5 Things: A Defining Moment

What kind of team do we have? There is, understandably, a lot of hope and semi-excitement about the potential of this team. Since the cavalry has arrived we’ve beaten the Warriors 3 times, OKC once, Pelicans once and Dallas once. In that same span we’ve gotten blown out by Portland in a game we no-showed completely, got worked by Memphis and lost to Minnesota in a game we were competitive in for about 10 minutes or so. So which version of this team shows up tonight?

1. Gas Game. As in “will the Lakers take their collective foot off the gas?” With injuries and personal issues sidelining Ja Morant, Steven Adams and Brandon Clark the time is right for the Lakers to…relax? This has happened on more than a few occasions this season and it’s time to end it. Today. Run out to an early lead? Don’t get cocky, it’s a 48 minute game and Memphis are a rock solid team as-is, without all those guys. AD in particular needs to show up like a man coming out of a long fast on Thanksgiving. Time. To. Feast. If he doesn’t show up, or the team plays middling on both ends, this game could easily be frittered away like the Minnesota and Portland games where we are all left wondering what it will take for this group to find internal motivation to succeed.
2. Which Dennis Schroder shows up today? In his last 5 games he’s shooting 35.8%, 22.7% from three but is keeping the offense moving (for the most part) with 8.4 assists to only 2 turnovers per game. He’s always been a streaky scorer and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. He’s not automatic from anywhere but he needs to continue to apply pressure on the defense and hit the open man. If the open look is there, take it, but we don’t need a ton of points from Dennis, just the threat of a ton of points.
3. The biggest Laker question mark this summer could do himself a solid by having a solid game. Malik Beasley and his $16.5+ mil option are likely to be a hot topic of debate in the purple and gold world the second the Laker’s season concludes. Will they pick it up? Will they pick it up and trade him? Will they leave it on the table and let him test free agency? if he does how hard will they try to retain him? He was brought here to shoot and help create some space. Unfortunately, in his last 5 games he’s shooting poorly (36.8% overall, 29.7% from three) and from distance he’s quickly shedding his “volume” label as he has shot 4,6, 12, 4, and 11 times from beyond the three point line. He doesn’t get to the line much, isn’t a good rebounder and is basically the worst defender in our starting five. Now some of that can certainly be a factor of having a defender in close proximity to him at all times and some of that is from the, shall we say rudimentary, sets the Lakers run (or more importantly don’t run) to get him open looks. The line is “LA is where shooters go to die”. Malik needs to do his best to try and shake that folklore up a little bit.
4. The return of D-Lo? Currently listed as questionable and I expect it’ll be a close to game-time decision if he goes or not. if he does it takes a lot of pressure off the two guards mentioned above. Schroder can slide back onto the bench, Malik will have a PG whose shot is more respected that Schroder’s, and AD will have a guard who can get into the paint and make plays a little better than Dennis can. D-Lo will be testing free agency this summer as he is set to become an unrestricted free agent and how he plays down the stretch could go a long way in determining how many zeros are his next deal.
5. Honoring Pau Gasol. Not gonna lie, I had REALLY wanted to go to this game tonight and I just couldn’t make it happen. Tickets at the top of the arena re around $77 bucks online right now and it’s not sold out (I mean…what is these days when TicketMaster is the ultimate scalper?) so if you’re wondering what your evening might hold wonder no more. I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing Pau’s speech, it really sucks Kobe won’t be there to give him a mild roast for his introduction, and most importantly let’s all band together and honor a truly great Laker in Pau Gasol. Two of those banners are your doing as much as anyone else’s, man.

This will be the last time we play Memphis and we’ve each won one. Get a W tonight and, should it come into play, we’ll have the tie-breaker over an in-conference rival. While it feels unlikely that Memphis could fall all the way down to our neck of the woods it’s still a mathematic possibility. Besides, should we face them in the playoffs, having the better record never hurts. Can’t afford to no-show anymore games but especially not any against Western Conference teams. Those losses are super magnified and we can’t afford anymore.