5 Things: Confirmation Bias Loss

This was the kind of game that literally anyone could point at and say “See?!” Think LeBron is old and over-the-hill? Couldn’t lead the Lakers past the Cavs and it’s been announced he’ll sit out tonight’s back-to-back against the Raptors with left ankle soreness. Think AD is fragile and incapable of carrying a team through the regular season and into the playoffs? Left last night’s game with flu-like symptoms and won’t play tonight because of the same reason. Think Kendrick Nunn is washed up? Well, you’re probably on to something but he didn’t do himself a single favor last night with his play. All and all, a poor showing on the road by the Lakers.

1. The Flu game! Oh wait…you need to play a game with the flu before you can have a flu game. So that didn’t happen. AD didn’t exactly quiet the doubters who question his hardiness and durability. “Jordan or Kobe would have played.” they will say and, frankly, they’re right. You want to be an iconic player then you have to do iconic things. You have to play through stuff in the regular season so you can actually be in the playoffs and define your legacy.
2. LeBron’s age is showing. The numbers look good on the surface. Dig deeper and the truth will be revealed: this is one of LeBron least efficient season’s to date. He’s settling for jump shots, driving less and his shots come in the offense about half the time. As the game gets late he tries to go hero-Iso ball but you can see his legs aren’t up to the task and the shots are left short a lot. I am more and more of the opinion that a trade will be made for another wing/power forward type of player who can score. Trading for that player will, likely, be a steep challenge beyond our front office but I sure hope they try.
3. Too much Patrick Beverley. Whatever intangibles he brings just aren’t enough to eclipse or overcome his dreadful offensive output. He can’t shoot, has no lift and gets blocked at the rim more often than not, and he’s not able to overcome those shortcomings on defense. He’s a net negative -3.2 +/- (-5-3 OBPM and 1.5 DBPM) and isn’t doing a thing for our spacing and not enough for our defense. He’s drawn 7 charges, Reaves by comparison has 8. He’s not a top-ten deflected balls guy, he’s not rebounding like Russ can and does and he’s not a three point threat. Whatever “reason” coach Ham has him sucking up 26.3 minutes per game is actually just a rather poor excuse to play an aged veteran for no discernible reason whatsoever. FWIW Patrick will also miss tonight’s game.
4. Not enough Troy Brown Jr. For a team that was getting out-sized all evening it’s curious to me that Troy Brown Jr. didn’t get more run. He played with a high level of energy, was playing solid defense and was one of a handful of Lakers to make a three. He was certainly playing better than PatBev or LW4 last night (the latter of whom had a dreadful game) and so, again, puzzling.
5. Lakers couldn’t buy one from deep. The issue that partially defined our 2-10 start reared it’s head again and we went away from what’s been working to shoot way too many threes last night. Threes that did not go in. We shot more free throws and threes and still lost the game by 14 points. Can’t blame the Cavs dagger accuracy, either. They just exposed our lack of defense at the rim and our inability to score down the stretch when The King ran out of gas.. They just those three point attempts, as well, taking 27 and making 7 compared to our 36 3 point FGAs, making 6. This is where I think LeBron’s age factors in. With no AD we needed someone else to dominate the paint, LeBron is unable or unwilling to do so at this point. It showed in the box score where the Cavs walloped us in paint points 70 to 52.

One game, marring a nice stretch and closing the book on our modest (honestly not worth mentioning) win streak. Without three vets it’ll be a tough slog tonight but will see a player whom the Lakers should be considering going after O.G. Anunoby. Defense? Check. Three point shot? Decent. All around solid player? Definitely. One the Lakers should kick the tires on.