It would have been easy to drop the game against the Cavs. Turkey hangover, LeBron had a lot going on in his orbit, tons of dudes still out, and so on. The usual, if you will. So it was refreshing to see the Lakers stave off the same issues (poor time management, not calling a time out, bad plays down the stretch) that plagued them vs. the Mavs and pull out a solid road win in Cleveland. Don’t sleep on the Cavs, man, they’re going to be in the thick of it if they can stay healthy. The caveat for every team in sport.
- LeBron honoring LeBron. Returning to the place he draws so much from, his home state of Ohio and the city he accomplished so much in up the road from his hometown of Akron, will always come with a little extra sauce. A tribute video, probably a small county’s worth of ticket requests, seeing friends and family (time permitting) and, on this particular case, being there to open the museum chronicling his on and of court exploits (mostly on). So to see LeBron miss some easy shots wasn’t too surprising. Still, despite having an off-night efficiency wise the King made the winning plays down the stretch to ice the game. Honestly, I’m just kind of in awe watching LeBron this season. i watched Kareem’s decline, Shaq’s and Kobe’s and nobody will forget chubby Mike as a Wizard. Still, what those guys did pales in comparison to what James is doing on a nightly basis.
- AD quitely dominated. Ad was just steady all game. 32 and 13 is getting it done (AD is currently 3rd in double-doubles this season trailing only The Joker and Sabonis) and he played excellent D around the rim all game. His turnovers being the only nit-picky stat but when AD is engaged it’s hard to think of anyone but a few future HOFers who I’d place ahead of him. The issue, as always, is that “when he’s engaged” part. Joker is all in, every game, every play. Same with Embiid. AD, of all of them, is both his own biggest enemy and greatest enabler. When he’s on, look out. When he’s not…sure you still generally get great D but you leave so very much on the table.
- Jackson Hayes big game. You saw it when he came out in the 4th. Coach Ham stopped the young man and gave him his props right then and there and they were deserved. Against the Cav’s Twin Towers we saw plenty of Wood and Hayes on the floor together. For most of the season, in those moments, Hayes tends to fade into the background doing the grunt work. On Saturday night he found another gear as an off-ball cutter from the corner and continued to excel as the lob man out of the pick and roll.
- Yes, yes Max had a big game, too. Whereas I though the use of Hayes could be an uncovered improvement I tend to see this as more of a “finally” kind of a thing. Is that fair to the kid? No, not really but he happens to play on a team with banner aspirations beset by injuries so the spotlight is going to be bright. max took a solid step into it on both ends against Cleveland but now he has to go out and show that he’s not a one-trick pony. Get after it on D every game, make your shots, make the simple play in front of you. Get that down consistently and all that you dream of can be yours.
- Speaking of making the simple play in front of you. the ball movement and passing was on point. A lot of fun to watch your team rack up 34 assists on 47 made shots. That will surely make the staff happy as a ball in movement is always harder to guard than a stationary rock. Need to find a way to bottle that vibe up and keep it going all season long.
There were some caveats, Cleveland didn’t ever come up to our level of physicality (both because of our D and subpar play from them), Spyda was in his first game back from a serious calf injury and he looked tentative and played like it but the name of the game is winning and that is what the Lakers did. Let’s keep it going tonight against Philly which will be a most excellent test.
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