5 Things: The Time Is Now

With pretty much everyone back but Rui we really can’t use injuries as an excuse anymore, never really should have allowed themselves that luxury to begin with but here we are. With a clear-all film session and some practice time at home the lack of familiarity shouldn’t be an excuse, see above and so here we are. We have a some more hom games coming up and don’t travel further than Utah for a couple weeks and come the end of january up to the deadline we’ll be on the road so this stretch is essential for us to right the ship and get back to playing like we did on the weird court. The time is now.

1. Whether he starts or comes off the bench D’Angelo Russell is a huge part of this team’s success. Honestly, I prefer him starting over Reaves and I’m personally still curious as to why the lineup that bulldozed it’s way to the NBA Playin isn’t getting a shot but one way or the other the Lakers need an active and engaged DLo. He’s the one player that I think truly gives LeBron on-court rest. He played well on offense down the stretch, was able to hold his own on D, and we needed that to pull out that win against the Clippers.
2. Coaching for the moment in the moment. Sometimes I think Coach Ham puts 5 guys in around the 5 minute mark and just let’s it roll. He rides and dies with one group of guys, a lot, while often times the other coach is swapping offense for defense, running bread & butter plays for easy buckets, and working hard to orchestrate a win all while our coach looks on with his hands in his warm ups. This is why our good friend and colleague, Magicman aka Sean Grice (who could use some good mojo these days) has dubbed him Pockets. T’was not to be against the Clippers as we saw solid defense for offense moves made when he subbed Vando in for DLo and I prefer Vando to Cam when it comes to overall defensive impact. Cam is more of a gambler which is great. When it works; however those gambles can lead to some of the easiest buckets a player will see in their career if he comes up empty. Vando is a better in-scheme defender and we stymied the Clippers enough down the stretch to pull out the W. Coach ham made good moves with his players down the stretch and it was a welcome sight indeed.
3. Reaves forcing/fishing les is a good thing. I thought that Austin started to force his game as the losses mounted and it didn’t help the situation. I’m sure he would love to prove he’s worth every penny of his new deal as soon as possible but the truth is he just needs to play his game, the one that got him that deal in the first place. So while Reaves didn’t have much of an impact on the box score and his personal stats don’t jump out at you I thought this was one of his better games of late. He stayed aggressive and led the Lakers in FTA (in a game in which neither team shot many), missed every three he took but didn’t hang his head and kept the ball moving so the next guy could make a play when he saw the defense key in on him.
4. Stats are funny. They almost never tell you a true story. Against Memphis we dominated most categories and lost big, but vs. the Clippers we played them pretty evenly and won. That’s why the only stat that really matters is the final score.
5. Need to make a push in the standings. Golden State probably won’t be imploding forever, Utah is more like the Pacers than people think (they don’t mind winning now and making the playin would be awesome for that team) a lot of teams folks seem to write off are storming up the standings while we’ve been plummeting, time to switch that up and play tough against the Warriors (“Nutshot” green should be back any day now), Jazz (11-4 in their last 15) and Rockets (the new OKC with enough youth to not give a fuq and the vets to help make it all work) in the coming weeks. We didn’t find our footing at home right away, we need to start piling up wins and do well on the road trip that leads up to the deadline. Once that date comes and goes, however it works out, the Lakers need to keep their cool and force their way back into the playoff picture one game at a time.

Shout out to Max Christie who had a solid game and Christian Wood who has (rightly, IMO) replaced the mostly ineffectual Hayes off the bench. Again.