Until the Lakers can figure out how to play defense nothing else matters. One could choose to quibble over this or that but it truly does not matter. When you give up 50+% shooting from everywhere, allow the other team to just dominate you in the paint with no resistance, and in general play without energy you will lose the game. Every time. That, Lakerholics, is exactly what happened today.

1. Compete. Written that word too much this season. Lakers did not show up ready to compete which is inexcusable on multiple levels. From the coaches to the Gatorade person, show up with some kind of intention that you will be competing. Play with energy, focus and intent to win. Showing up is not enough, I don’t care what the resume’ has on it. Lazy 35 foot shots, often quite early ion the shot clock, are not a recipe for a success and certainly not a comeback. Our screen roll coverages are a joke right now. Compete boys or just pack it up and save us all the drama.
2. Three point game is not our strength. Hasn’t really been all season long. Not sure what Rob was thinking this summer but it’s obvious it isn’t working in terms of “improving” the offense. Our offense stinks. We don’t get the specialists shots which begs the question why we play them at all? If you’re not going to get Wayne going from the outside why are we playing him at all? At least when we had Wes you could argue he had a presence on defense. No, the three ball is not the weapon the Lakers need to focus on right now. Frankly, the offensive end isn’t where the largest issues lie, either.
3. Too many donuts. Sometimes I really do wonder what this team works on between games. If it’s defense I don’t see it translating on the court. If it’s specific shots we don’t see them executed on the floor. Ariza, in his 17th season, ought to know where he can make a shot from. Donut. Dwight played 11 minutes…donut. Also couldn’t defend the paint against a stream of Miami players. Reaves is a rookie and has had an uneven distribution of minutes but also brought a donut to work.
4. LeBron continued his 25+ point streak!!! Congrats on your Spirit award, Mr. James. We need more on defense at this point. Especially when you play center which isn’t really working anymore.
5. A late push? Cute. Seen it this season and it’s Fool’s Gold. We’re mediocre, at best, and simply not good enough to rely on a few minutes of “Wow…we’re getting our asses kicked tonight…again. Time to play hard guys!!!” every few games. Had they played like that all game literally everything would have been different. They didn’t. Show up consistently. Play hard consistently. Don’t worry about streaks, stats, or the record books. Be better.

Getting AD back will help a little but we have a lot of issues. Westbrook’s fit, a lack of players with anything resembling defensive acumen or pedigree, and a general lack of competitive spirit from the tip. Late rallies should be needed every so often not once a week. We can’t even reliably beat bad teams, which has been the biggest issue, in all honesty. Had we shown an ability to beat inferior teams and come up short against top teams that would be one thing. We play down to everyone, get up for no one and spend a lot of time preaching patience. Well, we’re coming up on 2/3’s of the way through the season. Patience and time are ever-dwindling luxuries.

It was certainly more of a contest than one might have expected. But, given the Lakers’ struggles against young teams this season, the win was more than enough. Solid contributions from across the board, LeBron’s 25+ ppg streak continued, and for one night more things went right than went wrong.

1. Westbrook bounces back from benching. You don’t play at the level Russ has without being able to turn the page on a bad game. Or two. Or…well, you catch my drift. The fit might not be the best. A mid-season trade seems all but impossible (to me, anyway) and so there remains but one thing to do: figure out how to make it work the best that it can. We’ve seen it in glimpses but it hasn’t found a “sustain” feature, yet. Maybe the long road trip can be the lab where that happens, away from the home crowd pressure, away LA, and among the team we would all like to see play better.
2. Ariza better on defense, still looking for his shot. I thought this was Trevor’s best game of the season. He was able to better execute our game plan on D which is essential for making this team work. He also took the open shots that came his way, most of them just didn’t go in. That’s OK, for now, after not playing for almost the entire season his legs aren’t where they need to be. Seeing him execute the defensive game plan better is a step in the right direction and something we need more of. Playing with LeBron a lot helps his +/-.
3. LeBron keeps playing at a high level. For my part I’d prefer if LeBron keep it to 5 3 PT FGA/game. Unless he’s hot we really shouldn’t see too many 30+ foot shots or early shot clock threes. The corner three he hit off a pass was a great example of the kind of three point shots I think we want LeBron and our specialists shooting more of. LeBron has a 16 game streak of 25+ points going currently and he kept that up against the Magic last night as they couldn’t contain him. Especially in the second half when we went back to him at the 5. There are definitely some teams/match ups that I think Dwight is the better option for. Back-to-backs, as well, I think would be a situation where I would like to see LBJ at the 5 in half closing scenarios. Against teams that are either unsure about their low post identity or don’t have a strong presence in the paint it’s OK. The biggest issue with LeBron at the five is a lack of a rim deterrent and rebounding. Figure out how to balance that out, or when to play Dwight, and this should work better.
4. Carmelo’s road game shows up. It’s been a season long issue. Not only just with Melo, although his home/road splits are fairly dramatic, but with the whole Laker bench. They show up at Crypto, not so much on the road. Carmelo showed us some vintage basketball and then got hot from three, as well, to the tune of 23 points. While the rest of the bench didn’t have quite the same impact (only Monk and Johnson managed to score 10+ points) they all did their part to help bring him the win. I’ll add that it looks to me like Reaves is hitting a bit of a rookie wall as both his defense and outside shot have leveled off a lot lately. THT had his traditional low-impact game after a big one and Johnson continues to play at a steady level off the bench which is great to see since that is where his role would be should he stick past the 10-day.
5. Better defense is a must. We still have to be a lot better on that end of the floor. We simply lack the firepower, especially without AD, to just outscore teams. Sending the young Magic to the line 29 times and letting them score in the paint like they did just can’t continue to happen. Against one of the worst teams in the Association we eked out a win. We won’t be so fortunate against even mediocre teams, like we saw in Indy. Against top teams we’ll get blown out. So something has to happen. If we can outscore teams with LeBron at the five every single games than that could be the answer but the problem is we don’t. We sieve paint points and rebounds while not creating quality shots of our own. So, if we’re going forward with James at the five he, too, has to adjust his game to operate closer to the rim and not further from it. We need to see us not miss the backdoor cut…repeatedly…like we did last night. Above all we need to find it within ourselves to play a higher quality of defense. If not this is done and it’s done now. There will be no late season surge or player we get back that alters that identity. If the guys playing now can’t figure it out it’s likely we’ll see an entirely new team in training camp. Again. For the third season. After winning a title…using defense.

