With one epic, clutch three pointer from the beyond the arc Anthony Davis joined the pantheon of clutch Laker playoff performers, canned his first playoff game winner and gave his team a 2-0 advantage in the western conference finals. Not bad for a Sunday in the Bubble.

1. Anthony Davis channeling his inner Mamba. On a night where they were wearing his signature Laker jersey, where he has a difficult first half scoring the ball and most importantly when his team needed him Anthony Davis stepped up big time. His three to win it stopped an epic scoring push by Nikola “Joker” Jokic who was dropping in buckets from everywhere over anybody. We had squandered the lead and Denver looked poised for one of their patented post-season comebacks. That shot changed all of that. For all their playoff grit the Nuggets are, for the first time, down 2-0 hole. So it’ll be a different test for them starting Tuesday night. Biggest basket of AD’s young career and certainly his highest as a Laker. Mason Plumlee going to be kicking himself for slipping a non-existent screen by LeBron for a good long while.
2. LeBron’s big first half. James looked so dominant in the first half, and especially in the first quarter, it had the in-air broadcast team openly wondering how the Nuggets could survive. While he cooled off in the second half his string start helped build a cushion that enables us to withstand another furious Denver rally late in the game.
3. Alex Caruso has arrived. While he missed his own go-ahead three in the play before AD’s epic bucket Alex had a great game. While it wasn’t his flashiest stat line, AC had a highlight dunk, was perfect like all but one Laker from the free throw line, and is playing like a seasoned vet. Not sure so much could have been expected of Alex when the playoffs started but, in my mind, Alex has proved himself to be an essential part of the Lakers present and future.
4. The Big Man isn’t dead! But JaVale May have started his last game of the series if not the remainder of the playoffs. Dwight’s just playing at a higher level. The only reason I would argue for keeping JaVale a starter is to help keep Dwight out of early foul trouble. He picked up 5 in 13 minutes of action last night and we need him available in the 4th with a couple fouls to spare to check Nikola when the game is likely going to be on the line. JaVale is longer but Howard’s the better defender and athlete. His foot speed allows him to stay in from of Jokic and he looks hyper-motivated. Great game from Dwight, fouls and all.
5. The Free Throw game. We shot a lot in game 1, they shot a ton in game 2. Now there will be equality in the amount of free throws dispensed by the refs. Or it’ll be akin to a hockey match with fewer than 10 free throws each. Lol, who knows. The one thing we need to do is play this same great defense but without fouling. Easier said than done but that’s the challenge to keep this series tilted in our favor.

Don’t go counting the Nuggets out yet, either. They found a way to stymie our offense by clogging up the paint and giving us three point shots. We are not a great three point shooting team so we’ll either need to sacrifice defense and go smaller (like we did against Houston) or we’ll need to play better defense and not put them at the line so much. A few more Nugget made free throws, a 3 pointer from Jamal Murray (2-9, one a half court heave) or a better game by any number of Denver players and this could have gone very differently. We still need to bring that first half A game. But there’s a lot to like about where we are. Go Lakers.

There are often times I don’t mind being wrong. My prediction that the Lakers would continue their streak of game 1 losses is one of those times. A balanced attack and a mix of old school and new school looks fueled the win. Let’s dig in.

