Aloha,

Well that was stupid. We shot 50% The Suns shot 49%. The Suns shot 36% from 3 making 14. We shot 38% making 13. Sounds like an even game until you consider the 17 turnovers and 13 offensive boards. The Suns took 13 more shots than we did. Ball game. You would think giving up 127 points meant bad defense but it was more like bad offense. We were always trying to defend in transition. The Suns scored 17 points off of only 9 turnovers in the first half, they were almost all live ball turnovers and it seemed like they all ended in made 3’s or and ones.

We are not going to win many games when LeBron scores 10 point with 4 awful turnovers and AD scores 13 with 5 rebounds. The thing that irritated me most was the lack of effort in trying to get AD the ball. Tonight the others scored 86. That normally would lead to a blowout. It was a blowout all right.

And of course we continue to be snake bit with injuries. Wood who has been playing well missed due to a migraine. And Cam got hurt 8 minutes into the game. We could have really used his defense.we were only down 5 when he left. We can’t beat the top heavy teams with our starting line up but our advantage is supposed to lay with our depth. But our depth is rarely available. Rui, Wood and Cam could have helped. And of course Vincent was brought in for his on ball defense. That would have been extremely beneficial tonight.

I’m thinking we should start DLO again. Austin was playing his best ball off the bench. He was being mentioned as a 6th man of the year candidate. But he’s struggling as a starter again. He was targeted all game. Even though DLO is not a great defender, he was better than Austin. Plus Dlo is a natural PG. Austin is a combo guard. I like Austin better when he’s paired with LeBron on the 2nd unit.

All in all it was a crappy effort. More so by LeBron and AD. They have to lead the charge and neither could tonight.

Aloha,

For those who think a trade is going to turn this around, it’s not. Besides, the trade market is full of buyers and very few sellers so competition for those players that do hit the market will be fierce.

It will be up to the players and coaches to turn this season around. I actually place more blame on coaching in this last game. It was apparent that they did not want Ja to beat them and they collapsed the paint all night. While it did work to some degree, Ja was 7 for 17, there was no adjustments made when the Griz got hot from 3. Sure the Griz is a bad 3 point shooting team but even a poor 3 point shooter will hit shots if left completely alone.

We have AD, yet the coaches never adjusted. When we were playing good defense earlier in the year, our perimeter defenders got up on players, knowing AD had their backs. At some point an adjustment needed to be made. Not only were guys collapsing but they dropped to deep, making it impossible to challenge.

Yes Smart is a poor 3 point shooter and he did make a couple of contested shots but for the most part he was left alone to make what amounted to practice shots. JJJ shoots a set shot 3, yet LeBron was so far off him he could get that shot off with no problem.

I really don’t know what the answer is but players and coaches a like need to take a long look in the mirror and decide if they want to turn it around or not. These kind of performances can not continue.

Aloha,

Lakers lead the league in player games lost to injury 99, back to back games 7, road games and miles traveled and games played.

Aloha,

I rarely speculate on trades but one jumped out to me. The Hawks have coveted Siakam. They came close to trading for him last year. Hunter was the guy the Raptors wanted. The problem this year is Siakam 37 mil contract. Hunter is making 20 mil. I doubt that the Raptors would want to bring in Murray as well because they just acquired Quickly and it would be redundant. The Hawks could send the Raptors Hunter and draft picks for Siakam. We could send the Raptors DLO, our 2029 pick and we may have to include Max as sweetener. And the Hawks send us a Murray. This move would make sense for everyone. Murray’s salary jumps to 25 mil next year so that may not be appealing. While Dennis a fine PG he is most suited off the bench. Quickly is more of a combo guard. The Raptors also struggle from 3. DLO gives them a true PG that can shoot. Win, Win, win all around.

Aloha,

It wasn’t so much that we won the game, that was expected. It was how we did it that was unusual. We were up 10 when AD and LeBron went out in the 3rd and won by 21. With the lead peaking at 27. This is something you don’t see every game. The others were the story.
Rui +34
Wood+19
Dlo+18
Max+18
Austin+9
AD+6
LeBron+1

Over the last 4 games the Lakers are 53-117 from 3. 45%•.

It was nice to see DLO and Wood hitting their 3’s. DLO 4-7, Wood 3-3.

Max has a future in this league. 10 points, 7 boards, 3 assists, 2 blocks and a steal. What impresses me the most is how solid he is on defense at 20 years old. He makes mistakes but he has shut down potential.

Rui is beginning to find his rhythm. And he is playing quality defense as well. He needs to play more minutesZ

AD continues to dominate and it doesn’t matter the quality of the opponent. He is destroying everyone. 26 8 and 4 blocks in 26 minutes. By the way he has now played in 79 of the 83 games.