Next up is a very early game against the Miami. Never a good combo. But the Lakers won’t have to leave the state of Florida so maybe they can get they can get acclimated to the EST vibe and come out with some intensity. Miami has powered it’s way to 3rd in the EC among a slew of injuries to key players. Sound familiar? However, that team takes the defensive end a lot more seriously and there is no question that Spo has the team’s attention. So, we’ll see. I don’t have high hopes we can win, to be honest, but if we can get some good play off the bench and James and Westbrook can be as efficient as they were against the Magic we have a shot. I suppose that’s the best this version of the Lakers can muster right now.

It’s funny because I didn’t even realize they had taken Russ out. I watched the same poor execution on both ends I had been watching all game. Guys got blown by, the defense is just so slow to react. Guys couldn’t hit shots, late game offensive execution being a season long issue at this point. All of that is to say, Frank taking Russ out didn’t matter. Nothing improved, we stayed the same: mediocre. At best.

1. Ariza has been awful. In his 11 games this season Trevor has been anything but the small-ball savior some had hoped he would be. For myself I was always more than a little dubious that a 36 year old with multiple injuries over the last couple of seasons was to be counted on for much of anything. This has sadly been the case. He’s shooting a career worst 37.1% from the floor, a decent 37.9% from three (but takes only 2.6/game) and his intangible impact has been borderline non-existent. Last night he dropped a donut albeit in only 15 minutes so it’s hard to pin the loss on his meager contribution. This is the problem you begin to have when over 1/3 of your roster is over 33: slow, slow slow. Slow and methodical can work in the playoffs but not so much in the regular season. If we’re going to start Trevor and he’s going to soak up this many minutes from Monk and even Reaves we need more.
2. Play Dwight more. Give the man 20 mpg to work with. Don’t keep it match up based, or at least give him a little more leash to to run with. Dwight, who had been effective keeping a lid on Sabonis early although not at stopping the flow of paint points scored on us, played fewer minutes than Ariza. But if we drop Ariza from the rotation, play LBJ at the 4 and bring Monk back into the starting 5 I think that makes more sense on almost every level except for the “I dunno, can TA play better with even more minutes?” level. Dwight is also currently tied with Nate Thurmond at 14,464 rebounds for 10th on the All Time list. Small ball works with LeBron and shooters sometimes, it’ll work better with AD on the floor. In order to give our defense the best shot it can have we need a guy who knows to defend the paint better and let him loose. When AD returns his role can go back to something like this, which makes sense. But we both need to save some wear and tear on LeBron and up our presence on D.
3. Awful from three. I’m sure Frank will say something about “the law of averages” or that he “liked the shots they just didn’t go down” but this is a common theme with the Lakers now. Poor three point shooting, and more importantly, not finding ways to get the guys we brought in to do that quality shots. Honestly it would have been a lot worse save for Westbrook’s uncharacteristic good night from beyond the arc (he went 4-6, the rest of the team went 7-28). I don’t expect this to change mid-season, post-season or next season. Frank is not the coach for a volume three point shooting team. We need to figure out how to be the dominant paint scoring team and be better at keeping a lid on the other team’s three point shooters. That’s the only solution that makes sense to me at this point.
4. Defensive stopper. I think we need the best perimeter defender we can find. We need someone who can excel at being the point of attack and it’s not anyone currently on the roster. No offense to any current Laker but they all, to a man, routinely get blown by, give up play to a dominant hand, and get lost on screens and switches. Nobody except undrafted rookie Austin Reaves is able to consistently draw charges, nobody at all is fighting through screens and it often looks like we’re not talking on defense. This is on Vogel and the team leaders.
5. Nowhere to go but awwww F#$% that. This is what we are right now. We need AD back and playing at a high level on both ends. I think we need to trade THT (and if we can include him w/o him playing minute 1 this season) Nunn for a defensive ace and I don’t care what else they bring to the table. We need to stop guard penetration into the paint and we need to stop the layup line at the rim after the game has started. I think we have the scoring, even if we lose THT, in-house to play at a high enough level to compete better. But the defense will not be repaired with the guys we have now. We’re either big and slow or small and slow, we’re not quick to the ball, we don’t rebound at a high level. Those are the death of anyone’s playoff dreams.

Kudos to THT for a bust out game. Call me if he does it for a month. No more spirit awards from me this season. This is getting sad and that’s the nicest way I can frame it.

Hey man it takes a village. Frank Vogel, reportedly on the hot seat once again, trotted out a very Frank Vogel starting five. If he’s going down he’s going his way. Turns out it was the guys who didn’t start that ended up having the larger impact but I expect this look to solidify over the course of the rest of the season with a couple key differences. Regardless it worked out, against a top team at that, for at least one night.