1. Old School line up was back in action. As promised Frank Vogel used his bigs in a fairly traditional way. JaVale McGee started and ended the game, Dwight Howard played in between. Of the two Howard was, by far, the more effective. His +14 led all bench players on either team, he helped get and keep Jokic in foul trouble, and he played with that focus and team spirit we grew accustomed to earlier in the regular season. Frank deployed Howard perfectly to start the 3rd in place of JaVale further showing us all his ability to adjust and adapt is a key strength for this Laker team. Denver had no answer for Dwight last night.
2. New School look. In a move that made me chuckle based off the convo LakerTom and I has in the preview podcast 2 nights ago where he predicted the minutes for Howard or McGee would come when Mason Plumlee was on the floor Vogel had a different look he wanted to use. We went smaller than ever. The first time Plumlee saw aviation he was matched up against either Kuzma, Morris or LeBron and the “5” because those were the tallest players in the floor. No Davis, Howard or McGee. It marked some of Morris and Kuzma’s mIt’s impactful minutes as Markieff canned 3-4 treys ( for the game, I think only 2 came in that stretch…) and Kuzma exploited the slow-to-get-back transition D of the Nuggets a few times in the confusion after scores.
3. LeBron was pissed. He may have only scored 15 points but he nearly matched that number with 12 dimes creating far more points than he scored. Head in a swivel LeBron found shooters, moved the ball and had his usual solid, all-around game on the day he came up second to Giannis in the MVP race. Difference being Giannis is in Athens, Greece chilling at home.
4. Anthony Davis and Rajon Rondo have some mojo. During the regular season it wasn’t odd to find one or more Lakerholics openly wondering why Rondo played so much. In the playoffs we’re not only seeing why the Lakers re-signed Rondo after a couple of injury-plagued and mostly ineffective seasons. He and Davis play extremely well together, akin to James and Caruso. Rondo finds AD in his sweet spots, hits him for epic lobs and uses him as a decoy to get his own buckets. It’s a beautiful thing to watch.
5. Smart basketball. When we get smart, easy buckets like the 2 leak out layups Kuzma got after scores, the line basket Alex Caruso scores on a driving layup he was basically unguarded on and the wide open dunk Dwight had for his first basket we’re a tough team to beat. Couple that with the aggression we went to the basket with (resulting in 37 free throw attempts), the foul trouble we put just about the entire Nugget team in, and the 16 turnovers we forced (11 by the starters) we are a tough basketball team to beat. If the Nuggets can’t find a way to change that narrative the series is gong to be a slog for them.

All in all I’m not reading a whole lot into this win. The Laker took advantage of their rest and the tired legs of Denver by relentlessly pushing the pace of the game. That’s an advantage that will slowly slip away as the series stretches on. But one thing will not: we have the superior talent so we need to avoid what Boston has done and fail to execute, especially down the stretch. Great opening to what promises to be a fun series.

Go Lakers.

Probably not a lot of folks predicted this as the match up to decide which two teams would vie to represent the western conference in the NBA finals. But here we are: Nuggets vs. Lakers. Not since Carmelo Anthony was suiting up for the Mile-High Denver squad has a Nuggets team progressed this far through the NBA playoffs. Not since Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol were starring for the Lakers have we played in a conference finals and not since we took the season all the way to game 7 against Boston have we brought home the cookie. Good stuff.

1. Denver doesn’t want to stop playing basketball. They’ve been counted out in 2 series, 6 elimination games and they’re still breathing. Not only do the Denver Nuggets not want to stop playing hoops but the rest of planet Earth should stop counting the Nuggets out. That starts here. While I am tempted to revise my prediction for how this series will go (Lakers in 6) I think there are enough factors that tilt the series in our favor for me to still be comfortable with that call. Mainly it still comes down to our defense. I think we can force the Nuggets not named Jokic and Murray to beat us. I like those odds but I also have a healthy dose of respect for the work Mike Malone does and the talent of the Denver superstar duo.
2. Lakers rust game. Mark it down now: we’re losing on Friday. We haven’t fared well at all in the opening game of any of our playoff series. While Denver will have come off a momentum-building, franchise-defining, NBA history-making back to back 7 game series in which they were down 3-1 in both the Lakers will have been off for nearly a week. We’re going to be out of rhythm, our rotations won’t be sharp, our jumpers will be off, in short…we’ll be rusty. While I’d love to be wrong on this one it might also, in an odd way, help us if we let Denver get over-confident. I’m kidding, it would be better to win game 1 and set a tone. But I’m calling losses in game 1 and game 3 before we figure the Nuggets out for good and put them away in 6.
3. Stopping the Nuggets. The Nuggets and Lakers match up well. They both feature an elite scorer and play maker (Jamal Murray and LeBron James) and a talented big man who can do it all (Anthony Davis and Nikola Jokic. The difference comes on the other end. James and Davis are also top notch defenders, Jokic and Murray are not. We need to make them work on defense. The Clippers with the minutes restriction and conditioning issues that affected Montrezl Harrell and the fact that Zubac just isn’t played enough (same issue he faced on the Lakers: talented big man just not talented enough, evidently…) never wore Jokic down and, despite having two elite defenders in Leonard and George, couldn’t corral Murray. The key to stopping Denver is to take the ball out of both Murray and Jokic’s hands. Force them into uncomfortable spots on the floor and you live with them scoring points but on lots more shots. Make the rest of the team beat you.
4. Lakers starting five. You know it’s coming. 6,362 articles from LakerTom proclaiming that Markieff Morris should start, McGee and Howard should be benched and so on and so forth. Amazingly, I disagree. I think you need to punish Denver inside, beat Jokic down by making him bang with a big and save AD for the 5 in crunch time. Force Nikola to defend Howard and McGee in the post, maybe pick up some fouls on him and get him tired for the 4th. So you read it here first (and on this site probably only, lol) but we’ll see a lot more of Howard and McGee until we move on or that proves to be ineffective.
5. The unheralded star of this series will be… Danny Green. I know, I can hear you groaning from here on the West side of LA. Skeptics of this aren’t off-base in any way shape or form: to put it simply Danny Green has disappointed as a Laker in regards to his contract, his on-court production and mostly his ability to hit the corner three reliably. But this series is primed for a third star to shine and Danny showed a lot of signs of life against the Rockets. He might have a rough game 1. But I’m going with Danny Green as my “Not LeBron or AD” Laker to rise to the occasion.

