The Lakers dropped the second game of a back-to-back against the surging Dallas Mavericks. While it may be true that the Mavs have more to play for the Lakers aren’t necessarily sitting pretty in terms of playoff seeding right now. As they tumble further and further down with not even the return of All Star and NBA champion Anthony Davis stemming the tide one wonders what the Lakers can do to right the ship and get back to at least treading water.

1. Unclog the paint. This is a tough one as much has been made about the Lakers ability to acquire All Star talent in Andre’ Drummond but it’s no secret that one of the Laker’s biggest issues on offense is spacing. With our inconsistent ability to hit the three point shot looming larger and larger as the playoffs approach there aren’t many options left for Frank Vogel and the coaching staff to try, The easiest on the court but likely most difficult in the locker room would be re-inserting Marc Gasol back into the starting line up. He plays better from the high post than any other center on the roster and can hit the three. This, likely, would not sit very well with Andre’ Drummond as there is little doubt that Montrezl Harrell is our best-used off the bench and is our best small ball center option after Anthony Davis.
2. Find Ben McLemore shots. The Lakers are not a dynamic offensive team, that horse has pretty much been beat down to the ground here and round the world. Coach Vogel and his staff are excellent at crafting top notch defensive schemes and getting the team to adjust them in-game and on the fly. Where we suffer, and it’s an area I hope Rob and the front office will address this summer, is in creating offensive sets designed to get specific players specific shots. I touched on this on the post game podcast last night but wanted to get into this a little more. We got guys who can make threes but there’s no system in place designed to accentuate any of our player’s skill sets except for LeBron James and Anthony Davis. We under-utilize, in my opinion, the shooting of McLemore (and even Wes Matthews) in terms of setting them up for success. It’s all well and good to have some flow and groove to the offense when The King has the ball but one thing this stretch has shown us is the lack of options the Laker offense creates through schemes. Talent is not enough when your best players aren’t playing, you need something else to fall back on.
3. Live by the three, die by the three. The above point is not meant to highlight our three point shooters, we got plenty of guys who can score from the rest of the floor. We got lazy last night moving the ball meaninglessly around the horn until we were up against the clock and settled for bad three point shots. Shooting volume shots of any kind in and of itself is not a solution to ay problem. You want to create good shots, that should be the goal. If they’re from three, great. If it’s a post up with big on small, awesome. If it’s juking a guy for an open mid-range, fine by me. Without James and even with Davis we are not a good enough offensive team to settle for bad shots.
4. ‘Kieff off the bench ain’t what it was. The difference between Markieff Morris starter and Markieff Morris coming off the bench is jarring. It’s like the guy coming off the bench forgot how to play NBA basketball. In the NBA playoffs Morris was one of our best players off the bench but this season…not so much. The issue is he does not in any way shape or form have a starting role on this team in it’s current rotation. In my opinion this is another area Frank might want to get creative with. Start Morris over either Gasol or Drummond for a couple of games, see how it works out. The dude rebounds bigger than his size, defends bigger than his size. Morris could be our version of P.J. Tucker.
5. The learning process of Talen Horton-Tucker. Sometimes it’s easy to forget this is, for intents and purposes, THT’s rookie season. While the record books will not reflect it as such in terms of his NBA growth I assure you that it is. Talen (hopefully) learned some lessons from this series, lessons in regards to how to better box out without fouling, to use your feet and not your hands and sometimes it’s better to slow down than play at the fastest speed possible. The league is starting to sit on his drives, almost luring him into the paint and then swarming him forcing him into ever-increasingly difficult shots. Use the mid range to shake the defense loose and trust in your three point shot, again. Open up the floor for your drive early by maybe taking some out of character shots from long range. Got to mix it up.

This stretch of games coming up is about as crucial as it gets. We need to get back to at least playing .500 ball before LeBron comes back if we want to stay out of the play-in rounds. Although I can think of worse things than a couple tune-up games prior to the actual playoffs for this team the prospect of getting booted before the true playoffs even begin is a specter no Laker fans wants to see looming. All in all, we need a little more from AD and smarter basketball from the squad.

He’s back!!! At least for a half. Anthony Davis was on a minutes restriction (15? 20? didn’t really matter) and only saw some first half action. The second half was left to the Laker Remainders who couldn’t get the stops or hit the shots to beat the Mavs who also saw Porzingis limp off the floor after rolling an ankle. Lakers are putting themselves in a tough sport seeding wise and The King is still a couple weeks away.