1. LeBron’s apology. While he didn’t get 40 like he predicted on social media The King was still the force we needed him to. While not his best showing in terms of efficiency there is rarely a time where I question LeBron’s effort or shot selection. Like all the greats they’ve earned a dud game here or there. SO, while not a standout game where he scored 40 or even a continuation of his 30+ point tear this was a solid game from James. Which was all we needed.
2. Russell’s dunk. Honestly, and I’m not trying to be a downer or anything, I though Russ could have been called for an offensive foul when he used Golbert’s shoulder to get that extra lift that allowed him to throw it down. Same way i though Blake Griffin’s “iconic” dunk over Pau Gasol should have been an offensive foul. I guess there’s a question of did Rudy foul Russ first and everything was game after that or whatever but the point is that was something I think the whole team needed. Especially Russ. He puts up a stern façade and his demeanor rarely shifts on the court except to seemingly get gloomier, but this was a long time coming.
3. Stanley’s big game off the bench. This is the role he needs to carve out on this team. While a case can be made for putting together a starting line up that has all our best, fastest horses in it I think we’ll see more of what we got last night going forward. Ariza stunk, Howard was OK, Bradley was fine. But they’re all old and it makes sense that, if they are to be used, that we use them when they’re warmed up and not ask them to get going midway through the first half or what have you. Get warm, go play. That leaves journeyman Johnson to come off the bench and find his groove. I think this better suits his talents. Let’s him get going against other guys off the bench and if he rolls hard there maybe be an impact player when the game matters.
4. What can we take away from this? As we have all learned and espoused there seems to be no corner this team will be turning. One potentially statement or season-altering game on a Monday can be wiped away by a dud against Indy tomorrow night. If we put together a nice string of 10-15 or so games I’ll look back to the game that started it all and, with the benefit of hindsight, and say “Hey look! It was THAT game that started it all!”. Because to do otherwise is fruitless at this point.
5. The trade scenario. Reaves, Monk and THT all had great games off the bench. All three are likely trade sweeteners since we don’t have a ton of picks in this decade to add. I don’t think the minimum deals of the likes of DeAndre Jordan or Kent Bazemore are moving anyone’s needles. So, with that in mind and with the news that annual Laker trade target Myles Turner is out for an extended time with a stress reaction in his foot, is this the time to trade for him? We also had some good and bad news on the injury front with AD cleared to ramp up and Nunn set back again with pain in his knee. At this point I’ll be surprised if Nunn plays this season, I think he’s likely to get surgery to see what’s going on, clean up the knee, whatever he needs to do to get back on the floor. It’s not a guarantee he’ll ever wear his Laker uni. Could we do a deal for Turner with THT, Nunn and one of Reaves or Monk as the sweetener and actually keep our pick? Is it worth it to our theoretical title hopes this season? I have been pretty dour for all the trade enthusiast’s as I continue to be more of the opinion that we won’t do any in-season deals and not less. But the injury to Turner opens an odd kind of door. One that makes getting a player that can actually play back in a deal for him look a little differently. Also that teams looking for help now will start to look elsewhere leaving us in a position of possibly being able to swoop in and get Myles on the team. I think that all parties involved will wait for more definitive reporting but it is a curious case.

We need wins. Doesn’t matter how they come. If we need to play the octopus that predicts world cup victories at 2 guard or the mule that kicks field goals from the Disney movie so be it. Can’t lose the winnable games anymore and need to eke out some tough ones, too. Otherwise this is done.

This has gotten beyond critiquing. There’s really just nothing more to say. You could make a case that the Lakers could see an uptick in the quality of their play when AD gets back but, if one is honest, that won’t be enough to crack the top 8 teams in the Association. These issues have been here from the beginning: porous defense, suspect offense that relies on one or two players, and a general lackadaisical attitude towards their opponents. It’s not looking very bright in Laker Land these days.

1. The team Rob built but that LeBron and AD signed off on. While I doubt Rob called James and Davis regarding every move made they all agreed that Westbrook was the way to go. We can all wish things had worked out differently, they didn’t. We can all wish that we had retained Caruso who honestly probably wouldn’t be enough to “fix” the defense but would certainly have provided the coach with a better tool than is currently available. We’re old, slow and entitled. Not a good combo.
2. A referendum on Frank. The defense isn’t working. He was never a great offensive coach as he basically relies on his star players to just kinda make it work. Unfortunately, with the roster he was delivered, Frank needs to do more. A lot more. Does he have it in him? I’m not so sure.
3. The spark of competitive spirit burns low. Russ and Dwight spoke after the game of playing hard. Well, that would be a helluva place to start. We are getting outplayed, outhustled and out worked in too many games. You could argue that a veteran team could lose a handful of these kind of games. We’ve lost a ton. The heart of this team is not strong.
4. They can improve, right? Yes. But it’s going to take something they haven’t shown us, yet. LeBron is playing his heart out. Russ is Russ. Davis, the fragile being that he is, won’t be enough on either end. We need the team to compete harder and more consistently than they’ve shown the inclination or ability to do.
5. The trade solution. While nice to imagine player X, Y or Z could come riding in and save the day it feels unlikely to me. Our trade “assets” are playing like garbage right now. Russ might be traded (sic: will) this summer but his play now makes it highly unlikely we’ll deal him this season. I don’t see anything other than an elite three and D guy (unavailable given our assets) or an elite center (same) who can help shore up our awful defense in the paint. Really, we need both. Given the lack of maneuverability we’re fairly locked into this team. Sure, we might move THT and Nunn and maybe even the pick in 3099, hell, some team might coerce us into tossing in Reaves or Monk. Doesn’t feel like that would be enough.

I pride myself on being pragmatic and honest in these assessments after games. Losses like this can make it difficult. When you question the heart of your team it’s never a good look. Yet that’s where we find ourselves.

