5 Things: Lakers rout Trailblazers behind superb effort by The King

There really are no more words that can be said. We are, again, witnessing a kind of greatness you can kind of imagine happening but when you see it on a nightly basis you realize that there is nothing to do but sit back and appreciate it. I’m in many ways reminded of the Kobe era betwixt Shaq and Pau. When it was Kobe and the nobodies. When he outscored Dallas on his own over 3 quarters, 81 points but no rings to show for it or even an MVP. While not quite as lofty in terms of raw scoring output LeBron is defying his age and the expectations that come with it. We should all enjoy this ride.

1. LeBron is cooking with gas. If he doesn’t win Western Conference Player of the Month for December the accolade is worthless. Truth be told, it is. But the games LeBron has strung together have not been. Most of them, unfortunately, have been losses. That’s not on James, it’s on the state of the NBA due to COVID (I am of the opinion the league should have shut down for December) and the teammates who have been MIA. Most of that has been due to the ravages the Omnicron variant is wreaking on society, the NBA and many of the Lakers. There will always be those that seek to denigrate the greatness that comes from hard work, dedication and modicum of epic talent. I am not one and quite happy to say that early season LeBron (the one I called done) was merely a function of preparation. We don’t need to get into the specifics of how well Lebron played last night. The dude is on fire.
2. Russell Westbrook driving the train. It’s easy to forget, or forcibly overlook, how well Russ has been playing in December, as well. Like any player, there will be misses and some of those have come at critical junctures. The great ones fail. That’s a condition of them being human beings. What separates the great from the good and mediocre is that they never allow a failure to define them. They find a way to improve, rise above, and persevere. I have been, and still am, of the opinion that Westbrook and the Lakers will work at an elite level that it was only a matter of how long the merging would take. Russ is playing with the same level of aggression and passion he always does, it’s just that he has a teammate better than he’s had in some time. Russ and LeBron are having the same issue AD and Russ did: trying to win with a cast of ill-fitting parts assembled on the cheap. Until we see what the trio of Russ, LeBron and AD can do, with whatever coupla dudes can manage to make an impact, we haven’t seen the true potential of this Laker team. 113 minutes, that’s what we’ve seen.
3. When Melo has it going this team can be special. It’s no secret that Melo has had an up and down season. We need for Carmelo to find a consistency to his game which I think he’s searching for in the midrange. That’s cool by me, I also like the defense he’s been flashing on occasion. We need Carmelo to be the scoring threat he’s been his whole career, just to a lesser degree. I think he’s up to it. Midrange, inside or from three Anthony is the one Laker on the bench I trust taking any shot that comes his way.
4. The Stanley Johnson effect. Everyone is going ga-ga over Johnson’s impact, which is assuredly tangible. In fact he’s been such a force on defense it’s easy to overlook the rate at which he picks up fouls. We desperately need him to stay in the floor because he can defend 4, maybe 5 positions when the game goes small. We also need him to keep shooting the open shots Russ and LeBron create. We don’t need him to score like we need Melo to do in order to create space but you at least want to keep the defense honest with the threat of making the open shot. That doesn’t happen if you don’t shoot so it’s been nice to see him shooting those shots. If he can reduce his rate of fouls it’ll be even better.
5. Too many rebounding issues. This is why I personally don’t see LeBron at the 5 as the be all end of all of ways the Lakers can play. When he’s the center we are getting murdered on the glass, even when the other team goes small. It’s because he cannot do everything that we will need Howard and AD for large stretches of any game. That or we need guys who have never been box out candidates to figure out how to box out. Rebounding will likely be the thorn in this team’s side, we just don’t have a lotta gritty dudes who put a body on the opposition and fight for the board. Russ, AD, LeBron are all weak side rebounders, they’re not like a Howard or even, theoretically, DeAndre Jordan battling it out among multiple defenders and securing the board. They let someone else do the battling and use their athleticism to grab the rebound. That will need to be addressed but until we get Davis back there are going to be long stretches where LeBron handles the center position just to get some more offense on the floor around him and Russ.

Sunday kicks off a 5 game homestand that we could really stand to win most of. Sweeping the next 5 games would go a long way towards separating ourselves from the pack of the mediocre teams in the western conference. If we keep on treading water around .500 we’re going to end up as a playin. We have to handle our business and soon as we’ve been lucky the west hasn’t been as strong as it has in last seasons. That luck will run out eventually and it would be better for all involved to be in a position of strength rather than wishing we had won a game here or there we dropped in a silly fashion.