1. The return of Anthony Davis. The man looked, expectedly, rusty. Coming off the longest injury lay-off of his career Davis struggled to hit shots form everywhere. That’s expected as I’m sure he got practice in and got plenty of shots up but this was his first NBA action since leaving with the scariest calf strain in Laker history since the hamstring debacle versus the Bad Boy Pistons over 30 years ago. Where Davis did make his impact felt was on defense where he showed he might be able to recapture last season’s defensive impact. That’s where we need AD the most. If he can bring that kind of effort and impact for more and more minutes or playoff chances improve a lot, regardless of seeding.
2. Kentavious rounding back into playoff form? This has been a pretty decent stretch for KCP. He’s being more aggressive with the ball, diversifying his attack and still playing solid D. While it wasn’t enough last night the month of April has revealed that the forks we were all sticking in Caldwell-Pope for a good chunk of the year might be ready to be washed and put away. the man didn’t look done last night at any rate. The bigger question is can he sustain and even improve on efforts like this? If AD isn’t able to recapture his shooting mojo like he did in last season’s playoffs it’ll fall to guys like KCP to bolster the offense and release the pressure created by our drive and dish offense.
3. Talen’s defensive learning process. Last night was a bit of a down game for THT. It’s hard for any player to se their minutes fluctuate like they have for a lot of the guys on the team, harder still for younger players still trying to find their way. Give the Mavs credit, they were ready for his patented drives and forced him into some bad passes. It’s a rare thing these days when THT has more turnovers than assists. Still, despite his atrocious +/- 12 minutes is just too few for Horton-Tucker. The kid needs to play and it’s on the coaching staff to find minutes for him.
4. Three point shooting woes. It’s no secret the Lakers a re not an elite shooting team from beyond the arc. Morris off the bench had a donut to the tune of 0-5, only Schroder and KCP made more than 1 (KCP was on fire hitting 6-12) and neither Kuzma or AD hit one to help open the paint up. Off the bench only Caruso and McLemore (both 1-3) were able to connect. We need to do better, although we kept finding KCP which is line with out team ID. When LeBron returns the paint will be well-packed if we can’t hit threes.
5. Defending without fouling. Too many free throws for the Mavs, who whine enough to get them… Some of that is superstar Luka treatment which i wouldn’t mind quite so much if LBJ and AD got the same. They don’t. Anyhow, some of that is on us over-reaching and not just playing solid D without trying for impossible steals. Just man up, keep your feet active and hands up. if they make shots over you, that’s OK.

This was a game we could have won if we clean up some issues. For me the big thing is we’re keeping our turnovers low. That’s a huge key to playoff success and something that is a fixable issue. Lakers need to get this one back in the next game against Dallas or we’re going to be putting ourselves in a sticky situation.

“Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you”, Big Lebowski. The Utah Jazz, with a healthier roster than in the previous game, easily handled the Lakers last night in a fairly one-sided affair. The Lakers never led, the same starters who shone a couple days ago couldn’t replicate that effort and the Jazz shot the lights out. One to forget because sometimes you just get you ass handed to you.

1. Starters get whupped. The same group that all had heady +/- stats in the previous game all had equally abysmal +/- ratings last night. Not surprising really as it was our hodgepodge collection of “starters” competing against the true Utah Jazz starting five, minus Donovan Mitchell of course. As we’ve said several times this collection of guys was not meant to carry the Lakers for a stretch like this. They’re above-average players, a step or two above role-player, journeyman status, but they’re not All Stars. Maybe Drummond has AS potential, not sure about anyone else. Asking them to beat the #1 Jazz is a tall order considering the Jazz had all but one of their players.
2. The Gobert Effect. Much has been made of the diminishing role of the true big man in today’s game but Rudy Gobert completely flipped the game for the Jazz. With Rudy patrolling the paint on defense and offering an easy scoring release valve for the guards the Jazz dominated the glass, dominated the points in the paint and that opened up their three point game like it has all season long. Most people point to the French Rejection’s defense as the main game-altering ability he has but his ability to finish in the paint and control the glass is huge, as well.
3. The diminishing Montrezl Harrell. Trezz has seen his minutes dwindle as Drummond has asserted himself into the line up. It feels like it’s affecting his game and the staff needs to figure out how to unleash him, again. When Trezz is going we are scoring in the paint, putting a lot more pressure on the defense. That was not the case last night as Harrell only got 4 FGA and no FTA. We’re going to need a lot more from him if we want to pick up a couple more wins.
4. THT’s monster game. I give this kid a ton of credit, he’s taken a lot of the adjustments the NBA has made in regards to his ability to get to the rim and added some moves and wrinkles to keep his flow going. By far the best Laker on the court last night, Horton-Tucker is making a case to be in the starting line up now and the starting PG next season. Worse things could happen, given our cap situation.
5. Time to give Wes Matthews minutes to Ben McLemore. No more reasons, it’s just time. Make the move, Frank.