And so it goes. The Lakers started the second part of this NBA season on an even worse foot than how we started. AT least when we started the season we got beat by the Warriors. The second half kicked off with a loss to the lowly Kings. Standby traditional excuses, everyone get in position to repeat the company line that this is still going to take time, cue sound aaaaaaaaaand action! Time has ceased to be a luxury the Lakers should feel entitled to. They are running out of it and fast as they have now sunk back down to the 8 seed after dropping the last 2 games and lead the Timber Wolves by a scant half game. Not sure what can be done at this point, Westbrook’s trade value probably could only go lower if he seriously injured himself or was caught pulling off a high society jewel heist.

1. The Russell Westbrook situation. I would give up on Russ except for that I generally refrain from disbelieving that the great players can overcome the obstacles placed in front of them. It’s not his effort but his execution that is failing him over the course of the last four games. His shot has gone MIA and doesn’t seem like it’s due back any time soon. The fact that this is happening around the trade deadline only further complicates any trade scenarios one can concoct involving #0. I have faith that this stretch will end for him but it’s not looking like this is working the way any of us hoped and has actually managed to find ways to look worse than I though possible. Vogel and Co. need to figure out a way to get Russ going on offense because if we can get that right he’s otherwise playing decently. Not great, but at this point I’ll settle for good to pretty good.
2. LeBron getting fed up. I think this was a game LeBron was hoping for some help on. Missed a lot of threes and didn’t consistently attack the paint like he had been doing. He’s not going to be in full blown attack mode every game and we need to be able to do a better job covering for that. He also is going to wear himself down completely if he keeps playing this much center. I like him at center, I think in most match ups it’s the way to go, but we need to better recognize when the defense needs size and use Dwight. That’s just a reality of a player who is 37 and not accustomed to banging down low all game, every game. Acknowledge the truth and work with it, not against it.
3. Reaves looked solid. Love him coming off the bench and would like to see us get him involved with Russ in some P&R more. They run it really well and Reaves can shoot from the outside or roll and finish. For a rookie he’s done a good job not coughing up turnovers and keeps himself in the play. His role should all but be etched in stone and he could be one of the things we have to use to grease the wheels of a trade. If you ask me, I think we should hold onto him, though.
4. THT’s short leash. I thought that, in part due to foul trouble but also due to turnovers and porous defense (and in that he was certainly not alone), Talen had a pretty short leash last night. This is the guy we need to figure out how to feature if we want his value to increase. We just saw the Hawks move Reddish for a player struggling to find a role, you telling me THT couldn’t have been a piece the Hawks would want? While it was more likely the draft pick that was the Knicks target we have to figure out if we’re keeping Talen or not and we need him to play well one way or the other.
5. Ariza still looks really slow. This was my fear before camp, when people were singling out Trevor Ariza to be the one that could make the defense work because he can play 3 or 4. While he has the size to play the 4, he doesn’t have the strength or speed to compete well right now. he might still be getting into game shape but I think it’s as much the last few seasons worth of injuries to various parts of the body and age that is the true culprit. That’s why I think Frank made the call to start him over Stanley, to see if he could warm up and go rather than warm up and sit then go. AT least for last night it didn’t work out very well as Trevor was basically a non-factor. He’s 8 games into the season so I expect him to get a little better with reps and time but not to the degree that he can massively swing the fortunes of the team.

More and more I feel like this is the year Rob finally does it. I don’t see us ending the season with the team we started and a buyout candidate is unlikely to tip the scales in our favor a whole lot more. This could be the season Rob makes his first in-season trade. While I still think it unlikely we shake up the roster by moving Westbrook I do expect the Lakers to start getting more aggressive. Less smoke, per usual, and more fire. THT, Nunn, Monk, Reaves are all likely players to be moved in various deals. Not sure what the return on that will be but we need to do something because this team isn’t playing well and there’s no guarantee there will be a sea change when AD gets back.

There are clearly two packs of teams hunting for playoff seeding and as we enter the second half of the NBA season tonight it’s important to remember that the Lakers have clearly entrenched themselves in the lesser pack. We might be considered the lead dog in the west to push through into the upper echelon but, to date, the Lakers have proven that they are one thing: mediocre. With three superstars and a collection of parts assembled by Dr. Frankenstein (Vogelstien? Dr. Frankenlinka?) the Lakers are surely in need of something to kickstart the second half of the season. We need a little bump.

You can choose to place the blame on a variety of fronts. Injuries, sure we’ve had ’em. So has every other team. Kyrie Irving only recently started playing for Brooklyn after they reversed course on him being a part-time player. They’ve been challenging for the top record in the east all season long. The Denver Nuggets have had almost their entire projected starting line up decimated by serious injury and Murray has yet to play and we’re tied with them in the standings. Injuries are a part of the game and don’t represent a true reason not to show up with a competitive attitude which we fail to do on any sort of consistent basis.

COVID ravaged our team. Yeah, and the rest of the NBA, too. Next. The issues plaguing the Lakers have less to do with who isn’t on the court and rather the attitude and demeanor of who is. Of all our young players Monk has grabbed the bull by the horns the best but only recently. THT this year has looked exactly like THT of every other year: wildly inconsistent in his energy and impact and generally with a decent amount of minutes played to boot. Reaves is a rookie and finding his way on many fronts. Of all our young guys I would actually argue Reave’s been the most consistent in his energy and approach.

