and reliable.

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1. Russell Improves Lakers’ Continuity

The Lakers desperately need continuity after three years of one-and-done rosters. If D’Angelo Russell continues to play like he has, the Lakers need to re-sign him long-term rather than trying to trade him for a third superstar.

After turning over almost their entire roster other than superstars the past three summers, Los Angeles reversed that strategy at the trade deadline by focusing on trading for younger players who would be great long-term fits.
Based on what we’ve seen in the 9 games he’s played, Russell already is proving to be the perfect point guard for the Lakers. He’s averaging 17.9 points, 3.6 boards, and 6.4 assists in 29.8 mpg shooting 44.5/37.1/82.8%.

The Lakers think they have at least three more years of LeBron James as a superstar and building continuity by re-signing D’Angelo Russell long-term, as well as their other new additions, should be be a top offseason priority.

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2. Russell Makes Lakers Younger

The Lakers would be wise to prefer the now 27-year old D’Angelo Russell over the soon-to-be 31-year old Kyrie Irving as the former gives Los Angeles four more years in the heart of his prime than the latter is able to offer.

Russell just turned 27-years old while Kyrie turns 31 years old this month, making him almost 4 years older. Essentially, Russell is just now entering what will be his prime while Kyrie could be nearing the end of his prime.
It’s fascinating to watch the evolution of the Lakers’ roster average age. In 2019–20, Lakers’ average age was 30.0 years. In 2020–21, it was 30.9 years. In 2021–22, it was 27.1 years. In 2022–23, it’s now down to 25.6 years.

Assuming the D’Angelo Russell we’ve seen is the D’Angelo Russell we get, the Lakers would be foolish to give up a budding young star just entering his prime for a superstar with questions who’s close to past his prime.

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3. Russell Adds Size & Length

Some of the Lakers’ early struggles were because of the physical makeup of the roster, which lacked size and length at almost every position, especially point guard where Darvin Ham usually started the 6′ 1″ Dennis Schroder.

Aside from adding needed shooting and defense at the trade deadline, Pelinka also added critical positional size throughout the Lakers roster, including point guard with the 6′ 4″ Russell who has a 6′ 10″ wingspan.
Russell uses that size and length along with changes in pace and direction to control the speed and tempo of the game. He’s not an above-the-rim player like Westbrook or Morant. He’s a game manager with swag.

Where Russell’s size and length have really helped the Lakers has been on defense. Since he’s joined the Lakers, D’Angelo’s 103.5 defensive rating has been second only to LeBron James 98.5 for the last 14 games of the season.

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4. Russell Is Less Expensive

One of the major reasons for preferring to re-sign D’Angelo Russell rather than trading for Kyrie Irving is their relative annual salaries. D’Angelo might be willing to sign for $30 million while Irving wants $47 million.

The Lakers learned first hand from the Russell Westbrook experiment how paying maximum salaires to three superstars makes it almost impossible to build a deep and diverse roster to support and complement the superstars.
There’s a good chance the Lakers could re-sign Russell to a 4-year $120 million contract whereas Irving is reportedly seeking a $47 million per year max deal. Bottom line, Irving is a superstar while Russell is simply a star.

The problem with the 3-superstars model is not having enough cap space left to build a deep, diverse roster. Re-signing a star like Russell rather than a superstar like Irving enables Lakers to build deeper, more diverse roster.

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5. Russell Is More Trustworthy & Reliable

The single biggest reason the Lakers should re-sign D’Angelo Russell rather than trying to trade him for a third superstar in Kyrie Irving is Dlo’s proven to be a more reliable and trustworthy throughout his professional career.

In today’s NBA, a player’s greatest ability is unfortunately his availability. Over his eight full seasons in the NBA, Russell has averaged 72 games per season compared to Irving’s 55 games per season over his eleven seasons.
More importantly, since signing with the Brooklyn Nets, Kyrie has played in only 103 or 43% of the 236 available games for a variety of reasons ranging from injury to unvaccinated status to various personal reasons.

The Lakers need leadership from their point guard and D’Angelo has now matured and shown he can be trusted to efficiently execute a game plan, and provide solid leadership and personal reliability on and off the court.

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Rob Pelinka and the Lakers made smart decisions in rebuilding their roster via trades at the deadline with D’Angelo Russell one of the critical additions that’s transformed the Lakers into legitimate championship contenders.