Not going to read too much into this or overly bemoan the lack of energy and fight, the Jazz are the better team right now. We’ll see how this looks if we meet in the playoffs and we have James and Davis. This was no playoff preview. Time to prepare for the Mavs on Thursday.

The Lakers will take all the wins they can get while AD and LeBron get closer to returning. This is a quantity not quality state of affairs. In terms of how the team fared I would say they acquitted themselves well enough. It took a little luck, a lot of hard work and some clutch play but they got the job done. Still have some mountain left to climb, though.

1. Dennis Schroder doing a little bit of everything. There have been some real forgettable games from the Laker starting point guard since the superstar duo went out with injuries. This wasn’t one of them. Schroder scored, defended, assisted and pretty much made all the right plays in this gritty win. He was aggressive in terms of looking for his shot (24 attempts, 6 from three) if not incredibly accurate (only 11 made shots, 1 from three). But the fact that he was aggressive made it harder for Utah to set their defense to guard the team. Schroder applied that much pressure. The key for him is keeping his turnovers low and if that means a few less extraneous passes, so be it.
2. Andre’ Drummond playing big. It could be argued that we should have found a few more FGA for Dre’. He was a solid 10-15 and made 7-8 from the stripe. With no Gobert there was no Godzilla for Kong to fight and so the one man monster destroyed the interior defense that Utah could muster. He pulled down 8 rebounds, dished 3 assists and nabbed 2 steals with a block. The steals both resulted in highlight plays in which he took the ball the length of the court for easy scores. As LRob noted when we first acquired Drummond the man has extremely quick hands for a big man. The other thing he does well is play to his size, nothing more annoying than a true big man who can’t play big. Don’t think we’ll ever say that about Andre’. The man moves little dudes out of his way with legal moves and the only thing I wish he would do more of is finish strong. Fewer hookity-flip shots and more rim-rattling dunks.
3. Laker front court was aggressive on the offensive glass. Every front court starter had 2+ offensive rebounds and ‘Kieff had a whopping five which helped give us an 11-5 edge in that department. Morris and Drummond were more aggressive on offense than Kuzma was tonight (in the first half Utah did a solid job of forcing Kyle to pass which he did) but they all did solid work rebounding the ball and giving us second chance opportunities or limiting the Jazz to one.
4. Managing the turnovers. While it certainly started with Dennis Schroder the team in general did a solid job keeping the turnovers to a respectable level, especially against a tough, defensive minded team like Utah. 15 for the game is good, not great, but certainly an improvement over the 20+ turnover games we’d been having of late. Turnovers are a part of the game and this Laker team takes risks with downcourt passes and a lot of interior paint passes. Those have a high turnover potentiality but they’re also a part of what makes this team unique. If those passes find the mark they’re often going to result in open shots and easy buckets. The key is lowering the rate of failure.
5. The Standings. None of this would have mattered if we had been able to establish a larger cushion in regards to the play-in tournament. If we were still sitting 5 or 6 games out of a play in spot we could cough up more games down the stretch with nary a worry. As it is we’re still just 4 games up on the Mavs (who lost Friday, thanks Julius Randle and the Knickerbockers) so we need to pull a few more wins along with a rabbit or two out of the magic top hat. Sounds like Donovan Mitchell will be out a couple more games and it’s imperative that we capitalize on this opportunity. No tears are shed for teams with injured players, injuries are a part of sport. Just because a team has injuries doesn’t mean they’re going to lay down for you, the Lakers need to learn this once and for all, now, and seize this moment and beat Utah tomorrow night. If they get Conley, Gobert or Favors back it changes nothing. Play harder, compete better and go get that win.

We needed this game a lot more than the Jazz who, even if they fall behind Phoenix in the standings, are situated very well seeding-wise. One way or another, barring some sort of epic collapse they’re playing one of the tourney teams. Not too sure there will be much difference between who ends up being 7 and 8 after the play-in rounds. Could still be any one of 5 or so teams, hard to even come up with a game plan which is an odd advantage to being 3-6 in the seeding game. You know who you’re gonna play but the 1 and 2 seeds need to plan for several different scenarios. Just another odd thing about the NBA, pay it no mind.

