The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a lot more than a loss on their record against the Houston Rockets.
This will be the wildest game recap of my short writing history covering the Los Angeles Lakers. Let’s get the journalist stuff out of the way.
The Los Angeles Lakers lost their second game of the season, losing to the Houston Rockets 124-115. LeBron James led the Lakers with 24 points, five rebounds and five assists (Boy if you like LeBron James and are a blinded fan, I would skip his part!).
JaVale McGee had 16 points and six rebounds and five blocks. Rajon Rondo finished close to a triple-double with 13 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. Sadly, no one will remember that because he was tossed out for fighting (I mean fighting…no dancing like normal NBA fights…FIGHTING!) and Brandon Ingram followed him out for throwing punches.
Lake Show Life will be efforting a piece about the fight and how egregious an act this is not just for these players, but for the team going into a murderers row of games to start the season.
Lake Show Life had a pregame checklist on what had to happen in the game…
Los Angeles Lakers: 3 things to watch for vs Houston Rockets
The Los Angeles Lakers lost their season opener to the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday night. No rest for the weary as the Houston Rockets come to town!
Let’s get started.
1. How did LeBron James do?
It depends on what type of Los Angeles Lakers fan you are. Are you the fan that likes to win…
…or are you the type of fan that wants to be entertained and happy because you are a LeBron James fan?
Well if you are just a fan that thinks LeBron James is the best player in the world and consistently complains that the Golden State Warriors are a super team…
Here you go…
Flight 23 ready for takeoff #LakeShow pic.twitter.com/8EOKSRbV2j
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) October 21, 2018
Now just like in the Portland game on Thursday night…
I need courtside seats before I die pic.twitter.com/Mim72vuko6
— Dom2K 🏖🎃 (@Dom_2k) October 19, 2018
Let me get the other one for the casual fan…
There was excitement throughout the building! Only one problem…
THESE THINGS ARE HAPPENING IN THE FIRST QUARTER!
Here’s a couple of quotes I stated in the last couple of pieces…
Quote, Number One…
"If he is the best player on the court, the last eight minutes is when he has to impose his will and lead his team to victory. He has to be as dominant or more so at THIS time in the game. This game was winnable but a scenario that Lakers fans need to watch throughout the season occurred. LeBron James played well enough to fill stat sheets, but not well enough to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to victory."
He did it again last night. With the game on the line, LeBron James again came up short. The Houston Rockets handed the ball to James Harden and let him be the MVP of the league and go win the game. Harden especially showed what superstars do with the game on the line.
This WAS ESPECIALLY evident after Chris Paul was ejected. Harden took over knocked down a three over great Lonzo Ball defense…drove to the basket and hit a layup to ice the game.
He even found time to do this…
But Lakers fans, even in that fracas that happened, and let’s be clear here, Rajon Rondo was wrong and Brandon Ingram was just plain stupid…BUT! This can’t happen if you are the leader of the Lakers…
You go support your teammates! Not the opponent. To all the real ballplayers out there, how many times have you gotten into it in the heat of the battle only to forget about it when the game is over? James should have been over to Brandon Ingram! NOT CHRIS PAUL! Where does this guy’s allegiance lie? Where is his competitive drive to win?!!
When you see these back and forth debates on social media most of them are ridiculous because it is all about the eras, but I do know this…
Larry Bird wouldn’t do this…
Magic Johnson wouldn’t do this…
Michael Jordan wouldn’t do this…
Kobe Bryant?…PFFT! Please!
Any Lakers fan worth a grain of salt has seen Shaq do his thing in a scuffle!
After this incident, James was not heard from again in the game. Defensive breakdowns, not rim protection, (Harden’s last layup was because LeBron didn’t rotate to protect the basket) or playing the 3-point line.
Quote, Number two…
"If you did not get a chance to watch the highlights of the Warriors and Jazz last night, the Jazz came out like gangbusters and ran 81 points on the champs…81! But in the second half, Golden State started executing down the stretch and the STARS, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, led them to victory 124-123. Before we go into this KD, Steph superteam stuff, don’t miss the point. They did what stars are supposed to do. Just like Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum did for Portland on Thursday night. The Lakers NEED LeBron James to take on this mentality. When the game is on the line and close, he needs to take over and make plays. He needs to be aggressive! On Thursday he was passive and did not do what stars are supposed to do to close out games. Thursday’s game was winnable. LeBron did not take advantage."