While last night’s loss to the Mavs was disappointing and discouraging, the Lakers are still just 2 games out of the 6th seed with 11 games to go. Their chances and confidence of making the playoffs drop with every new loss.
Whether the Lakers without LeBron James can run the gauntlet and make the playoffs is not as important as watching the team finally make smart long term decisions and build a roster with great promise for next season.

Kyrie Irving may have won last night’s lead-to-head with D’Angelo Russell but in the long run the Lakers should stay the course and understand Russell is the better fit as the Lakers point guard of the future than Irving.

Back in March 2020, the Lakers gave the NBA a preview of a championship to come by dominating the Bucks and Clippers in a Friday night, Sunday afternoon double-header. They’re poised to do that again this March.

I have the same gut feeling about this coming weekend against the Raptors and Knicks as I had before the weekend back in March 2020 when Lakers faced season-defining back-to-back games against the Bucks and Clippers.
The situations are eerily similar. The Lakers are being disrespected despite playing extremely well. They have challenging games coming up Friday night and Sunday afternoon and the team is sky-high with confidence.

Since the trade deadline, Anthony Davis has been playing like an MVP and the Lakers were #1 in team defensive rating, #1 in team rebounding, #2 in team free throws, #4 in opponent free throws, and #3 in opponent 3PA.
Numbers wise, since the trade deadline, the Lakers have won 7 of last 10, 6 of last 8, 3 of last 4, and last 2 games. 3 of the last 4 wins were without James and Russell and 1 win was without James, Russell, and Davis.

Now in the #9 spot in the West standings, the Lakers have given the rest of the league a glimpse of their possible future led by two-way superstar Anthony Davis, the league’s #1 defense, and a deep and diverse roster.
The Lakers are now at the top of the ladder of losing teams and just 2 wins from .500 and grabbing the bottom rung on the ladder of winning teams. They’re playing at home and should finally get D’Angelo Russell back.

The Friday night game against the Raptors should be the easer game just like the Bucks were in March 2020. The Sunday afternoon game against the Knicks, like the Clippers’ game, will be the Lakers’ biggest challenge.
Right now, the Los Angeles Lakers are 1-point underdogs against the visiting Toronto Raptors on Friday night and will likely be even bigger underdogs against the resurgent New York Knicks on Sunday afternoon.

The Raptors lost to the Clippers last night so have now lost 2 in a row but are still 6–4 in their last 10 games and much improved after trading for Jakob Poeltl at the deadline. The Lakers should beat them by 15 points.
The Knicks will be the challenge that should bring the best out of the Lakers. They just had their 9-game winning streak broken at home by the Hornets so they still have won 9 of their last 10. Lakers by 10 over Knicks.

Get ready for a big Lakers weekend. With Russell returning and Davis playing like MVP, Lakers are going to come out and play two near perfect statement games to end the weekend at 34–34 on 4-game win streak.

While it’s been a frustrating injury-plagued season, Anthony Davis playing like the MVP and the new-look Lakers’ post trade deadline defense are now driving a late-season march to the playoffs that’s looking like a slam dunk.

Over the last 9 games, the Lakers have a 6–3 record, including a 2–2 over the last 4 games without LeBron James and D’Angelo Russell as Anthony Davis and their 2nd ranked defense dominated the paint and the boards.
During those 9 games, the Lakers posted the second best defensive rating at 108.9, the best rebounding rate at 49.9 per game, third most free throw attempts at 28.1 per game, and 6th most possessions for 9 games at 922.

Nagging injuries every time they appear ready to get healthy and a poorly constructed roster the front office was unable to correct until right before the trade deadline have bedeviled the Lakers at every turn this season.
But despite everything that’s happened, the contagious parity in the West and the Lakers’ stubborn refusal to quit has them positioned for the upteenth time this season to jump from lottery team to play-in team.

Let’s look at 5 big reasons why the Lakers are looking like a team that’s not only going to make the playoffs but is also going to be the team that no other NBA team wants to face in the playoffs, especially in the first round.

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1. Lakers On Verge Of Making Play-In Tournament

Right now, the Lakers are tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves at 31–34. The Timberwolves get #10 and the Lakers the #11 team because Minnesota owns the tie-breaker, having already beaten the Lakers twice this season.

