Well, there’s only one more in-season chance to hit the reset button. All Star Weekend. Unfortunately the guy whom I think needs to hit reset the most will playing as a Captain in said game. The Lakers lost again, still grasping onto the next-to-last playin spot, in what was a most winnable game. The reasons why we lost are enough to make one think.
- You have to win games in which you contain the opposing star player. It’s NBA 101: if you contain the number one guy on the other team you need to find a way to win. In this case we let not just one but two other Warriors absolutely go off on us. One, Klay Thompson, is a known. Congrats on working your way back from a catastrophic injury but did you have to rediscover your mojo versus the Lakers on national TV? Kuminga is a different story. We’ve had issues all season with athletic bigs and Jonathon Kuminga fits that mold to a T. Lakers have had a hard time containing no-names all season, it would be odd for that trend to stop now.
- So very many missed free throws. 11 misses at the stripe (although in truth GS wasn’t much better with 9 misses of their own). LeBron James was the biggest culprit here on a night he sorta kinda not really passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on some sort of total points scored in all sorts of games stat. Wake me up when he hits Kareem’s regular season milestone. It’s the more impressive stat. Lakers been missing free throws all season, it would be odd for that trend to stop now.
- Can’t put this one on Russ. Two games, one he played in and the other he did not, and the losses look about the same to me. I’ve thought it too convenient that we lay the entirety of the Laker woes at the feet of Westbrook on the court and Vogel regarding his rotations. Of the two it’s Frank that is the bigger issue by far but his weird rotational choices should be obfuscated by the terrible job GM Rob Pelinka has done from the summer to date. Lakers been old all season, it would be odd for that trend to stop now.
- The disappearing Anthony Davis. I’m sure he’ll say all the things we’ve come to expect when he no-shows like this. His jumper, free throws and overall intensity went MIA in a game we could shoulda won. This is not new and I don’t see it changing. Anthony Davis has been inconsistent since we won the title, it would be odd for that trend to stop now.
- At least the bench showed up, for the most part. THT, Monk and Reaves all had solid games. Ariza? Notsomuch. He continued his ‘once every four games or so’ good game pattern. It’s like some games his body is up for an NBA game but more often than not he just looks, well, old. Reaves’ block on Klay was the highlight of the game, Monk just seems to find ways to try and lift the team, and leave it to THT to rediscover his game post-trade deadline. The one bright spot from last night was how well the bench played but, honestly, we need Reaves to be a little more aggressive and for Monk to start. The Lakers have odd line ups all season though so, you know, it would be odd for that trend to stop now.
If you sensed a theme with this post, congrats! If we miss the playin my bet is Jeannie cleans house, LeBron might demand a trade and Russ might choose not to opt into returning to this shit-show. Naw, Russ opting in 100% guaranteed.