5 Things: Lakers go back-to-back against the Magic

That felt a lot harder than I thought it would be. You’d imagine that if a team goes on a 1-19 stretch that the game would be a blow out. Not so much in this case. Both teams brought plenty of bricks to the bone yard and together built a small structure. In the end the Lakers were the ones who came away with the win.

1. Ugly basketball. Last night’s game was ugly from start to finish. Lot of wide open looks boinked, bonked, clanged and clattered off the stingy rim at STAPLES it made me wish Andre Drummond had been available to play. He’d have had a field day nabbing boards. As it was we had 3 separate players pull down 11 rebounds: Kuzma, Morris and Montrezl. In a game that lacked any kind of flow we needed those guys to step up and clean the glass and their aggression in that department assuredly helped bring home the W.
2. Marc Gasol’s last game as a starter? We might have seen the last of consistent minutes for Marc Gasol last night. He turned in a familiar looking effort (2-7 shooting, 1-5 from three, 2 boards, 3 dimes and some D) but in general won’t really have much of a role on this team moving forward. If I were Gasol, since He’s under contract with us next season and we won’t have too many other options to fill out the roster at the 5, I would become a as good a mentor to guys like THT and even Trezz as possible. His high B-Ball IQ is still a bonus for the team. You can find other ways to contribute, and who knows? You may end up playing more than expected as Frank Vogel has often a predilection to keeping the status quo. But in reality it will be extremely hard to find productive minutes for Gasol once Drummond is active and ready to play.
3. Three players tuned in double-doubles and they’re exactly whom you think it is: Kuzma, Harrell and Morris. Oh, you thought I was going to say Schroder? Had anyone been able to throw it in the ocean consistently (and in reality Dennis was our 2nd most efficient player behind Trezz) we would have easily had 4 double-doubles but, alas, it t’was not to be. In the end it worked out OK.
4. What’s it going to take to get something resembling consistency from KCP? In reality, if there were a better option I think KCP would have been benched. Matthews can bring the D, THT the scoring but neither of those players offer the promise of both that KCP has. AT least not when Kentavious is playing well. That hasn’t happened much this season and it’s going to be an issue in a playoff series. We need to re-activate the version of Pope we had last year and I really don’t know what it will take. Some games we force feed the guy and he bricks shots, other games he seems like he’s on 15 minute break for the entire game. Just don’t know what’s going on there…
5. Matthews, Caruso and THT’s rough shooting night. We won’t win on Wednesday if we get the same performance as last night from our key guys off the bench. For Talen Horton-Tucker who was rumored to be the sticking point in the Kyle Lowry deal (but who knows what truly went down) one would have though he would come away with a jolt of bonus mojo. Notsomuch, at least not last night where he struggled to finish, but that was par for his fellow bench mates not named Montrezl Harrell. To a man Wes, Alex and Talen struggled to score or have much of a positive impact on the game. Like KCP we need to figure out a way to get the three them to equate average NBA input for the team to have any shot at treading water until James and Davis return. These are your moments to shine, gentlelemen. This is where you make teams consider spending more on you than would be advisable based on what you’ve shown yourselves able to do.

In theory we’re the trap once again when we play the Bucks and it’s bound to be a rough debut for Drummond. The reality is I expect us to get mildly annihilated by Milwaukee who has rounded into form and is playing excellent basketball right now. We are not.