The Los Angeles Lakers are but months removed from winning an NBA championship in a season that features the shortest turnaround between season’s end and beginning in professional sport history. So it’s understandable that there will be some lulls, loss of foci and low energy showings. The important thing is keeping pace with the rest of the western conference. Home court will matter in the playoffs, there will be some degree of fans in the stands come July. Or at least there ought to be, time will tell, I s’pose.
- LeBron’s triple-double. One night after finding his scoring touch LeBron found his 1st triple-double of the season. This is greatness we are watching on a nightly basis. A greatness few athletes have ever been able to find, let alone sustain to the ridiculous degree James has done. I’ve reached I point I got in Kobe’s epic season of scoring. the season he outscored the Mavs all on his own, the season he scored 81. It’s a place we should all get to with pro athletes more often. It’s a place of trust acknowledging that they have put in more time working on something than I will ever understand, that they are the professional and I am an enthusiast. LeBron is one of the best ever, he’s already on the NBA Mount Rushmore, time we all gave him his damn respect. I’m there now, I wasn’t always.
- Anthony Davis finding his range. Two games after shooting zero threes AD found his touch from three in this one. AD went 4-6 from beyond the stripe in a 34 point outburst that staved off a tenacious Spurs squad. He had 7 offensive rebounds that helped give us an edge in points in the paint. He had 5 dimes, second only to LBJ’s 10. While Davis is certainly not on point defensively same goes for the entire Laker team. We traded defense for offense, athletic mobile bigs for a plodder (who ultimately does. more on both ends of the court) so the defensive slippage is understandable. AD will be the one to help right that ship but early on, as long as we’re outscoring teams, I’m OK with this look. If the D looks like this in March/April I’ll be a little more worried.
- Kuzma not pushing. Maybe it’s the security of a new deal, maybe it’s natural growth as a professional, maybe it’s winning a ring. Or a little of all those things. But one of the things I’m loving is Kyle finds a hot streak, rides it, cools off and just keeps playing hard. So much good comes from playing hard, trying to do the right thing and just living with the results. Will he ever be an All Star? Maybe, maybe not. But he’s an NBA champ and he’s playing like a 10 year vet. He’s not pushing the possession in his direction he’s just making plays and good ones at that.
- Win the glass, win the game. This team isn’t stopping the other team from scoring much, yet. Which is fine, it just means the path to victory essentially rests in one place: the rebound battle. We make a win very likely when we outwork other teams on the boards. The offensive rebounding was exceptional, helped us to a +16 advantage in FGA and we did a good job limiting the Spurs to only 85 shots on goal to our 101. Which we needed because they shot better than us for the game, shot more free throws and played us pretty evenly from three. The D is coming around but until it does I feel good about our chances if we do our work on the glass.
- Coach Popovich’s hair deserves it’s own blog. I want him to go full Gandalf. It’s epic; it’s like he’s going to audition for Odin in a Netflix series or something. As a fellow dirty hippy…I love it. Don’t give up the Samsonian power lurking in those locks, Pop!
Well that was a nice first day of 2021. Let’s keep it going. If I had my way indeed.
Cut U hair Pop! Just kidding, “let it grow shoulder length or longer,” you a good man!
PS-Gonna try to add a little hidden clue in some of my comments if you can catch it friends?
Thanks, Jaime. It’s been a while. From what I observed in this game the Lakers did not play with motivation at all. Not sure if that has anything to do with an opponent they just beat a few days earlier. It seems like they did not play to win, but instead they played more like to not lose. Still, a win is a win and I will take that.
You are absolutely right about Kuzma. I just wish he has the mindset of Shroeder where he doesn’t have to defer to others too much. Yes, it is better to play the right way all the time, but sometimes you should be willing to take the bull by the horn and be aggressive. At some point that will help generate confidence and consistency.
As for AD, I am always in awe every time he makes a 3. Those 3s look so smooth as if they were free throws. Man, he’s becoming very lethal from the 3 point range. I am gaining tons of confidence in his 3 point shot. What a revelation.
Finally, my three main concerns from last season has been our 3 point shooting, free throws and turnovers. While we may see improvements from the 3 point range and free thows, it seems our turnover problem is not going away. That’s one area that is hurting us. But then again, this is a team with new parts. So it is going to take a while to fix that.
Like you mentioned, let’s just work on getting the home court advantage for now. Thanks for the fiver as always.
Aloha Jamie
This season reminds me a lot of our start last season. We are winning but winning ugly. i remember thinking last year thae we were 17-2 and not looking like a champship team.
like last year we again have a lot of key new players that we are integrating into the team. only with the micro training camp and quick turn around it’s even more challenging this year. Defense will suffer more than offense for a while. i still believe that in the end this group be a better over all team then last year. And with the extensions being handed out, hopfully there will not be a big player turn over next year and we will develop some continuity going forward.