All in all, the prediction game is fun and all but let’s face it: we’re, at best, arm chair GMS, coaches and players. The pros are pros for a reason and this series is going to be a great test of the Laker team and coaches. Mike Malone isn’t a one-trick pony like Mike D’Antoni. Jamal Murry isn’t the prolific scorer James Harden is or the force of nature that is Russell Westbrook or the ridiculously clutch performer that is Damien Lillard but he’s got a little of all three of those dudes in his game and he plays without fear. Jokic is the best true center in the game today (I consider Anthony Davis a power forward because that’s what he considers himself to be and who am I to argue?) The Laker defense hasn’t had to contain a player with Jokic’s size, shooting and skill, yet.

Also, it was so nice to see that the Clippers choked. I am of the opinion that there are no ordained match ups, that one team or another doesn’t present more or less of a challenge just a different one. The team that wins a playoff series is the better team. So the Lakers are getting the other best team in the western conference, no matter what the pundits predicted, the fans wanted or the bookies predicted. This series could go Denver’s way if the Lakers aren’t focused and ready to compete at the highest level. Honestly, I’m kinda glad we didn’t get the “not battle for Los Angeles” that the Clippers/Lakers would have presented in the Bubble. Let’s save that one for next season when we’re back in arenas, there are fans in the seats and we;re the #1 seed and the Clippers are #8.

Go Lakers.

Let’s be honest, it wasn’t ever in doubt. After the rust game we had in the first contest and the first half of game 2 there were approximately 7 times when the Rockets closed to within 5 outside of the opening tip. This was supposed to be a contrast of styles played out on the hardwood. Instead it became a clinic on defense, the revelation that Frank Vogel is open to major adjustments ad adaptations of his philosophy and the Lakers return to the Western Conference finals.