Bit late on this one, work is blowing up as we prep the college to re-open to a small degree. Also, I had a chance to attend the Celtics game in-person but was not quite ready to take that step yet (plus the tickets were $200 bucks each). Anyhow, the under-manned Lakers not surprisingly lost to Boston but the real news is Anthony Davis is returning soon. Hopefully.

1. Alright fine, we’ll talk about the game first. J-Brown went off, the Laker starters not named Marc Gasol pretty much took the night off and the bench led by THT and Ben McLemore led a furious come back that came up short. This Laker team without LBJ and AD tends to play too many games with a nonchalant “we got this” kind of attitude. I assure you, they do not “got this”. The fact they’ve managed to play .500 ball without their two superstars is commendable but one can only imagine that if a greater sense of urgency was present that a couple more wins could have been squeezed out. Also, once again, I didn’t think the coaching staff had adjustments in mind as they never figured out a way to contain Brown in any meaningful way. Tip the cap, begrudgingly, and move on.
2. OK, the real news, AD is returning in roughly two weeks should everything proceed positively between now and then. Let’s assume a couple of things for the time being:
   -He’ll play on a minutes restriction to start and ramp up from there based on performance.
   -He’ll start and close games.
   -He’ll primarily play the 4 in order to save that kind of wear and tear for the playoffs.
   That means one of Gasol, Drummond and Harrell will likely be on the floor at all times. There are of course in-game situations that would put them all on the bench and slide AD to the 5 but that means he’ll be guarding bulky threes or slight fours. That’s fine. But I would imagine that in an effort to have him be as ready as possible for the playoffs they’ll try to conserve his minutes at the 5 to as low as humanly possible. I also am of the opinion that he’ll start out on a minutes restriction and ramp up from there. Probably 20-25 mpg to begin with. That means we’ll still be asking a lot of the trio listed above to fill those minutes. If Vogel does a good job monitoring said minutes we’ll likely see AD to start the game, for a few minutes to close the first half. That leaves a large chunk of time to fill. How those minutes get distributed is going to be interesting.
3. What does this mean for the rest of the team? In my mind it means fewer minutes for Wes Matthews who has been a small ball 4 for us of late and of course Marc Gasol and Harrell. Gasol is already playing in an emergency capacity at this point and Harrell would primarily back him up and absorb some AD minutes along with Kuzma. Morris would be pushed back to the bench again where he struggled for most of the season. One would hope his aggressive and more consistent play wouldn’t take a big hit.
4. The Marc Gasol question. In my mind Drummond is the better athlete and has the potential to be the better defender and interior presence the team has a need for. I am also of the opinion that Gasol is a better fit in our OG starting line up. This notion, of course, is wholly speculative. We haven’t seen Drummond play with either James or Davis for a single minute yet. But the idea that most defenses will pack the paint and be content with us shooting strictly from the outside does not seem farfetched to me. In fact it feels predetermined that exact strategy will be deployed against us on a pretty regular basis. If that’s the case then I can see a role for Gasol akin to what McGee did last season. Start the halves, sit the rest barring foul trouble/incredible game.
5. Regarding Wes Matthews. Watching Wes this season struggle against his own body more than anything else has been hard. Injuries like the one he suffered are, traditionally, extremely difficult to come back 100% from. I wish we could take his defensive chops and gift them to THT or Ben McLemore because he can still compete at a high level on D. he has a solid foundation, stronger than he looks and understands defensive positioning. But his shot has never been what it was prior to the Achilles. On offense, based on accuracy and skillset, there are better options for our team. On defense he has a role but I think it’ll be as a spot-defender in late game situations. Yeah, he’s had a couple of hot games where his shot was falling but by and large those have been the outlier and not the norm. Wes is a proud athlete and has put a lot of work in but watching him this season makes me hesitate to sign guys with grievous injuries who were great in the past to large role type of contracts. That includes one of my favorite players one Boogie Cousins and frequent trade target by LakerTom Victor Oladipo. Is it possible they figure something out nd discover a way to make their game work, again? Sure, it’s happened before. But they don’t need to do it in a Laker uniform.

I realize this will drop during the Utah game but them’s the breaks for a working man such as myself. Enjoy the game today, Lakerholics.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31262807/brooklyn-nets-forward-lamarcus-aldridge-abruptly-retires-due-health-scare

We’ll take ’em any way we can get ’em these days. Every win gives us a little more breathing room and helps us keep pace with the rest of the western conference. So, while in a normal seaon beating Charlotte on the road wouldn’t be celebrated with much fanfare we definitely needed last night’s win in the face of what is to come. Big games from old friends saved the day. Let’s dig in.