I think the thing that will define the Lakers this season was undertaking a three superstar team while choosing not to fill out the roster around them correctly. After watching Westbrook’s post game interview from after the Grizzly blowout I came to the conclusion that the organization never truly embraced Westbrook. The Dinner that this was all born of was one where the three players said they would sacrifice. Thus far it has been Russell doing most of the sacrificing and you can see it starting to get on his nerves. He’s assuredly the second option to LeBron, and honestly he should be. LeBron is better.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be figuring out how to maximize Russ’s other talents to their fullest potential or making sure he has the right tools when he’s on the court sans LeBron to be as effective as possible. That might mean giving him a big man to run P&R action with and guys who don’t defend like Frank wants them to. He called Ariza to get him on the team, let him play more with Trevor. It was a mistake to not get an athletic big man to help play solid defense but give him the best we got. Throw Dwight and Trevor in the 5 and 4 slots and Wayne at the 2 or 3 and either Monk, Reaves or THT in the final spot and see if they can space the floor and let Russ go to work. I would choose Reaves whom Russ seems to have a rapport with.

It’ll be a shame if the Lakers pull the plug on the Westbrook experiment for failures the front office made. Not retaining Caruso and not signing one of the bevy of better centers that were still on the open market when we signed Jordan were cataclysmic failures that should force the ownership to question Rob’s ability to build a competitive roster. Between taking more and more of the tools Frank liked to use in his defensive schemes and filling out the roster with too old and too limited of skillset players it’s easy to use Russ as the scapegoat for the mistakes the Lakers themselves made.

Swapping Ben Simmons for Russ or Grant for THT and Nunn might fix this but I really don’t think it will. Turner is honestly the only player that makes sense to me. He plays the defense we need, doesn’t need the ball to be effective and stretches the floor well enough. The Lakers keep trying to bring in guys who take the ball out of LeBron’s hands and with Russ they’ve done that to the degree that it will happen. We have guys who are catch and shoot three point specialists and we need the coaches to figure out how to unlock the ones we have and stop the endless carousel of “not THAT three point shooter THIS three point shooter” we’ve been on for three seasons now. We’re actually just going back through the same list. Heck, let’s bring Wesley Matthews back…again… We need players who better augment our superstars, not emulate them on a lesser level.

So, to that, as we move up to the day we can trade THT (which I am of the opinion will happen) I hope the Lakers front office looks at their own process as much as what they see unfolding on the court. It’s a problem of their own doing in many ways and like Dr. Frankenstein feeling the urge to destroy the incredible creation he brought to life they need to make the environment right and not destroy that which they may see as an unfixable monster. Give the monster the tools it needs to live and thrive.

Go Lakers.

“I am an unfortunate and deserted creature, I look around and I have no relation or friend upon earth. These amiable people to whom I go have never seen me and know little of me. I am full of fears, for if I fail there, I am an outcast in the world forever.”

—

“It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.”

– Mary Shelley

These are the games that drive me mad. LeBron outs forth supreme effort, rest of team barely participates on either end of the court. The starting unit, save LBJ, did not get the job done in a measurable way. Frankly, neither did the Laker bench. In fact, save for the fun rally driven by the Laker end of the benchers, there wasn’t much to appreciate about last night’s dismal affair.

1. LeBron’s wasted effort. It goes without saying that we are playing with fire. While it’s incredible to watch LeBron play at this level to see it wasted when the rest of the team basically phones it in. LeBron outscored the total output of his fellow starters in the first half (23-22). This we cannot abide. I’ll get into a few of the more pathetic individual performances down yonder but suffice to say we need more and we need more consistency from them overall. In sport you have to anticipate some degree of variance. The best teams cut down the intensity of that degree with solid execution, well-designed plays and playing with focus and effort. The other 4 Laker starters showed none of those things last night and left it all to James. Predictably, we lost the game as a result.
2. The bench didn’t pick up the starters in a meaningful way. This is more of a defensive issue as the bench shot better than the starters did, especially THT. But not one player the Lakers will theoretically rely on in most playoff series did anything noteworthy on defense last night. In the box score one would think Monk’s 3 blocked shots flies in the face of that but the Grizzlies 54% shooting overall, 33 assists on 47 field goals made and multiple trips to the free throw line as a result of some pretty lazy defense tell the true tale. The bench didn’t do anything to stem the flow of players on Memphis from strolling into the paint and either getting shots at the rim or hitting the open man. They need to do better.
3. The trio of Russ, Bradley and Monk. In short, they were awful. Russ was 2-12, Bradley was 2-10, and Monk cooled way off to the tune of 3-13. Together they shot a combined 7-35 for 20%. The best thing you can say about these three last night was that Russ had another 0 turnover game. I’d have taken 5 turnovers and more made shots and some passion. The fact that all three struggled so badly in the same game basically doomed this one from the jump. A lot of this was just plain missed shots, too. We hit the open man, the open man dithered and allowed defenders to close or just plain missed shots. We looked like the team coming off a back-to-back, not the Grizz. They need to do better.
4. Team Oxygen strikes again. It’s not like Ja went off, either. 4-10 with an ally-oop dunk off a pass and a legendary block were his highlight reel for the night. We let Bane get hot, Jaren Jackson Jr. get whatever he wanted and bench players Brandon Clark & John Konchar shake loose for double-digits, as well. This was a result of a completely porous defense that saw the Grizzlies march to the rim through 3 quarters. I don’t have the mind or time to figure out what the points in the paint differential was prior to the run we made in the 4th but the fact that we gave up a staggering 62 points in the paint along with the number of times we fouled guys on drives was appalling. Ja didn’t go off, Brooks didn’t play, and we still got blown out in terms of the time when the result was in question.
5. Frittering and squandering the winnable games. If we have to go through a play-in game or two we’ll all look back at the first half of the season and wonder what could have been. Losses to teams that were heavily injured, rebuilding or to teams we had large double-digit leads to may well be what defines this Laker team, which is kind of sad given the pedigree of the players on it. The next couple weeks will determine a lot. Until AD gets back we need to stay around .500 but honestly we need to starting winning at a higher pace if we want to have any hope of truly competing for a championship. As of now, if I’m honest, I just don’t see it and I don’t really see us having the ability to bring in a player that can swing that in a major way. These guys need to figure it out.