1. LeBron James was superlative in this season. He didn’t always score a ton, didn’t blow you away with high assist numbers, didn’t even have a triple-double. But make no mistake, he imposed his will upon Houston, specifically on the defensive end where we win the series. LeBron is not in what one would describe as “normal” playoff mode. He’s got other things on his mind but he’s carved out a chunk of his cerebellum for matrixing basketball. He got the stops we needed when we needed them, created a shot when his weren’t there and scored down low almost at will. Strong and measured series from LeBron James.
2. Anthony Davis looks stronger and stronger. In a series where he moved to the center position full-time, aided by Markieff Morris, AD was a force on defense from the top of the key to the rim. He showed hard on switches, came out to defend guards and forwards and was a general force of nature on that end of the court. On offense he was hitting mid range jumpers from everywhere, eschewed the three for punishing little players in the paint. He was everything you could want from a super star big man.
3. The emergence of Alex Caruso and Kyle Kuzma. Every series they play in will be there first of that type. Both players have done a great job of having an impact but playing within themselves and their roles. Alex is the jack-of-all-trades player, making plays, scoring, and playing suffocating perimeter D while moving his feet on drives like a savvy vet. His chase down block on Harden was epic. Kyle Kuzma can give more than he’s asked of on this team. While it wasn’t working for him earlier this season it’s definitely working for him now. He’s hitting threes at a respectable rate, defending well and making the most of this experience.
4. Rajon Rondo aka playoff Rondo. This is the player Lakers fans have been waiting for the last couple seasons. When he’s focused on the game and a little less on his Rondo-isms he’s an elite player. But you know what? I don’t really mind his Rondo-isms. They get into the opposition’s head and take them out of their comfort zone. He makes the kind of plays that win playoff games, he’s not over-gambling on defense and he’s shooting the three ball pretty darn well, so far. His entry passes over a fronting player are a big reason we were able to keep a big on the floor at all times.
5. Getting some rest. We got a veteran team, there isn’t a lot of rest between games in the Bubble. So now we get until at least Wednesday, possibly as late as Friday to get ourselves rested and refreshed. While the rust we accumulate has shown itself to be an issue I’ll take a rust game for the dominance we’ve shown in the games after game 1. While losing game 1 is never ideal, we’ve thus far shown the ability to rise above. Better to get right with some extra time off and be as ready as we can physically be. But winning game 1 wouldn’t suck, either.

All in all I don’t think this could be going much better. We’ve lost game 1 in each series than turned it around and pretty much dominated. Our defense looks locked in, we know where we’re getting our points from and we’re playing as a team. I, for one, am thoroughly enjoying our return to NBA prominence and can’t wait for the Western Conference finals.

Going camping for a few days so won’t be chiming in here and there but I’ll be back Wednesday in time for a potential game 1 against…

Lakers fooled around a little too much and suddenly Houston was granted the power to just jump on top of anyone but in the end the lead we built up over 3 and 4/5ths of dominating basketball was enough to overcome Houston’s late game surge. Frank Vogel granted LakerTom’s wish, Talen Horton-Tucker got some playoff burn and the Lakers are looking to close it out on Saturday. Good stuff.

1. Lakers make the final adjustment: go full Lilliput. It was the Lollypop Guild vs. the Lullaby League, Willow vs. Tyrion Lannister. The Time Bandits vs. Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin and Strider (starring Anthony Davis as Aragorn II Elessar). There was no traditional center to start the game is my point. Markieff Morris replaced JaVale McGee (who, like Dwight Howard did not see the court) in the starting line up. The result was a pretty dominating three quarters of basketball. While some of what went down was aided by the incredibly lackluster Houston squad, there’s no denying that the Lakers put forth an excellent defensive effort that fueled their fast break and points in the paint advantage. While it didn’t unlock magical accuracy from three point land (we shot 9-30, 30%) we were able to better execute the trapping defense that has stalled out the Houston offense.
2. Dominating the glass. It took a great team effort to dominate the glass tonight. It took Danny Green and Rajon Rondo fighting for 3 offensive rebounds apiece, LeBron battling for a team high 15 rebounds and a lot of boxing out. It took every one of those rebounds and effort points for us to survive the late flurry at the end. We lost our focus on those kinds of plays with about 7 minutes to go. The foot came all the way off the gas pedal and it turned out to be very fortunate that we had the cushion we did.
3. Free Throw Blues. One of the reasons we coughed up the big lead was we stopped playing smart defense, started reaching and holding instead of moving our feet. James Harden shot 20, 4 more than the entire Laker team combined. The Lakers have been able to overcome the free throw discrepancy mainly because they’ve been romping in the paint. They need to keep that up for one more game.
4. 62-24 is where the game was won. That was our advantage in the paint. Aided by our 19-2 advantage in fast break points the points in the paint will be looked back upon as our key to success. We got that advantage in a variety of ways, LeBron James doing his thing, Rondo cutting to the rim unguarded because…yeah…defense, offensive rebounding by the team, and a focus on getting to the basket emphasized by Vogel in the broadcast. While we Frank made the call to bench both his 7 footers (OK, Dwight’s always been more like 6’10”) we still won playing big, just in a small way.
5. Talen Horton-Tucker! Give me that over J.R. Smith all day, every day. Maybe even over Waiters. Talen got his first bucket on one of our 9 makes from three point land. But his second was a thing of beauty. Driving right at James Harden the rookie showed no fear of the beard and juked the Rockets All-Star out of position before dropping a perfect finger roll through the net. A great moment for the second round pick of the draft. Another great example of the Laker G-League system. Most importantly: a validation of hard work and perseverance.