1. Kuzma’s Jekyll & Hyde game. It started rough for Kyle. Air-balled a three, hit the side of the backboard shooting a three, and he seemed to be nursing his calf all game long. But he dug down deep and found the grit to start hitting big time shots including a monstrous jam over Bismack Biyombo to help close out the first half strong. While it won’t be remembered as his most efficient outing ((7-18, 4-12 from three) Kyle got the job done on a night we needed someone in the starting line up to lead the way.
2. Alex Caruso’s big game. Caruso has, like most of the players not named James or Davis, had an up and down season. One game solid, then an MIA game and so on. Last night Alex looked like he did for most of last season where he made little plays that contributed to a big night. Leading the team in +/- last season was his modus operandi last season and he’s struggled to replicate that impact all season long, especially without sharing the floor with the Laker superstars. There are things Caruso does regularly that I wish guys like Kuzma, THT and others did, as well. Stunt and recover is big on my list, it won’t ever show up in a metric or a stat box or anywhere people look to prove something is good and necessary to winning but what he does on the perimeter in regards to helping and recovering is one of the things that makes the Laker defense elite. Yeah he has some decent hops and can hit shots but it’s the other end where Alex’s impact is felt. He scored some points, had some assists and grabbed some rebounds in addition to his defense.
3. KCP’s shut down game. One of the reasons this game was so close was one Josh McDaniels. He was going off in the first half, grabbing boards, making buckets and playing at a high level. Then Frank switched KCP onto him and that all stopped. McDaniels did most of his damage against defenders not named Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. I’ve been fairly harsh, some would say deservedly, on KCP this season. When you sign a big deal it comes with expectations, fair or not. In all honesty I don’t think I would argue that Kentavious has lived up to his deal this season but his defense has been pretty solid despite his offensive inconsistencies. In that vein KCP had another mediocre scoring game as he fought through back spasms but it never once deterred him on defense.
4. Managing the turnover issue. Finally, a game where we didn’t cough the ball up 267 times. 11 turnovers, very manageable. Let’s do this more.
5. The next two to three weeks. This is a make or break stretch coming up for the Lakers. The next couple of weeks will determine what playoff seeding we have, whether we have to rock a play-in game and if we make the playoffs at all. The win against the Hornets was crucial as it allowed us to keep pace with the top 3 teams in the western conference (who all won their most recent game/s) and gain ground on the Nuggets (who lost and going to sorely miss Jamaal Murray). We can’t get caught up with what’s happening with the other teams we just need to handle our business. Here’s what is on the docket.
   4/15 – Celtics
   4/17 – Jazz
   4/19 – Jazz
   4/22 – @Mavs
   4/24 – @Mavs
   4/26 – @Magic
   Theoretically AD could potentially return around the Magic game. But since he hasn’t done any on-court scrimmage or five-on-five action yet it’s impossible to say if that timeline is an accurate one or one based on what media pundits are speculating. Let’s just say, for arguments sake, AD comes back after the game against the Magic. That would 4/28 – @Wizards, maybe that gets pushed back to the 4/30 – Kings game at STAPLES.
   
   After that Kings game there are only 9 remaining opponents on the schedule. SO this little 6 or 7 game stretch could define a lot of what the Laker’s postseason challenges will look like. The back-to-back against the Jazz feels like a back-to-back loss in the makings, Celtics have been an on/off team all season but does anyone here expect them to have an ‘off’ game against us with playoff implications in the mix? Ought to beat the Magic but even the Wizards are playing their best basketball of the season right now and are in the mix for a play-in.
   
   We need to win at least 3 of those games up there, four would be better. Can we stun the Mavs and beat them twice? Sure, maybe. Can we eke out a win in the second game after Vogel makes some adjustments to the schemes against the Jazz? I suppose. The key in all of those games is to play like they did last night. Shots might not fall, the zone may clog up the paint, and guys who are hoping to make a lot of money (or already do) might not shine as brightly as hoped for. You have to defend hard and compete at the highest level, regardless of how ugly the offense might be. It’s the only way we come out respectable.

Anyhow, decent road trip, all things considered. Kuzma’s calf, KCP’s back and the issues that have plagued us all season are certainly worrisome but there’s nothing to do but show up and play hard. Let’s get to doing it.