The good news a lot of these issues are either fixable or should improve when AD gets back and Nunn makes his debut. The defense sorely needs AD in the paint and another ball hawk on defense in order for us to be able to deploy the kind of schemes Frank relies on. The guys are trying but it’s often not enough and last night I also felt like the overall effort just was not there, a habit this teams falls into far too frequently.

The Lakers have now entered unfamiliar territory for this season: a winning streak longer than 3 games. The plucky Hawks did their best but the combined efforts of the newly guaranteed Bradley, Monk and of course LeBron James were too much for Atlanta. We’re also a season-high 2 games over .500 and a re looking to sweep the 5 game homestand tomorrow. Riding a smoother looking offense, some added youthful size and a healthier team overall the Lakers have come into 2022 looking like a different team than the one that started the season off.

1. Malik Monk’s emergence. Monk had a huge game, especially in the first half. Monk was NBA JAM style on fire. He hit shots from inside and out, moved the ball and didn’t force his offense, and played seem really solid defense. His highlight of the night was the soaring dunk he jammed home off an offensive rebound that brought the house down and got the bench up. Inserting Monk into the starting line up has added a lot of scoring, better defense than advertised, and enough playmaking to alleviate that burden for Russ and LBJ. Monk has entrenched himself on my list of “gotta figure out how to keep” players. It’s why that, barring an NBA championship run, I see us making a Russell Westbrook trade this summer.
2. The Guaranteed Man. Not Reaves but Bradley. It was an afterthought for many when we picked up AB off the waiver wire after we started the season with all our young guys hurt. It didn’t take long for Bradley to show what we had missed out on when we didn’t retain his services after the Bubble. His on ball defense is still on point and he takes the open shot when he finds his way. Like Monk he brings a dash of playmaking that helps keep the ball moving and, frankly, I’ve always felt like he left some unfinished business behind after he (for good reasons) opted not to come into the Bubble. I’ve always been a fan of his game and I’m glad we’re keeping him around. He may find himself on the bench a little more when Nunn returns (whenever that may be) but it’s never a bad thing to have a plus defender who’s not afraid to take the shot on the bench.
3. THT getting his legs back. I want to believe that Talen was suffering from his COVID symptoms prior to the homestand, that the travel and wind he lost battling the disease sapped him of his energy and left his shot looking short on almost every attempt. Regardless of the reasons THT looks like the guy we hoped he would. Filling in here and there as needed, a swiss army player who can score inside and out, defend at a decent level and make a play or two. I’ve never seen “superstar” or even All Star in Horton-Tucker’s future and there is nothing wrong with that. Not every player is and many have been solid to above average contributors to champion- level teams. THT had another really well-rounded game and here’s hoping that’s what we get from here on out.
4. Russ doing it all. Russ is on a rebounding tear right now. He was the best rebounder on the floor along with the larger and more focused on the task Clint Capella, boxing out, finding seams and tipping the ball to himself to ignite breaks and find his guys in their spots. While he didn’t have his best outing scoring wise and fouled out (on a nonsense call that Danillo created by falling down all on his own) I like where Russ is at right now. He followed up his 0 turnover game with a modest 3 turnovers. So, when you count the 9, 0, and 3 that’s an average of 4 per game which is just about what he’s averaging (4.6 for the season to date). When you have a hurricane on the team you’re going to get a high degree of intensity and results. Those are things I can live with as long as everything continues to improve, which it has and many of the improvements honestly aren’t on Russ. Health of his teammates, the overall cohesion on defense, and shot making from the rest of the team aren’t really things Russ has the power to alter other than his own effort and involvement. While he may not have a long Laker career (as mentioned above I think only a title keeps him around next season) he’s on the team now and he’s playing the best he has all season. i expect that to continue to trend upwards.
5. The new look offense. LeBron at center, or power forward if you want to believe that Stanley Johnson is now the starting center, has been the balm our mediocre offense needed when AD went down. I think we’ll see LBJ slide over to the 3 or 4 again when Davis returns but we haven’t seen the end of the King as a center this season and maybe ever. At least with this roster it’s a necessity because as much as I like the big man game we don’t have enough good big men to deploy. Dwight hasn’t looked anything like himself post-COVID and DeAndre Jordan has continued to be a mystery as to why he’s still on the roster. We needed help from somewhere it turned out it was a future HOFer already on the roster. I’m intrigued to see what we can do once AD gets back but this tool is certainly a useful one in the right situations.

It would be great to sweep the homestand as that, to me, would signal that the team has turned a corner. They’re playing with more energy and focus, we’re getting guys back, and we’re not falling apart in any one quarter and digging a hole to deep to climb out of. Those trends need to continue all the way into June. We’re in the 20 win club now and it would be great to get to 30 wins before we get to 22 losses, that would mean going at least 9-3 over the next 12. Sunday also marks the halfway point and I don’t think anyone would debate that the team at the 1/4 point has vastly improved over the team we’ve seen in the second quarter of the season. If we continue to put together little things we improve on, build a defense out of the guys we have, and keep guys healthy and returning this team might just find it’s groove in the sweet spot of the season. I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again: this was always a question of when and not if the team would figure out how to play at a high level. While there are questions about how we’ll play when fully healthy, where Nunn fits into the rotation and can Monk sustain his current hot streak I think we have the pieces in-house to do some serious damage in the playoffs.

For the first time this season the Lakers beat an in-division rival on their homecourt, regardless of the corporate sponsorship. They also remained unbeaten in 2022. Riding hot finishes from James and Monk along with a zero turnover performance from Westbrook the Lakers held off a 4th quarter rally from Sacramento to move 1 game above .500.

