Los Angeles Lakers: Guarding Kristaps Porzingis will be a difficult task

On Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Lakers will be playing their only game of the season at Madison Square Garden. This also means a matchup against Kristaps Porzingis.

The Los Angeles Lakers are riding a two-game winning streak into Tuesday nights matchup against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. So far this season, the Knicks have been a pleasant surprise, as they are 13-13 even though they traded Carmelo Anthony prior to the season starting.

So far, the Knicks are getting good seasons from players like Enes Kanter, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Courtney Lee. However, there is no denying who the star in New York is now. Since the trade of Anthony to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Knicks are now Kristap Porzingis’ team.

Porzingis has embraced being the best player on the team and he has taken a big step forward in his development this season. This season, Porzingis is the Knicks’ leading scorer with 25.5 points per game. What makes him the unicorn of New York is his ability to score from both inside and outside the 3-point line. Considering that Porzingis is 7’3” he is going to be a matchup nightmare for the Lakers.

Recently, we have seen the Lakers have to play against a player similar to Porzingis in Joel Embiid. Like Embiid, Porzingis is able to hurt you in multiple ways on the offensive end of the court, and his size makes it difficult to try and find a person to play against him.

For the Lakers, they had a hard time stopping Embiid in both matchups. However, we did see Andrew Bogut have some success against him, and he could certainly be an option for the Lakers to use.

In the starting lineup, the Lakers will have to make a tough call, as Porzingis does play at the power forward position to start the game with Kanter at center. This means that it will be Larry Nance Jr. likely tasked with taking the first crack at guarding Porzingis. While Nance is stronger than Porzingis, he is also six inches shorter.

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It might take Luke Walton some time to figure out how he wants to deal with Porzingis in this game, as we will likely see the Lakers throw a bunch of players on him to try and find something that works. With their eyes on a three-game winning streak, slowing Porzinigs down on Tuesday would certainly help them accomplish that.