LOL, Dave. We may be the only ones on the blog who actually saw Bob Petit play.

Aaaaaaand that folks is why we don’t award things based on hype or expectation. One would imagine just about every human on Earth calling this one a loss before the game but as we saw there’s a reason they play the games. The Lakers got some great contributions from up and down the roster in what ended up being a testy affair and a really fun game to watch.

1. The ejection. The game was a tightly fought, back and forth affair. Just prior to the ejection we saw the Nets briefly take a lead on us. Then Schroder and Kyrie Irving got into it after what seemed to be a fairly mundane personal foul call. I don’t pretend to understand what motivates Mr. Irving but the fact that he has now taken the next game off for personal reason, to me, means it was more about his desire not to keep playing basketball and get some time to himself. he left his teammates to explain what transpired so we may never really hear what went down. Schroder, for his part, seemed confused as to why he was assessed the second tech (the official explanation was his little wave to Irving as he departed the floor, that feels silly, players do that all the time). Regardless of what occurred between the two grown men the incident sparked the Lakers to a 57-33 run that ended when garbage time commenced and the Lakers comfortably ahead.
2. How we went on The Run. It can be weird, the thing that sparks a team to realize what they can do when short-handed, in the case of the Lakers who were already without LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Marc Gasol, Kyle Kuzma and Wesley Matthews Jr it was seeing Dennis Schroder depart the court after his 2nd tech. That seemed to free up the remaining Lakers and they started playing fast and loose on offense while getting even scrappier on defense. Whether it was Talen Horton-Tucker finding teammates for a game-high 11 assists, Alonzo McKinnie grabbing 9 rebounds in 28 minutes off the bench, Andre’ Drummond powering his way through the Net defense for a team-high 20 points and 11 rebounds or contributions from up and down the roster the Lakers seemed to make all the right moves in the third quarter and into the 4th.
3. Welcome to the Los Angeles Lakers Ben McLemore. He had started fairly quietly in his first game playing only 17 minutes and taking only 3 shots. That was not the case last night as he played 23 minutes canning 6-12 shots, 5-10 from three point land bestowing upon the Lakers the kind of shot-taker (and maker) that Laker Tim has been pining for all season. McLemore led a solid attack from beyond the arc that saw the Lakers shoot 19-35 (55.9%) but it was Ben who helped fuel the run that out the Lakers comfortably ahead in the third. It started with a nifty shot off a bounce to catch a pass from Caruso. McLemore’s feet barely hit the floor before he got into his shooting motion and canned the first of his three pointers. To their credit the Lakers fed him a steady diet of threes or ran screens to free him up. Like Frank says: go with the hot hand.
4. Double-figure boogie. The balance the team had in it’s scoring meant that there was no single player Brooklyn could key in on to stop. Every starter scored in double-figures. Off the bench everyone who played during the meaningful minutes except Alex Caruso hit double-figures, as well. That kind of balance is difficult for teams to handle and it assuredly is the way for this team to be competitive without it’s stars. We don’t need every player to score in double-figures but there needs to be contributions in some form or another from everyone.
5. Buyout Blues. There have been some recent reports from various media outlets from small market teams and GMs that they aren’t happy with how the NBA buyout system is working. Well if that isn’t sour grapes I don’t know what is. The basis of the issue is that small market teams feel they’re getting railroaded into buyouts by power agents who rep high profile talents who want to play for teams who are in a better position to compete in the here and now. The gist of theses gripes are that they’re not getting compensated in the form of talent or picks when they choose to make these players available. I don’t get it. These teams sign or trade for players on high dollar contracts then choose to sit them in favor of younger talent. These players are often not on expiring contracts (like Blake Griffin was, for instance) and will be a drag on said small-market team’s ability to offer high dollar contracts in the coming off-season. The buyout is a way for them to free up space to re-sign or extend the younger talent they are choosing to build around. They make the choice to sit the current high-dollar contract they have, they save millions of dollars and get salary cap relief and yet…they want more. While it’s unfortunate that not all teams can play in large markets. It’s not enough that the player gives up money out of their pocket, the fact that draft picks or young talent is flowing their way is, somehow, the league’s fault. That’s absurd. You shouldn’t have signed Blake Griffin to a max deal or traded for him when he was early into that max deal. You don’t HAVE to buyout player X, you’re the one who wants the cap space freed up and for the player to be off your roster. If you can’t find a trading partner you don’t have to buy them out. Play the game back at the agents. Small market teams, they want the Sun, the Moon and the stars and they don’t want to work to get it. Here’s another idea: sell your team and get into a business you better understand and can compete at. You expect your players to try their hardest, give their best and sacrifice limb and life for you but don’t want to do the same yourself. That’s absurd.

