5 Things: Lakers Lose to the Warriors

Well that wasn’t how any of us wanted to start this last slate of games. Such as it is the Lakers get generally walloped by the Warriors at Chase Center last night. While Curry didn’t explode like he did in the last contest he did look largely unfazed by whatever Lakers defender he happened to find in front of him. Thus the Lakers find themselves one game closer to .500 and one game further from their goal of breaking into the top 6 in the western conference.

1. No offense to AD, whom I sure was under the weather with something because it’s going around, but Coach Ham’s excuse for the defense was beyond silly. I find it hard to believe that the defensive collapses we watched all night were simply a result of AD’s inability to call out from the back line. Players could, maybe, use that excuse but when crap like that comes outta the coaches mouth it’s just a bad, lazy look. For everyone. Be better, coach.
2. Rui regresses. It took DLo getting benched for him to find his aggressive self. Rui’s been back and forth all season and still looks way to passive when the ball finds him. We needed his scoring last night in a big way, especially LeBron out and he was pretty much a non-factor. There is no scenario the lakers will face that I can imagine where we wouldn’t want an aggressive, engaged version of Hachimura on offense (and defense, for that matter). Be better, Rui.
3. One and one. With the Lakers and the Warriors locked in a battle for Playin positioning the tie breaker has the potential to loom large. The Lakers and Warriors have each one a game now so the last two are going to be real battles that should matter to the players on both teams. Hope LeBron plays for those.
4. Don’t care how much better the offense has looked, defense still wins games. We saw that last night. Go down the list of any stat you choose. The Lakers were competitive, if not solid. We’re not an elite three point shooting team, the Warriors are. They shot nearly 40% from three and seemed unbothered by our attempts to contest and on top of that matched our 58 paint points with 58 of their own. That can’t happen. You need to take something away on defense, you can’t let them match you in the paint and shoot unbothered from three. The intensity and focus on that end needs to improve team-wide and it’s not about AD’s soar throat.
5. Jalen Hood-Schifino played! Still don’t know why we picked that dude. Feel for the kid as he came into an impossible situation but the list of impactful players that were selected after him, including Brandin Podziemski just makes the choice the Lakers made look all the more foolish. He may have a bright NBA career in him somewhere but I have a hard time seeing it come to light in purple and gold.