Austin is becoming one of the craftiest player in the league. That behind the back layup was often.

Jackson Hayes, instant offense 10 points in 7 minutes.

On to the TWolves. We played them tough last time without LeBron. If our others continue to play well we will have an excellent chance of winning.

Aloha,

That was encouraging. Actually I was encouraged last game as well, playing the number 1 seed and battling without LeBron. Tonight it was the number 2 seed with the 4th ranked defense in league and we scored 129. OKC made a late run but that’s expected. They are really good. What is really scary about OKC is they have the assets to get any player they want that comes on the trade market. They have been reluctant to pay big bucks in the past, hopefully that continues.

The big line up was pretty good. They gave up a lot of 1st quarter points but OKC made a lot of really tough shots. You knew they could not keep that up.

What’s left to say about LeBron. He had his best game of the year when we needed it most. And efficient. 65% shooting and 3 for 5 from 3.

It must of been frustrating for OKC. They doubled and tripled AD every time he touched the ball and he still scored 26. And those doubles led to AD’s 7 assists and good shots all around.

Can we can please continue to give Rui more minutes. He was very good again tonight. 21 points and 3 for 5 from 3. And he also played some nice defense as well. It appears that he is finding his rhythm and maybe getting use to playing with that mask.

DLO was very good. 15 points in 17 minutes. With Him, Rui and Austin coming off the bench, it gave us a lot of fire power. 47 points to be exact.

We won the 3 point game tonight. 16 made to 13 but even more importantly 50%.

Cam and Vando didn’t score much but their defense was impressive. And Cam was a team high +13 and had 7 assists to boot. Still he will need to be better shooting the ball.

If we can play with this kind of energy we will beat the Celtics on Christmas.

Aloha,

Well this should be interesting. After going through Dennis, Russ and DLO we are back to where we started in the bubble, with LeBron at the point. On the defensive end, I think this can work. The bubble team had really good 6’ 5 and 6’ 6” wings with LeBron. This line up has 6’ 8” Cam and 6’ 10” Vando. Vando is still playing himself back into shape but Darvin obviously believes he is ready. The offensive side is the concern. Prince will have to continue to knock down 3’s and Cam will need to find the range as well. We still need AD to dominate and we need guys hitting 3’s to space the floor. While DLO has been slumping, teams still had to account for him.

I’m curious to see how the rotations will look. That will be key. Our bench will consist of 3 guards, Rui and Probably Hayes. So the rotation will be super important. I really don’t want to see 3 guard line ups. You might see Vincent as the first guard off the bench. We brought him in to guard the quick guards like SGA. This certainly will be interesting.

If it works you may not need a point guard back if we were to trade DLO. We could always sign an emergency PG if we traded DLO for a non PG. But I don’t know who that would be yet. I don’t think we will know who is really on the trade market for several weeks. Right now it’s mostly speculation from writers. In thing I don’t want to see is Rui in a trade unless it’s for an upgrade at the 4. I do not want Wood as our primary back up at the 4. He has been terrible.

This experiment may tell us a lot about the direction we go in the trade market.

Aloha,

What a difference a couple of weeks can make. A couple of weeks ago the chatters was about the Bulls blowing it up. Then a strange thing happened. LaVine got injured and the Bulls got good. Now before his injury they were a plus 6 when he sat, but I don’t think anyone saw 6 and 3 coming. .

Not only have they been winning, they have beat the Bucks, 76ers and Heat. And two of the losses were to the Bucks in OT and by just 2 to the Heat. One wonders if this stretch will change anything. They may hold tight to see what happens, or they might try and see what they can get to bolster their roster by moving just LaVine. They may turn into buyers. Bottom line, they are a dangerous team and we can not over look them.

Aloha,

Missing 3 starters is a killer. It messes your game plan up. The first quarter was an example of that. We were completely disjointed on both sides of the ball and it took some time to settle in.

We saw why AD is so important to this team on defense. First the Spurs were not afraid of Hayes and Wood. They attacked the paint, getting a lot of little baby jumpers and points at the rim. And on the perimeter, we could not be as aggressive without AD having the teams back.

It also impacted the offense. Not just for what he scores, not just because we run the offense but also we didn’t get nearly as many open looks, especially from three because they didn’t have to collapse on AD.

Missing both Cam and DLO also took a toll. Basel had a career high 36 without Cam to check him. And we really missed DLO’s play making. And not having Austin to run the 2nd unit really hurt as well. We might have survived without AD if those two had played.

LeBron also was missing AD. They bottled him up pretty good. He made them pay with 14 assists but it made it difficult to score.

At some point it would be nice to be healthy. What a concept. We may see Vincent in the next couple of games which will be great. Hopefully we will have these other guys back for the Knicks.