Tuesday sees the Lakers face off against the resurgent Knickerbockers and one Julius Randle. Should be a good game and if we can turn in the same effort as we did against the Nets we should be competitive. That’s all any of us can ask.

In what was likely conceived as an NBA Finals rematch game the Heat beat the Lakers without the main culprits of their Finals demise on the court. No AD and no LeBron James coupled with the late scratches of Kyle Kuzma (calf) and Talen Horton-Tucker (suspension) meant the Lakers had even steeper climb. They should have hired a Sherpa or gotten a helicopter ride because the Heat were just a touch too much for the remaining players clad in purple and gold.

1. Don’t diss the Heat. Laker fans seem to want to denigrate the Heat’s accomplishment in making it to the NBA Finals. I, personally, find that notion absurd. There’s a reason things aren’t awarded on hype or expectations. The teams have to play, one team has to win so many games and that team moves on. Seems simple, one team ends up being better than the other. So, for those fans who crow they don’t fear Miami this one was for you. The basketball Gods always listen…always. Also, wishing Victor Oladipo all the best and a speedy recovery. Guess it’s a good thing we didn’t trade Kuzma and KCP and ahhhh why not, throw in Alex Caruso for Vic, eh?
2. Free throw parade. Was I the only one who thought it was ludicrous how often Miami got sent to the line for simply crashing into some Laker or another in the first quarter? I didn’t think I was…
3. That contract for Dennis is getting smaller every game. Mark my words, that man is going to fire his agent after this summer when he does not get his $20+ million dollar deal from anyone at all. A player that’s worth that sum of money can lead a team in more than the turnover department, doesn’t fall to the ground and leave his team one man down on the break, and does more than just play defense. Schroder is showing that last season was essentially a fluke, that playing alongside superstar talent like CP3 or LeBron is the only way he can shine. Sorry Dennis, I love your moxie, the cut of your jib and your peskiness on defense but you cannot be relied upon to score consistently. We got plenty of guys who make far less than $20 mil who can do just that.
4. Hey it’s KCP. Par for the course this season KCP breached for a game and looked like he wanted to play basketball. I don’t really expect it to carry over as it really hasn’t for most of the season. One good game followed by 3 or 4 terrible ones. Not much more useful than Dennis Schroder these days. You need to do this a lot more consistently to make me believe again, Kentavious. I want to but just can’t find it in me to look past the landslide of my new label DP-BDNSU (Dis Play-But Did Not Show Up).
5. Hey Andre’ Drummond finished the game! Which is about all we can say about that. Drummond was never going to save this season, he’s a good to above-average player on bad teams because…they’re bad, they don’t have a lot of good guys. He can do simple NBA center things well enough although the free throw shooting is certainly a concern for a team that often goes through major free throw line funks. I love his energy on the glass and his active hands on defense. I have hope he’ll be better at not holding the ball and looking around while the team tries to get a break going. There were more than a few times where it cost him precious seconds to find an open Laker but he’s getting acclimated. Those issues are correctable. I expect to see Gasol play in the 2nd night of back-to-backs in the regular season, maybe get some time of Drummond is in foul trouble. But he was in foul trouble last night and no Marc so…we’ll see how the three-headed center monster we’ve Frankensteined pans out.

Also, bonus point, welcome to the Lakers Ben McLemore. We’ll see how he grows into a role on this team in the handful of games left but this very much reminds me of the Dion Waiters signing. Might have a regular season impact but he may struggle to find a playoff role if he can’t defend at a decent level. The Lakers don’t cover for bad defenders just because they can shoot, that’s Frank Vogel 101 people.

Lastly, bonus BONUS point: a banner hanging ceremony agaaaaaaaaainst…the Houston Rockets (wah, wah, wah). Fishing for a win on banner night is fine but I think the real reason they chose that game is that there is a high likelihood that LBJ and AD could both be on the floor by then. Not certain, of course (tweets or what have you aside) but I feel like that’s very reasonable. That may not be the timeline Laker fans get excited about but it feels like Jeannie et al wouldn’t want to risk a blow out on banner night and that, if at all possible, have James and Davis play in the game.

Last thing: just a friendly reminder that this team is not, repeat, not designed to win without LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Not a player on the roster replicates the skills, talent or gravity both of those men create on a basketball court. So don’t overly-fret these losses save for the fact we’re freefalling through the standings. Might end up rocking a play-in game, might s well start getting used to the idea.

