(Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr./Getty Images)
Here are four lessons from a tough night against the Utah Jazz for the Los Angeles Lakers.
We all know the Los Angeles Lakers are missing key people from their lineup. LeBron James and Rajon Rondo are two players that the Lakers showed in this game they need going forward if they have any chance of making the playoffs.
Why?
Because the Utah Jazz were missing…wait for it, FIVE players from their lineup on Friday night.
What was the difference? One team decided to play defense and compete and the other well, there is the Cleveland Cavaliers game on Sunday.
The Los Angeles Lakers got taken to the proverbial woodshed getting beat 113-95. This was a complete turnaround from what the Lakers did to the Detroit Pistons…
This game should be troubling to Lakers fans going into late next week. The next two games the Lakers play is against the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday and the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday. These are two games that the Lakers should win easily and I will go on record and say they will beat the Bulls and the Cavaliers quite handily.
After those games…
The Lakers have to play the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday, the red-hot Houston Rockets who features James Harden who makes news if he DOESN’T score 40 points next Saturday and the World Champion Golden State Warriors after that on Monday.
Oh by the way, the Warriors are hot and they have a shiny new toy they want to show the Lakers…DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins. He is reported to be back on January 18th.
The point is clear…the Lakers have to perform better against good teams with set schemes and identities. The Detroit Pistons were terrible and did not compete.
The Utah Jazz didn’t bring the house down (Outside of Donovan Mitchell!) but they competed and played hard.
The Lakers seemingly did not have the energy to match and it showed big time…
The Lakers were exposed in two ways in this game. Number one, if this team is slowed down offensively and can’t get into their fast break, this team cannot score. Since LeBron James has been injured, the Lakers have one of the worst scoring offenses in the league. This counts double when the 3-point shot is not falling. The Lakers shot 5-27 from the land of three which adds up to less than 20 percent. The Lakers will struggle against most teams in the NBA forget the good ones if this happens
Number two, the Lakers tend to fall apart when they get in foul trouble or they feel that calls are not going their way. Adversity is something that the Lakers are going have to learn to play through going forward.
LeBron James is a superstar in this league. Nights like this shows why. Against the Jazz, each one of the Lakers young core were stopped at times throughout this game and never adjusted. A player like LeBron keeps some of the attention that they faced Friday night always attached to him.
That is what we all to a point take for granted about James…
Let’s get to the Lake Show Life Lessons!
Source: “Los Angeles” – Google News