Got another dog-fight on Saturday. Even though we’re up 3-1 it hasn’t been an easy 3-1. Need to close it our on Saturday, don’t give Houston any more reason to hope. Go Lakers.

That felt like two games. It was, of course, only one. Pretty sure there hasn’t been a same-team double-header since…maybe ever? Barn-storming era? At any rate, two very different halves of basketball. Not going to get into the superlative performances of individual Lakers, just some in-game and out-of-game thoughts this evening.

1. This is Laker defense, and they ain’t foolin’ around. Now with more audibles from Rondo!!! Truth be told it’s a cliche’ because it’s true: defense wins championships. The Rockets talk about it (they kind of have to, it’s a huge question mark for them) but the Lakers walk-the-walk. I’ve been pretty hard on Rondo this season but with good reason: he’s been pretty underwhelming in totality as a Laker. The caveat being that there have been stretches in all of the season’s he’s been wearing purple and gold where he played like how I remember in the NBA Finals versus Boston…all those years ago… Hard, with focus, with guys like Kevin Garnett, Tony Allen, and you add stars Ray Allen and Paul Pierce buying in, covering for one another with ferocity. That’s how the Lakers played defense in the second half tonight when they slow-pulled away for the win.
2. By the way, how the hell are the Lakers winning games?! Houston is shooting threes at a ridiculously efficient rate (although it could, somehow, be argued they ought to maybe shoot a couple, three more), they’re making a ton of free throws (and will probably gripe that they should be shooting more), and they’re forcing us into a ton of mid-range jump shots. It’s not like we’ve shot more free throws (65 to 64) or we’re dominating the FGA battle (244-237). We’re scoring more efficiently (thank you Anthony Davis mid-range jump shot), making more plays off the pass and dominating in the paint.
3. Vogel adapting like a lazy Borg. But he is adapting. Benching Howard for two straight, starting Markieff Morris in the second half (although one wonders if that was as much. The defensive adjustments to what the Rockets are trying to do are solid, especially the traps. The help defense from the weak-side has been especially devastating. A lot of that is on the players making great reads, but the traps, zones, and man-to-man switches are all things the coaching staff has worked with the guys on all season and it’s showing in the clutch.
4. The Laker bench showing up huge in this series. If you’ve been listening to the podcasts Gerald has been producing for Lakers Fast Break and sharing here then you know Mike D’Antoni likes a short bench, especially in the playoffs. Our bench, much maligned and often the source of trade proposals, has been walloping Houston. Losing Danuel House for undisclosed reasons was a blow for the Rockets and here’s hoping Robert Covington isn’t seriously hurt after colliding (with an unintentional little push from Kyle). but still the Laker bench has been solid on both ends and it’s one of the keys to us being up 2-1 in the series. Caruso and Kuzma, both in their first NBA playoffs ever, are distinguishing themselves well. It’s not like they’re playing like All Stars, they’re not. But they’re holding their respective roles down like true pros and it gives Vogel more time to rest guys during the game so they’re a little fresher for the 4th.
5. Speaking of fresh, the lack of any kind meaningful home court takes it’s toll. It must be like trying to solo insanely while shooting a video in a room full of people doing other things. Really odd stuff for a professional basketball player. It feels like not only did the long layoff throw some wrenches in the cogs for teams like Milwaukee and Philadelphia, of whom we all expected more, but for a team like Houston that has a short bench, was just in an unexpectedly long series, got little guys having to bang with bigger guys a lot more, the lack of crowd energy is just one thing too many to overcome. Not sure how one would go about discovering the truth of that notion. At any rate, I can;t recall a playoffs where the game that a “home” team has lost or an “away” team has won has meant less. Tonight the Lakers took back their home court advantage. Whee.