1. The motherf@#$ing problem that is LeBron James. The 30 point streak ended against the Wolves and through 3 quarters it looked like it would stay that way. But when the Kings came out swinging to start the 4th LeBron had been trying to answer with threes. They made an adjustment after an early timeout and LeBron started driving to the rim and the Kings were really slow to re-adjust and play him to drive and not shoot. LeBron got himself going on his drives to the rim slipping past the King “defense” for pretty easy buckets along with earning a couple trips to the line, as well.
2. Malik Monk earning his next big payday…wherever that may end up being. If I’m Rob I’m penciling in whatever amount we can off Malik via the MLE come the offseason. It’s highly likely he could earn more elsewhere but, seeing as we gave him a shot at PT, he may be open to a one season deal and then re-upping long term once we have his early Bird rights. Regardless to what goes down after this season Monk is straight hooping right now. His defense is a lot better than advertised, he’s able to get his own shot, create for others and he can get white hot form three. His game is already expanded beyond my expectations this season. Love me some Monk and I hope we figure out a way to keep for a good long while.
3. THT plays up to his hype. Talen ended his long, multi-game 0-fer streak from three, looked a lot more confident in everything he was doing and in general played like the player we all hope he can become more consistently. He created a lot of shots for others, scored efficiently, and played solid defense. I’ll forever want THT to rebound better, I think, but all in all hard to find fault in such a positive game for the young man who is still going through his NBA growing pains.
4. Dwight Howard’s season high night. Dwight hadn’t yet scored 14 points this season as last night was his season high. Not sure why that surprised me so much but it did. Dwight was the force on the glass that we so desperately needed grabbing a game high 14 rebounds with a 50/50 split between offensive and defensive rebounds. We may or may not start Dwight ever again and it doesn’t matter. The dude puts on his yellow hard hat and goes to work when called upon. We only need one, though, and between DAJ and himself Dwight is, by far, the superior player. Time to let DeAndre loose into the wild and see where his true home is.
5. Alvin was right to be so pissed off. That rule is insane and how it hasn’t been abused by some random clock keeper to OH MY GOSH DID I JUST FORCE A JUMP BALL?!?!?! an NBA game is kind of astounding. I read it as “If the clock starts before a player has touched the ball off of a missed free throw the teams must jump center” which, in theory, makes sense. The thing was, in this case, everyone had left Fox to grab the rebound on his own. He was, basically, the only one going for the board for whatever reason. So it REALLY set the Kings back a possession late in the game when they had already secured the rebound, clock being right or not. Odd rule that certainly needs some revisiting.

For a hot minute I thought we had poo-poohed this game away and the Lakers came back and took it from the Kings, odd rule or no. We did a great job maximizing our possessions by valuing the ball and getting way more FGAs than the Kings did. We need to keep that mentality and score better and we’ll hold the fort until AD gets back just fine.

The short-handed Timberwolves fell to the not quite as short-handed, but definitely short, Lakers on Sunday evening. While proving that they’re record isn’t s fluke by giving LA a real run for it’s money up until the closing seconds the team from Minnesota also revealed another thing about the Lakers and their current style of play. The small ball Lakers can’t rebound for doodley squat.

1. Lakers got walloped on the glass. 56-28 good for a 2-1 Timberwolves advantage for the game. They grabbed 20 offensive boards which was only 8 below our rebound total for the game. If there’s a major drawback to LeBron at the 5 it’s this: rebounding. The younger, more athletic and energetic T’wolves crashed the glass all game long and that led to a 17 shot advantage (luckily for the Lakers the FGM was closer, only +5 for Minny). Against a young team minus two star players that wasn’t enough to turn the game into another disappointing loss. Against better competition it likely would have been worse. The kryptonite to LBJ at the 5 is the utter lack of rebounding.
2. It’s hard to pin the massive discrepancy in points in the paint scoring on LBJ at the five. That’s been an issue all season long. 58-32 which was a result of more transition buckets for the Wolves and the offensive rebounds they gathered. While the Lakers have been giving up big numbers in the paint all season it’s also impossible to argue that having LeBron man the 5 improves that area. Like the rebounding issue, against the team the Wolves trotted out, it wasn’t quite enough to swing the W to an L but against better and/or healthier teams it almost certainly would.
3. Russ playing really free. Too free? He almost had a double-double with his turnovers. A couple of those weren’t on Russ. Bradley fumbled a catchable pass out of bounds, a couple of times he was led by pass into an offensive foul and those things will happen. But there were a good 4 preventable turnovers that you can see drive Westbrook bonkers. They drive me bonkers, too! I no longer really expect this issue to magically disappear or resolve itself. This is all a part of The Russell Westbrook Experience so buckle up and enjoy the good, hope that the bad isn’t too bad and that we reduce the ugly to a minimum.
4. Bradley, Monk and Melo saved the game. LeBron wasn’t stroking the three ball like he had been and his point total reflected that. For once he got a few foul calls go his way and so he was able to boost his output with some makes at the stripe (a decent 9-12 for the King) but overall this was a game that LeBron looked pretty gassed throughout. It’s not too surprising given his overall level of responsibility to drive the team to wins, that he’s playing the most MPG he ever has as a Laker (37.0, currently) and playing more 5 than ever which means more banging in the post than he’d been accustomed to. All of this means that we needed some of our other guys to step up. Melo was Melo hitting 2-3 midrange jumpers to keep the scoring moving when we needed it and hitting 3-7 three pointers. Monk was solid all game and Bradley hit the three that sealed the win to go along with a superb defensive effort. The contributions of all three were vital to keeping us in the winning column.
5. Decisions, decisions, decisions. With the fate of Bradley, Johnson and Collison coming to a head over the next 6 days it’ll be interesting to see how each is used and the impact they have. Darren didn’t play last night and Stanley had a subpar game in that he didn’t make a shot but managed a point on a free throw. I’m hopeful we keep Stanley and let Collison walk as I believe Bradley is a better defender and is already on board with what the Lakers are doing. Regardless a choice on Bradley’s deal has to be made by Friday and Johnson and Collison will be released unless an offer is extended on Monday. With two games (Kings and Hawks) between then there isn’t much to go on. If it’s my choice I keep Bradley and Johnson and if you really value what Darren brings then you wave DAJ. Other than that, Collison is my odd man out as things stand today. If Ariza didn’t look like the mummy out there in terms of his fluidity and overall speed I could be convinced that keeping Collison was the smarter move on the basis of raw talent. But we need size and defense, Stanley has both.

