5 Things: Lakers no-show Game 5, down 3-2.

Words like pathetic, half-hearted and sad came to mind whilst watching last night’s one-sided affair. To put it simply: Phoenix kicked our collective ass but good and the Lakers are on the brink of seeing their title defense end in the first round, something a LeBron James-led playoff team has never had happen (losing in the 1st round, that is). While I believe the Lakers do have the pieces to win game 6 and swing momentum back our way it’s going to take a sea change for that to happen.

1. Dennis Schroeder and a bucket full of regret. That $22+ million dollar contract Schroeder had hoped to play into is dwindling by the playoff game. I have consistently been of the opinion that Schroeder is not worth that much, that he would have been smart to take the 20+ million dollar deal the Lakers offered him. I am now of the opinion that the Lakers need to simply move on. If we can move him without triggering the hard cap than great. Schroeder set Laker records for futility in game 5 by going 0-9 (joining him in donut land was KCP as the starting back court put up a big fat z-e-r-o in terms of points). In my opinion the Lakers are sunk if Schroeder plays this poorly and he plays this poorly pretty frequently. Dennis still has control of his narrative for the season but it’s quickly slipping from his grasp. If he flames out in game 6 like he did last night he’ll be on the MLE train with Trezz and Caruso this summer.
2. Bench KCP. LRob said it on the podcast and I agree 100%: KCP is hurt and shouldn’t be playing. He’s a liability on defense, not shooting open shots and basically sucking it up all over the place. In 15 minutes KCP was a -19 meaning we sieved more than a point per minute he was on the court. Start Wes, start Ben, start Alex, start THT…anyone else. He got his money from last season’s heroics, looked good for about a month and a half and then fell off a cliff for the rest of the season. If it’s injuries than sit and admit. If it’s personal issues, go home and handle. If you’re blowing it then by Loki’s moustache step it up, man. This team cannot win when the starting back court puts up Chuck Nevitt-level stats (actually, that’s not even fair to Chuck, he always averaged at least 1/2 point in all of his NBA seasons). If you’re not going to score, defend or grease the offense than sit the *&%$ down and like it.
3. Frank’s rotation madness continues. I just don’t get it. Morris started but played a whopping 10 minutes and even was one of the Lakers not named LeBron James that made a three. He never saw the floor again. THT played for the first time in a couple games because…who knows, maybe Frank is doing rotations by tea leaves at this point? My point is that, even with the injuries, the head coach has not been able to cobble together rotations that can defend and score at the same time. Not a starting five, not a bench…nothing. Coach Vogel went with Gasol and Caruso to start the second half and it accomplished nothing as we were already down 30 plus points, Phoenix was already rolling and the arena was rocking. Coach has pulled a total 180 from last season when he pushed the right button at the right time every single time. This season, not so much. He hasn’t done himself any favors by being so incredibly inconsistent with his playing time for mercurial players like Harrell and Morris, an on then off again role for Wes and McLemore garnering DNP then thrust into a huge role. I get the credo: always be ready but sometimes you can’t be ready for literally any and everything. Frank could have done himself a lot more favors in this series if he had a grip on what the team was capable of, feels like he’s over-estimated that at every turn.
4. Drummond doing what he can. It’s not really fair to dump as much as we do on Andre’ as he is doing his level-best. It’s just that his skill set is fairly one-dimensional and our problems are coming at us from all directions. Drummond was actually one of our most effective starters but is getting severely out-played due to the pick and roll doomsday machine they’ve built around CP3 and Booker. With Ayton at the eye of the hurricane it puts Drummond in the impossible (at least for him) situation of either coming out to guard a shooter (who either shoots over the late close or blows by the over played close with elite speed) or dumps it off to Ayton who often finds himself mismatched onto smaller guys and he is abusing them just like he should. That’s just one more situation when Monty is out-coaching Vogel. What we cannot continue to absorb from Drummond is the plethora of turnovers he continues to cough up with poor passing, bringing the ball down low for defenders to swipe at or when he loses his balance. Is he getting hit? Sure, of course. it’s the playoffs though and big men always have to absorb more contact in the NBA, that ain’t anything new. They put it perfectly on the TNT broadcast when they said that the NBA punishes strength and gives speed and quickness all the advantages. Drummond, like the rest of the team, needs to stop thinking and just play.
5. Adjustments? Honestly, Frank started his adjustments way too late. In every game the Suns have come up with a new wrinkle to a thing they already do well that flummoxes our coaching staff. In game one it was using DA as a primary option when we were playing to stop Booker and CP3, last night it was switching the onus back to Booker and focusing on getting him going and, while I applaud the defensive effort of the Suns, the Lakers aren’t trying anything different or new to get certain players going. Frank seemingly leaves it up to the individual to figure out why the ball isn’t going into the basket and it’s not going into the basket for oh so very many Lakers right now. This goes well beyond poor shooting or a regression to the mean this goes into what kind of sets does it even look olike the Lakers run? I’ve been asking this question for 2 years running and am nowhere near an answer because the offense is player-driven. That’s great for LeBron James at his best, news flash Frank: he’s not at his best. Frank went with Caruso and Gasol in the starting five after the first half last night and he would be wise to start game 6 that way. We need offense and defense and Caruso is at least trying on D and seems more willing to shoot open shots than either KCP or Schroeder. Gasol can hit the three an should open the paint up a bit. We need energy which is why I’m mystified Trezz has played as sparingly as he has. Not a lot of daylight left to find a winning combo before the sun sets on our season, literally.

I won’t get into off season stuff until the off season is officially here. Needless to say our prospects to easily improve the team are few and limited in scope. So best to win tomorrow and try to wrest control of our season, fellahs.