Soooooo if you’re into prediction I’m calling game 2 for Houston, they tie the series up and we win the next two to move on. I wouldn’t mind being wrong, but I’d love to see the Lakers have a liiiiittle less of a layoff for the next round. It’s likely to be a tough Clippers squad that honestly feels like it’s never approached it’s ceiling as team. Honestly, it might never this season as it’s been such a jambalaya of a rotation. At any rate, feels like we don’t have too many rust games to burn. But we’re not there, yet, game 4 is Thursday.

When Pete makes a statement like “Harrell easily, that’s why we prioritized him well ahead of Ibaka,” remember Pete now WORKS for the Lakers and does podcasts with Mike Trudell, who also WORKS for the Lakers. This is not speculation, it’s INSIDE INFORMATION. Treat it with respect.

Don’t let the similarities of the game one loss to Portland and what we witnessed tonight fool you. Houston has a defensive identity that starts with P.J. Tucker and ends with a well-orchestrated switch and collapse scheme the Trailblazers can only hope to deploy. Harden and Westbrook are better than Dame and McCollum. Eric Gordon’s 3rd option skill set is a better one than Melo’s (I consider Anthony to be the superior player, however). Lakers have their work cut out for them. Still, there were a lot of elements of this game to the one against the Trailblazers.

1. We lost the battle of the boards 41-41. That’s not a poorly typed sentence my friends. By playing to a draw on the glass the Lakers lost the rebound battle. Sure, we grabbed more offensive rebounds (10-4) but that’s s much a byproduct of us missing a bunch of shots as it is box out acumen. But we didn’t get after it on the glass. Give Houston credit, they have the players suited to play their style of basketball and it’s giving the Lakers fits. Everything about how Houston plays funnels into itself to turn what feels like what should be a negative is re-routed into something positive. No player close to 7 feet tall? No worries, long shots lead to long rebounds and our guards have been crashing the glass for months. Lakers need to be better on the boards to have a shot at moving forward.
2. James Harden and Russell Westbrook were better than LeBron James and Anthony Davis tonight. I’m not talking about the box score, even though that also reveals that our superstars were thoroughly outplayed, but our two guys just didn’t bring ‘it’ never reached that 5th gear. Had no pop in the 4th when we had some chances to make it a game. They need to find that extra gear by Sunday and I think they can
3. That felt like a lot of Rajon Rondo. Personally, I think they should start Caruso. He’s good enough. I don’t think they will, I think Vogel goes with Rondo as a starter and it’s going to be painful. Playoff Rondo may win you a game but there’s no denying we need better shooting and defense from that position in this series. Also Rajon hasn’t played in, like, 6th months. I get it, he’s chomping at the bit and has more than a modicum of mamba mentality. But he doesn’t need to play 25 minutes per game. I’d rather see Waiters. But if anyone’s minutes suffer it needs to be Rondo’s. Even though KCP has really started slow, Rondo doesn’t look like he’s up to playoff speed.
4. Using our advantages better. Entertain, for a moment, a world in which Frank Vogel makes zero rotation adjustments. Doles out minutes roughly the same. A world where our only real adjustment is to just, you know, play better. What does that world look like in a win? It looks like Anthony Davis posting up 7 or so feet closer to the basket for a lot more our possessions, he can’t let Tucker stop him twenty feet out and expect to break him down. It looks like LeBron James showing up in the 4th quarter. James did not seem engaged, especially in the second half. Not at the level we’ve grown accustomed to seeing. Kyle Kuzma needs to play as well as Eric Gordon. Didn’t happen tonight, Kuz seemed to be off his game. Like how pretty much the whole team was. Caruso needs to not commit fouls. He had a great game cooking but picked up some bad fouls and that sort of forced us, evidently, into so much Rondo.
5. The question of energy. I, for one, was skeptical but willing to entertain the idea that the Rockets were a team playing on fumes. Seeing How Denver came out flat and looked gas after their 7 game series seemed to open the door a crack that, maybe, the Rockets would have a similar showing. Nope, Harden looked solid, Westbrook played with the pedal to the metal and the rest of that Houston squad looked sharp and ready to go. We need to bring that energy to game 2.