This is the second winnable game that has gone by the waste side for the Los Angeles Lakers. This is the second time that no one has found LeBron James doing anything of mention in the last ten minutes of games.
Superstars close games. Who’s the closer for the Los Angeles Lakers? They paid LeBron James $154 million dollars to do it. Where’s the production? Stat sheets don’t win games. Leadership and coming through in the clutch does. LeBron James did neither!
2. Did The Lakers figure out the “I will defend tonight!” creed and quick!
I have to say yes here. The Lakers did defend and competed. I will say this though…
The Los Angeles Lakers had better sign JaVale McGee to an extension quickly before the NBA gets wind of how hard he is playing. Five blocks people! Even the Harden dunk that got by him was not his fault. LeBron James was flat footed and Rondo was caught reaching and not moving his feet. No matter what you say about these free agent signings, JaVale McGee was a slam dunk!
Josh Hart is the same way. There is nobody outside of Kawhi Leonard and maybe Jimmy Butler who can give Harden trouble one on one, but this dude played with heart. Look no one is saying the Lakers are a 60 win team here, but they could approach 50 if EVERYONE plays as hard as these two.
Let me tell everyone this early so I can be on record saying this…LeBron James does not play good defense…he is weak on defensive rebounding…
https://twitter.com/HoustonRockets/status/1053876157639143430
Yeah, that’s him on the floor. He was pushed by Carmelo Anthony but you can’t flop with the game on the line! Plus, do you really think Anthony is in shape to even put James on the floor? Not likely.
His rotations are horrendous…
https://twitter.com/HoustonRockets/status/1053848877625892864
LeBron needs to slide in this situation! This one is the worst…
https://twitter.com/HoustonRockets/status/1053841444828409857
JaVale McGee has his hands up containing Clint Capela. LeBron James should know that Capela needs to gather himself to shoot. Did he move? Press play and see…
If that wasn’t bad enough, with the game in doubt and the Lakers down two with 2:31 remaining, James falls asleep and allows a PJ Tucker 3-pointer to put it out of reach in the corner.
If the Lakers are going to get better on defense, it starts and ends with the best player playing defense. LeBron James hasn’t shown that commitment yet. Remember the Lakers want him to play the five spot.
Good luck with that!
3. Brandon Ingram let a lot of people down last night!
Welcome to the cusp of stardom Brandon Ingram! Now say goodbye for a couple of weeks. Brandon Ingram was dead wrong from beginning to end last night. I’m not showing any video of this in this piece. But let me tell everyone something…
James Harden did nothing wrong. He has been doing that shoulder move since the Thunder days. If anything, Ingram was lucky it wasn’t an “and one” on the play because of the continuation.
Ingram is a skinny dude that will be targeted. PERIOD! I know of what I speak! I have played basketball for years and that is what bigger players do to skinny players. They try it and I know how to deal with it. Ingram next phase of growth will be learning how to deal with the physicality of bigger players. Remember, the Lakers want him to play the four positions at times this season.
The push on Harden was bad but not as ridiculous as getting into the face of the referee and putting a finger in his face (No Chris Paul was not first in doing this!). But what Ingram did last may easily get him suspended six to ten games!
He ran up and punched Chris Paul with a closed fist! Can’t do that!
Lakers fans need to realize that Ingram is the second best player on the team! No question. Now he will be out for a decent amount of games which hurts the team immensely. He will lose his rhythm and trust me, the rest of the NBA teams will take notice and will FIND ways to get under his skin in crunch time of big games.
Again Lake Show Life will be efforting an in-depth piece breaking down the fight and the potential effects of not only the next couple of weeks but the season going forward. Oh, by the way, the San Antonio Spurs are next, think the Lakers could use him?
The Los Angeles Lakers have started their long journey through the NBA season. Lake Show Life will be there every step of the way. Continue to check in for Lakers news, previews and reviews.