5 THINGS

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.

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.