If the Sacramento Kings beat the New Orleans Pelicans tonight, the Lakers will take over the 10th seed temporarily with a legitimate opportunity to solidify being in the Play-In Tournament by beating Memphis tomorrow.
That would raise the Lakers win-loss record to 32–34 and give them 7 wins in their last 10 games and position them to move up to #7 or #8 seeds to get two shots at making the playoffs or #6 or higher to make playoffs directly.

The Lakers’ worst case scenario is to finish the season in 9th or 10th place, which would require them to win two play-in games to win the 8th seed and the right to face the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs.

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2. Lakers Should Get D’Angelo Russell Back This Week

The single biggest thing the Lakers need right now is to get starting point guard D’Angelo Russell back. Russell sprained his ankle on a fluke injury on February 23rd and is day-to-day but has missed the Lakers last 5 games.

With LeBron James also out, the Lakers’ offense and playmaking have struggled with backup point guard Dennis Schröder starting and backup shooting guard Austin Reaves serving as the team’s backup point guard.
Right now, it’s looking like Russell is still feeling some pain when moving laterally so it’s likely he will miss tomorrow night’s game vs. Memphis. Hopefully, the extra two days off should have D’Angelo ready for Friday.

The good news is the Lakers should be dramatically improved beginning this Friday when starting point guard D’Angelo Russell is likely to return to the starting lineup at Crypto.com Arena against the Toronto Raptors.

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3. Lakers Have 4th Easiest Remaining Schedule in NBA

The Lakers have the 4th easiest schedule in the NBA for their remaining 17 games. The only Western Conference team with a more favorable closing schedule is the Dallas Mavericks, who have the 3rd easiest schedule.

The Lakers other Western Conference competitors all have less favorable schedules than the Lakers and Mavs. The #10 Jazz, #5 Warriors, and #6 Timberwolves have the 4th, 7th, and 8th hardest schedules in the league.
The Lakers’ easier schedule could easily be worth a game in the standings against these three teams. The Clippers and Pelicans have the 15 and 25th hardest schedules, which gives the Lakers less of an advantage over them.

Having the 4th easiest schedule gives the Lakers an advantage over most of their competitors in the Western Conference. It could even be enough to save the Lakers from losing a decision due to their lack of tie breakers.

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4. Lakers Could Benefit From Playing Tanking Teams

The Lakers have 9 of 17 remaining games scheduled against teams who are or should be tanking. They have single games against the Pelicans, Magic, and Thunder and pairs of games against the Rockets, Jazz, and Bulls.

One of the benefits of the crazy parity in the West is that many of the 10 teams bunched in the middle could just as easily decide to go for a 10% chance of drafting Victor Wembanyama versus going for the playoffs.
For teams who need to win every game, having a tanking team on the schedule could be a huge difference-maker when it comes to racking up enough wins to make the Play-in Tournament or the playoffs directly.

The Lakers play so many teams that are either tanking or should be tanking that making at least the Play-In Tournament is more of a slam dunk now than a long shot and making the Top-6 in the West in still very possible.

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5. Lakers Are Team Nobody Wants in Meet In Playoffs.

The Los Angeles Lakers are a slam dunk to make the playoffs this season. They are either going to win enough games to win the #5 or #6 seed in the West or they’re going to win the #7 or #8 seed through the Play-In Tourney.

Should the top-4 in the West remain the same, the Lakers first round opponent if they finish 5th is the Phoenix Suns, if 6th the Sacramento Kings, if 7th the Memphis Grizzlies, and if 8th the Denver Nuggets.
The Lakers can expect heavy jockeying by teams looking to avoid having to play a potentially deadly Los Angeles squad with a healthy and hungry LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the first round of the playoffs.

Right now, the Lakers most likely path to the playoffs is by finishing #7 or #8 in the West, enabling them to have two shots at winning one game to make it to the playoffs as the #7 or #8 seed to play the Nuggets or Grizzlies.
Depending on what happens with Ja Morant, the Grizzlies could find themselves in free fall. It also remains to see whether the Mavs or Clips can put it together to make a run. Most likely Suns and Lakers in West Finals.

It will take a perfect storm of luck and health but it’s possible that the Los Angeles Lakers can not only make the NBA Playoffs but also find lightning in a bottle and go all the way to win their 18th NBA Championship.