5 Things: Being A Pro

So much of the playoffs is a mind game. Not letting the crowd get you down, the refs knock you off your game, and keeping your head on straight if you find yourself out of a shortened playoff rotation. The Warriors weak point has always been their emotional players (Draymond, Klay, and Poole in this era) and those cracks showed last night. In the 3rd quarter they made their patented “we got this” series of baskets pulling away for a double-digit lead. The Lakers had an answer and it resulted in what can only be described as the best quarter of Lonnie Walker the IV’s life.

1. Lonnie Walker the Fourth. I’ve been low-key posting and hoping for Lonnie to get minutes over Malik Beasley. Then we stopped playing Malik and I was low-key hoping we’d at least see what LW4 could do with Troy Brown Jr’s time. I like TBJ, don’t get me wrong, he’s got three point range and plays decent D. I felt (and still feel) that since we promoted Reaves to the starting 5 the bench has lacked oompf. Scoring, athleticism, and mojo. Enter Lonnie. The first thing you have to do is give the man a ton of credit for staying ready both in terms of his game but also in terms of what the Lakers a re doing game-to-game and being ready to contribute where asked. Few players have that maturity, especially guys who are probably wondering where the next paycheck will be coming from and how many zeroes it may or may not have. In one quarter Lonnie re-inserted himself into the debate of “Which Lakers Do We Keep?” we’ll go around endlessly this summer. He also made history as he made a record shared only by Kobe Bryant by dropping 15 in the 4th on the Warriors.
2. Though it be dwindling we still won the free throw battle. 20-20 is getting it done and we needed all of those points in the face of Curry’s one-man onslaught on our defense. Steph dropped a triple-double, was picking our defense apart and had Klay shot better or Poole showed up at all, this game likely swings Golden State’s way. As it stands his effort will show upas another playoff ‘L’ and the defending champs are now on the proverbial ropes. Still, takes a mighty swing to knock out the champs and the Lakers need to bring the thunder to Chase Center. Expect that free throw number to go down even more in game 5.
3. D’Angelo Russell got bailed out. Lost among LW4’s heroics was an absolute stinker of a game from D-Lo. 1-10, 0-4 from three and an overall middling game, D-Lo must have been stoked to see Lonnie match Steph shot for shot in the 4th and the resultant win as it will forever cover over a game that could have been dissected endlessly if the Lakers had lost home court advantage and possibly the series. Still think D-Lo makes a ton of sense to keep, this is an early stage of his playoff career and he’s finding his own way as much as anyone not named James or Davis.
4. For us to lose the three point line battle and the points in the paint battle and still come away with a win is something special. They played a better overall game than us, honestly, it just came down to who made shots in the 4th and the Warriors felt that sphincter tighten up a bit, except Steph, and could not rise to the moment on the road. Game 4 is often looked at as the pivotal game (although the Lakers famously won game 4 against Phoenix only to get swept out of the last 3 games a decade or so ago so anything is possible) but we’ll need to play a lot better if we want to close this out in the Bay Area. We won’t pull this same game out at Chase Center. We need to take even better care of the ball and make a few more shots in the doing. The 11 extra points generated by The Stripe will not be available on the road, methinks.
5. LeBron and AD dominating. Hard to do a fiver of last night’s games and not mention the two stalwarts who made Lonnie’s heroics possible. LeBron still hasn’t had a dramatic scoring game in a win, yet, and AD got more shots off than normal. Only went to the line 3 times and still scored 23 (without taking a three pointer) so he had his overall game working. LBJ and AD are showing that, when they are healthy enough to play, they still form a dominant and hard to beat duo in a 7 game series. Between them and Coach ham’s sublime adjustments and rotation moves the Lakers are on the verge of proving a lot of doubters (like myself), haters (like a lot of planet Earth), and talking heads wrong. I don’t know what team has ever started 2-10 and made it to the conference finals but the Lakers a re 1 win from establishing that as thing that has been done. Need to complete the job ASAP and get to resting LeBron, AD and the rest of the James Gang.

I expect Steve to try and speed the game up even more with his younger guys, still haven’t seen a dominant game from Wiggins yet and Klay is always just waiting to erupt. The Lakers need to steel themselves for a little of all of the above, keep their composure and poise (which has definitely been an advantage) and just keep competing at a high level. Do that and I like our chances of winning 1 of the next 2 games and possibly even close it out on the road. Go Lakers.