Happy Thanksgiving

Aloha,

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I’m thankful that the Lakers ended that losing streak and actually played some decent defense. Just a few random thoughts.

The Spurs are no longer pushovers. They are a solid team that was on a 4 game winning streak including wins over the Warriors and OKC. What I liked about this win was the total team effort on both sides of the ball. Defensively it was a great team effort and on offense there were 7 guys in double figures.

Moving Dalton into the starting lineup was the right move. While we give up a little defensively, one good defender does not make a great defense, so you might as well be the best offense you can be and Dalton does that. Even if he’s not scoring, you can’t help off of him. The Spurs did a few times and he burned them. And what’s cool about this line up is teams can’t help off of Rui either because he’s shooting 50% from 3.

Our half court defense isn’t to bad, it’s transition that kills us. And it’s turnovers that feeds that. Not just turnovers, but stupid turnovers. If there were a stat for stupid live ball turnovers the Lakers would lead the league. We had 13 turnovers which on the surface isn’t terrible but they led to over 20 points, most of those in transition.

Speaking of stupid turnovers, LeBron may lead the league in that category. He had 5 more turnovers last night. Several were the head scratching variety. He now has 20 turnovers over his last 4 games. This 4 game stretch is one of LeBrons worse stretches as a Laker. Yes he had a triple double and yes he was big in the 4th but poor shot selection and the turnovers were one of the reasons he had to be big in the 4th quarter. Hopefully this is just a slump because he needs to be better than he’s been for us to have a chance.

We had a DLO sighting last night. He has struggled offensively this year but we were reminded of how dynamic he can be on offense. We probably would have a couple more wins if he had been better. Hopefully he turned a corner and we will see more of this of this going forward.

Max was great last night. He teases us with this kind of play and when he does it makes that contract look good. He always plays hard and he has ability on both sides of the ball. What he’s lacked is consistency. He came into the season with high expectations because of that contract. Hopefully he is becoming more comfortable now. If we can see this version of Max night in and night out he will be huge for our bench.

OKC is next. It will be a tough game. While OKC has a sizable advantage in the back court, we have a size advantage. Outside of Hartenstein they are a pretty small team. They will need to collapse inside which should open things up for Dalton and Rui for 3’s.

So happy Thanksgiving. Go Lakers!