The Lakers have been on the other end of some beatdowns recently so it was nice to see the team cruise (relatively speaking) to an easy win. Certainly not without drama as we saw players from both sides get tossed but a win is a win, as they say. With re-enforcements coming soon, hopefully, the Lakers just need to keep treading water, head above the waves, until the team can get healthy and back on track.

1. Marc Gasol did all the right things on the court and followed that up by saying all the right things off of it. He contributed his best all-around game as a Laker pouring in 13 points (6-9, 1-3 from three), a co-team high 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 big blocks. While he did cough it up 5 times he looked more like the player I think we all though we’d see on a regular basis. In his post-gamer he continued his excellent showing by stating unequivocally that he was all in on this Laker season. Did he mean it? Could he be fibbing? Maybe, sure, who knows but the important thing was that he is playing the right way and saying the right things and being a good teammate in the doing. Solid effort by Marc.
2. The THT/AC pairing. This hasn’t gotten much attention but I think it speaks to the coaching staff’s confidence in both players to get the job done. Slowly but surely AC and THT are getting more time as combined unit. For awhile it felt like they were staggered off of one another and it didn’t matter when LeBron was on the floor commanding attention and orchestrating like only he can. In his absence, and when Schroder goes to the bench, Vogel turns to this duo to keep us afloat. The results have been mixed but I think the combo has potential as a stabilizing force off the bench. THT can be the de facto PG and Caruso takes the lead on D. This allows for their offsetting skill sets to balance out a little more organically. We’re talking about 10 or so minutes of actual basketball action so it’s not like it needs to hold up for long. It’ll be interesting to see how the rotation settles in as we get guys back but I kind of hope this continues into the playoffs. For the night both THT and AC had solid games: THT had 17 (6-10 shooting, 3/4 from three), 4 rebounds, 6 assists. Caruso had an efficient 13 (4-7, 3/4 from three) 5 boards and 4 dimes. They both had 4 turnovers which is too many but par for this team this season.
3. Wesley Matthews Jr. contributing impact plays if not eye-popping stats. It hasn’t been the easiest of roads for Wes this season. Struggled early, got benched, got a neck injury on a scary fall into the stanchion and has seen his role fluctuate based on how other guys have begun to emerge but through it all he’s been solid on defense and that shot has come around little by little. Last night Wes led the team in +/- and played hard on both ends. We’re going to need Wes to contribute in order to have success in the playoffs so it’s been nice to see him carve out a role for himself on account of his defense and hard-nosed play.
4. Trezz standing up for his team. I mentioned this in the podcast but it bears repeating here. I can’t count the number of comments on the site, articles in the media and social media that shine a light on the notion that a lot of these guys will be moved, sign elsewhere and aren’t all in on the Lakers. Last night we saw the other side. The side where guys who play on a team bond together. Trezz id a fiery-fellow, you can see him jawing with opponents, refs and teammates through every single game. It could be as easy to misconstrue that intensity as displeasure with his situation, after all he did have to accept our bargain basement MLE, as it was to misconstrue his All Star tweet. Passion can be an intimidating thing, not always taken the right way or expressed in a socially acceptable manner. To see Trezz stand up for Dennis and then to see the comment about how he has a beef with anyone not wearing a Laker jersey makes me smile. The dude’s heart is in the right place. Still, he did get tossed and only contributed 2 whopping minutes of play. That left a Harrell-sized hole in our line up. One that was filled by none other than…
5. DEVONTAE CACOCK! The G-Leaguer, 2-way player had his best game of the year by a country mile. In 17 minutes he had 8 rebounds, hit 5-7 shots for 10 big points, and played with the kind of energy this team needs on a nightly basis. I sure hope Devontae makes the post-season roster. I’ve always loved his hustle and nose for the rebound. For a team struggling with a “next man up?” identity issue Devontae flipped the script and stepped up in a large way.

Miami is up next, gonna be a tough one. Maybe we can play the trap team for once, eh? At any rate, won’t be much of an NBA Finals rematch without AD or LeBron so maybe we can bring this same energy and feistiness and pull out another W. Keep the head a little higher above those waves.

This one is for those who hope to keep Andre’ Drummond in the purple and gold beyond this season. Not gonna lie, it’s one heckuva long shot.

https://www.bleacherreport.com/articles/2939429-the-big-problem-with-lakers-hopes-to-retain-andre-drummond