Aloha,

I wrote before the game that it was the classic defense versus offense game. And as usual defense won.

AD is going to be remembered as one of the great defenders in the history of the game. Despite his desire to play the 4, no coach in their right mind would take him out of the middle. While fans would love to see him score more, he puts so much energy into his defense that one wonders how he manages to score as much as he does. There just isn’t any centers that can switch one through five, trap a point guard and then fall back in time to block or alter a shot in the paint. His mere presence deters players from even trying to score at the rim. And it’s that presence that allows guys like Cam and Vando to do their thing knowing AD has their back. Heck even DLO was up on people, playing solid D.

LeBron is playing so well this year that he dominates even on an off night.

I am so impressed by Cam. He did an amazing job on Haliburton. While he doesn’t score a lot, it’s his defense that matters most. And I think he enough offense to become a consistent double digit scorer. We won’t know what the cap looks like until that TV deal is done but Cam should be our main free agent target. Hopefully we can have the full MLE available again.

I just don’t understand the Pacers game plan. I know Turner is a good shot blocker but the rest of the front line is small. Why put so much energy into chasing shooters off shots? Factor in AD that required Turners full attention, it was almost a layup line, LeBron, Austin, DLO all attacked the paint and the Pacers couldn’t stop them. I was surprised when the Pacers didn’t adjust at halftime. By the way this was an example of why I was against adding Turner to the Lakers. He is a good center but he can’t compare to AD in the middle.

Playoff Austin is beginning to show up much more often. Which is a good sign moving forward. 22 points in the first half was amazing and necessary. It bodes well for the rest of the year. He just shines in big moments.

DLO’s offense is streaky but his defensive effort this year has been really nice to see. It earned him closing minutes yesterday.

It’s really hard for guards to shoot over 6’ 8” and 6’ 9” guys with
7’ + wingspans. Just saying. Haliburton had 3 AIRBALLS!

It’s a shame that the win doesn’t count but the Pacers were on a historic year offensively and we shut them down. If we stay healthy, this defense is going to win a lot of games.

I’m looking forward to the Mav’s game. We should have beat them last time and we didn’t have Cam or Vando available. I think it will be a different story this time.

The very first NBA in season tournament champions. That has a nice ring to it.

Aloha,

While I could write about how magical Lebron’s 23 minute were, there is a never ending number of articles that tell that story. I will write a few different things.

When we got off to a slow start the talk was what’s wrong with the Lakers, how to fix the Lakers. Who can we trade for. We need shooters etc. what all the writers were overlooking was the row of players sitting on the bench in street close. The Pels had a number of injuries also. I read a few articles on how the guys coming back were long and athletic defenders and that was going to really make this Pels team much better. Well we had long athletic guys coming back as well.

The truth is, our depth is our 3rd star. We are 9 and 2 when Cam starts. While he isn’t scoring a lot his defense has been elite. Add Vando to him and AD and now you have the recipe for an elite defense.

As for shooting, I said all along that we had shooters, that just weren’t making their shots. Prince is a very good 3 point shooter along with playing quality defense. He slumped early but over the 6 or 7 games he’s raised his season 3 point percentage to 36% and climbing after his 5 for 8 last night from 3.

Austin is also a proven 3 point shooter. He was slow out of the gate last year as well, but finished at 39% and 44% in The playoffs. He too is beginning to hit his shots. He is a big time player in big moments as we saw again yesterday.

Rui is back and shooting 40% from 3. As he plays his way back into shape I expect his shooting to continue to improve. And DLO is at 40% along with 6.5 assists. Dlo is a perfect point guard for us.

On any given night we have 3 guys that can put up 20 points to complement AD and LeBron.

Speaking of AD, the offensive criticism he receives it bit unfair. Teams come into the game with goal of taking one of the stars out. It’s easier to take AD out than LeBron because AD plays in the post and you can surround him. And teams have had multiple guys around him most of the time. With the DPOY defense he plays, I’m okay if he doesn’t hit 25 points every night. And with a full squad it should make it easier on him to score.

This team will not become an elite scoring machine but with the defense we play we won’t need to. I suspect the 3 point percentage to continue to improve but we don’t need to be at the top, just respectable.

This team really doesn’t need a 3rd star because we already have one. Our depth.

Aloha,

just watched the Pacers take down the Bucks and I watched them beat the Celtics. They are definitely for real. Haliburton is a legit MVP candidate. The rumors out there is they will be buyers looking for a front line player to pair with Turner. Grant out of Portland and OG out of Toronto are their targets. They have the salaries, draft picks and young players. If they land one of those guys, look out. If we get by the Pelicans, we will have our hands full for sure