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5 Things: Lakers Rolling

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The Lakers look nothing like the team LeBron is quoted as saying needs to “play near-perfect” in order to win. It’s hard to imagine the team we started with weathering a rash of injuries and tough schedule so smoothly. Reaves and Hachimura out? No problem, next man up and let’s keep the good times rolling baby.

  1. The man who I am quickly running out of superlatives for. Luka is rounding back into game shape and it’s going to be a problem for the Association. His line of 29 points, 6 rebounds and 9 assists won’t be hung on the wall, and was offset by his 6 turnovers, but seeing Luka casually play this way when he clearly still doesn’t have his legs or wind is exciting. By the time the playoffs roll around we should see the best, current version of Luka. Like any great playmaker it’s exciting to watch him maneuver and orchestrate. Toying with defenders, probing effortlessly, and having a blast doing it. It looks like he’s settling in now and once he gets up to full speed physically watch out.
  2. Lebron just missing history. 49999 combined regular season and playoff points. An astounding number and he came up 1 point shy of history. LeBron had a rough game, wasn’t hitting his threes and had a whopping 8 turnovers. The thing is, if you told me that Rui and Austin would be out and LeBron and Luka would combine for 14 turnovers themselves I’d tell you we likely lost the game. That’s the beauty of what’s happening in LA right now, it’s as much a team success thing as individual greatness colliding.
  3. Dalton Knecht’s return to form. DK4 had himself a ball game. Crashing the glass, hitting threes, and generally making a positive impact. A lot of bench guys had an overall minus rating but I’m putting that on LeBron and Luka giving the ball away like a fruit cake in a white elephant gift exchange. Dalton got hot early and the Clippers adjusted their defense but that left other guys free to rebound or drive. Solid game for Dalton and here’s hoping he’s putting all the BS behind him and letting all of it help him grow and improve.
  4. Vando’s best game this season. You can see The Vandolorian returning to form, his legs are springier and he’s recovering quicker. 5 of his rebounds were on the offensive glass which we desperately needed in the midst of so very many turnovers. He passed up a three or two I wish he would let fly but in general you can see what kind of look we can feature him in with Luka, LeBron, Vando, DFS and either Vincent or Reaves for a defensive, analytics juggernaut on both ends. He was the only bench player with a positive rating, mostly due to that fact that he played down the stretch in the 4th when we closed out the win.
  5. Jordan Goodwin info. I had feared we missed our window to retain Jordan Goodwin on an NBA deal but, after doing some research, I believe I was wrong. We can waive one of Morris, Reddish or Len at any time prior to the playoffs (they no longer would be able to sign with another team being the issue there). We have until April 13th to decide if we want Goodwin available for the playoff roster and convert him from a two-way to a standard deal. Given his recent injury it’s good that we have more time, and I haven’t given up on Reddish being a bigger part of this, but I don’t see much of a role for either Len or Morris other than rah-rah, positive voice in the locker room. Stay tuned.

Back to Back

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Aloha,

Well that was fun. There is nothing better than beating the Clippers in back to back games. Yes for me it’s even better than beating the Celtics because the Clippers had the nerve to even come to LA. And the basketball gods have rewarded them with heartbreak year after year😂

We didn’t have Rui at all and only had Austin for 9 minutes in the first game as well as Goodwin last night. We proved we are a very deep team and can win even when LeBron has an off night like he did last night. If it wasn’t for turnovers that led to 24 Clipper points this could have been a blowout.

While I doubt Rob will get Executive of the year award, he should. Yes the Mavs approached the Laker in the Luka trade but Rob’s negotiating led to the Lakers under paying. Giving up Max was tough but keeping a first as well as the swaps was brilliant.

I have been hard on Rob through the years but you have to give him his flowers for how this team was built. It started with signing Austin as an undrafted rookie and then as he improved, resisting the pressure to trade him for a name player. He is now our 3rd star.

Next was insisting that Vando came back in the Westbrook dump. Not a lot was made of it at the time but Rob saw a 6’ 9” whirlwind defender and rebounder. There were a lot of questions after Rob extended him but I don’t think anyone is complaining now. His 10mil contract maybe a bargain now.

Rob followed that up by trading Kendrick Nunn, remember him ? and a few 2nds for Rui. A 6’ 8” big body 3 level scorer. While Rui was inconsistent, he began to find consistency down the stretch last year when Ham finally inserted him into the starting lineup. This year he has been a big part of the team’s success. And again Rob resisted calls to trade him.

This was followed by trading DLO for Finney-Smith and some seconds. While DlO is quality offensive player, he was struggling this year and with Austin emerging he wasn’t what we needed but we needed what DFS brings.

Once Vando came back we suddenly had four 6’ 8”- 6’ 9” guys for our “small ball” line up. That always cracks me up. Rui and Lebron can both guard the wing and have big bodies to bang with bigs while Vando and DFS are both lock down wing and guard defenders.

There are other moves as well. After missing most of last year Gabe took some time to find his Miami game again but he finally has.

It took Jackson a year and a half to be the player Rob saw when he signed him. But he has.

Dalton fell to us but he seems to finally coming back to the player he was early in the season.

Add in Tre and Goodwin, two way players that deserve to be on standard contracts and suddenly you have a contender.

What is most exciting to me is there is a lot of room for improvement. Luka is slowly becoming himself again he still is getting his conditioning and rhythm back. And Vando, DFS, Luka, Tre and Goodwin are all still learning to play together in JJ’s system.

While I love that we are sitting in the 2nd seed, it’s just as important that we are 7 games or more up in the loss column on the contenders for the 6th seed. With are newfound defense and reasonably good health we are going to be a problem come playoff time.