Another game we ought to win tonight against the hapless Kings. Still, we need to show up with good effort and intensity. Likely another LBJ at the 5 for the most part although I wouldn’t be too surprised to see Dwight in there or even DAJ in a “show me what you got dude” kind of thing since we’re coming up on some major roster choices. Normally the end of the bench guys don’t warrant this much haranguing but with the sheer volume of games missed due to COVID and injuries it’s led to the last guys on the pine getting more chances to shine.

There really are no more words that can be said. We are, again, witnessing a kind of greatness you can kind of imagine happening but when you see it on a nightly basis you realize that there is nothing to do but sit back and appreciate it. I’m in many ways reminded of the Kobe era betwixt Shaq and Pau. When it was Kobe and the nobodies. When he outscored Dallas on his own over 3 quarters, 81 points but no rings to show for it or even an MVP. While not quite as lofty in terms of raw scoring output LeBron is defying his age and the expectations that come with it. We should all enjoy this ride.

1. LeBron is cooking with gas. If he doesn’t win Western Conference Player of the Month for December the accolade is worthless. Truth be told, it is. But the games LeBron has strung together have not been. Most of them, unfortunately, have been losses. That’s not on James, it’s on the state of the NBA due to COVID (I am of the opinion the league should have shut down for December) and the teammates who have been MIA. Most of that has been due to the ravages the Omnicron variant is wreaking on society, the NBA and many of the Lakers. There will always be those that seek to denigrate the greatness that comes from hard work, dedication and modicum of epic talent. I am not one and quite happy to say that early season LeBron (the one I called done) was merely a function of preparation. We don’t need to get into the specifics of how well Lebron played last night. The dude is on fire.
2. Russell Westbrook driving the train. It’s easy to forget, or forcibly overlook, how well Russ has been playing in December, as well. Like any player, there will be misses and some of those have come at critical junctures. The great ones fail. That’s a condition of them being human beings. What separates the great from the good and mediocre is that they never allow a failure to define them. They find a way to improve, rise above, and persevere. I have been, and still am, of the opinion that Westbrook and the Lakers will work at an elite level that it was only a matter of how long the merging would take. Russ is playing with the same level of aggression and passion he always does, it’s just that he has a teammate better than he’s had in some time. Russ and LeBron are having the same issue AD and Russ did: trying to win with a cast of ill-fitting parts assembled on the cheap. Until we see what the trio of Russ, LeBron and AD can do, with whatever coupla dudes can manage to make an impact, we haven’t seen the true potential of this Laker team. 113 minutes, that’s what we’ve seen.
3. When Melo has it going this team can be special. It’s no secret that Melo has had an up and down season. We need for Carmelo to find a consistency to his game which I think he’s searching for in the midrange. That’s cool by me, I also like the defense he’s been flashing on occasion. We need Carmelo to be the scoring threat he’s been his whole career, just to a lesser degree. I think he’s up to it. Midrange, inside or from three Anthony is the one Laker on the bench I trust taking any shot that comes his way.
4. The Stanley Johnson effect. Everyone is going ga-ga over Johnson’s impact, which is assuredly tangible. In fact he’s been such a force on defense it’s easy to overlook the rate at which he picks up fouls. We desperately need him to stay in the floor because he can defend 4, maybe 5 positions when the game goes small. We also need him to keep shooting the open shots Russ and LeBron create. We don’t need him to score like we need Melo to do in order to create space but you at least want to keep the defense honest with the threat of making the open shot. That doesn’t happen if you don’t shoot so it’s been nice to see him shooting those shots. If he can reduce his rate of fouls it’ll be even better.
5. Too many rebounding issues. This is why I personally don’t see LeBron at the 5 as the be all end of all of ways the Lakers can play. When he’s the center we are getting murdered on the glass, even when the other team goes small. It’s because he cannot do everything that we will need Howard and AD for large stretches of any game. That or we need guys who have never been box out candidates to figure out how to box out. Rebounding will likely be the thorn in this team’s side, we just don’t have a lotta gritty dudes who put a body on the opposition and fight for the board. Russ, AD, LeBron are all weak side rebounders, they’re not like a Howard or even, theoretically, DeAndre Jordan battling it out among multiple defenders and securing the board. They let someone else do the battling and use their athleticism to grab the rebound. That will need to be addressed but until we get Davis back there are going to be long stretches where LeBron handles the center position just to get some more offense on the floor around him and Russ.

Sunday kicks off a 5 game homestand that we could really stand to win most of. Sweeping the next 5 games would go a long way towards separating ourselves from the pack of the mediocre teams in the western conference. If we keep on treading water around .500 we’re going to end up as a playin. We have to handle our business and soon as we’ve been lucky the west hasn’t been as strong as it has in last seasons. That luck will run out eventually and it would be better for all involved to be in a position of strength rather than wishing we had won a game here or there we dropped in a silly fashion.