Los Angeles Lakers: What needs to be done with Lonzo Ball, Rajon Rondo!

The Los Angeles Lakers have some questions to answer at point guard with Rajon Rondo returning from suspension and Lonzo Ball playing well in his absence.

The Los Angeles Lakers snapped a two-game losing streak losing 110-106 to the San Antonio Spurs. This marks the second time in about a week that the Lakers dropped a close and winnable game to San Antonio.

LeBron James dropped 35 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. He passed Dirk Nowitzki on the all-time scoring list along the way. Lake Show Life extends his congratulations to him and his accomplishments.

However, there was drama attached to the game before it even started. The drama came from whether the Lakers would keep Lonzo Ball in the starting lineup or insert Rajon Rondo back into the starting spot fresh off of a three-game suspension from last week’s fight with Chris Paul.

Outside of the obvious back and forth on whether Rajon Rondo’s career is in jeopardy or if he did the right thing…

Los Angeles Lakers: Rajon Rondo may have paid a huge price

Will the fight with Chris Paul cost Rajon Rondo his starting spot on the Los Angeles Lakers?

Something funny happened in his absence. Lonzo Ball took over as the starting point guard with Lance Stephenson playing the backup and all of a sudden the Lakers offense went crazy. Take it back to the first matchup with the Spurs, the Lakers ran up a season-high 142 points in a loss.

Los Angeles Lakers: 5 Takeaways from overtime loss to Spurs

The Los Angeles Lakers lost in OT in a heart breaker to the San Antonio Spurs 143-142 in one of the best NBA games of the year!

Watching the game, I knew the Lakers had lost their third straight game, but they had found the answer to an underlying question that was on the minds of everyone involved in the Lakers organization…

Who starts…Ball or Rondo.

Well, let me tell you who should start in my opinion…I don’t care! It doesn’t matter!

It does matter who FINISHES the games in crunch time. As we saw on Saturday night, Luke Walton chose the wrong guy to finish the game.

Oh, by the way, it has nothing to do with this play below even though he was criticized heavily. Rondo knew the Lakers were down three and decided to kick it back out and get a 3-point shot up to tie the game. I think he should have taken the layup and played the foul game, but it still was a good basketball thought regardless.

If you go find the box score and start comparing stats between the two players you are totally missing the point and the big picture here.

That’s because Rondo had more points, assists and rebounds. If you want to add that plus/minus stat in there, you can do that too. That doesn’t mean that Rondo should have been out there with Lance Stephenson on the bench.

You have a player in Stephenson that dominated in two games and was killing the Spurs in the first half only to sit him at this time in the game. Walton blew this.

No coach…YOU got away from who we are! The Lakers have to run to be successful. Lonzo Ball and Lance Stephenson are the tools you need to do so.

Let’s break down what Lonzo Ball does to the offense compared to Rajon Rondo…

Lonzo Ball’s Strength…The ball doesn’t stick to his hands! 

Everyone wants this guy to shoot lights out like all of the 3-point crazy guards in the NBA this is not the guy. He’s actually perfect for the offense that the front office wants to run.

He’s not Stephen Curry, who has a transcending game that combines ridiculous handles with a shot to match. Ball is a very efficient guard that gets the ball in positions for his teammates to score. Let’s look at some examples…

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1054586596119334913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1054586596119334913&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flakeshowlife.com%2F2018%2F10%2F23%2Flos-angeles-lakers-5-takeaways-overtime-loss-spurs%2F

In this play here, Josh Hart steals the ball and Lonzo Ball has it. Josh Hart sticks his hand up and the ball is there immediately with a slam dunk on the end. These are instincts. No extra dribble, just the presence of mind not only to give the ball up but in stride.

Same here with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. The Lakers are on a fast break. KCP is running hard down the middle lane and Ball again hits him in stride for a slam dunk…

Notice the fluidity of the fast break offense here. No NBA team is good enough to defend this type of efficiency. He’s ALWAYS looking up. The ball is always jumping and it encourages EVERYONE to do the same. Plus you see everyone is going to run with a guy like this.

One more example for emphasis…

One dribble…pass…slam dunk in five seconds flat. Jason Kidd the 2018 version. Lakers fans, get yours now!

Rajon Rondo’s Strength…The man knows basketball. 

Rajon Rondo can school Lonzo Ball on anything he needs to know about the NBA game. Plus at the time of the Rondo signing, it was touch and go for Ball who was dealing with his knee surgery in the offseason.

This was a perfect low-risk, high reward signing for the Los Angeles Lakers. Reports during the preseason were that he was mentoring the young players and instilling a work ethic that was needed for the ongoing culture of the franchise.

Plus the man can still do this…

Rondo can read the defense and react better than most point guards in the NBA. On that play he hit LeBron James with a perfect pocket pass.

Plus this…

Rondo breaks down the defense and finds Lance in the corner…then he hits the jumper to end the first quarter!

To even go further…we can all agree that in the first two games, Rondo actually played very well. He can work his mojo on Damian Lillard because Lillard did not have anything for the Lakers until Rondo fouled out in the fourth quarter. It was then Lillard took the game over and led Portland to victory.

I know your question…If both players are so good, what’s the difference?

Defensively the Lakers are awful when Rondo is on the floor!

If the Lakers are not going to stop the opposing teams’ backcourt, which did not happen against the Spurs Saturday night, they have to at least score on somebody.

The Spurs backcourt outscored the Lakers backcourt 64-43. That’s -21 if you are scoring at home. LeBron James dropped 35 on the Spurs. That’s all fine and dandy, but DeMar DeRozan canceled him out with 30 points and the game winner.

This is a quote that will come up all year long…

"This is an extremely important area of emphasis. Eventually, teams are going to pack it in the paint and demand Rondo (and eventually Ball) to consistently hit the jumper during the season. That’s the NBA folks. Whatever this positionless basketball the Lakers are selling will not work if everyone is not contributing on the offensive end. Good teams will isolate these guys and take advantage if they don’t look at the basket. The backcourt has to look for their offense and not look to LeBron James for everything."

Umm…the last 12 seconds proved my point. Sometimes your offense can be your defense. Opponents know Rondo enough to realize that Rondo’s strengths play to the Lakers weaknesses.

What do I mean?

Lonzo Ball will play defense which speeds up the opponents into possible mistakes to turn the ball over…

Look at how fast the ball moves for the Lakers hoop. Now you see that the Nuggets pace is being sped up and Jamal Murray is uncomfortable bringing up the ball against Lonzo. With that constant pressure, Murray cracks and gets his pocket picked and Lonzo gets the layup.

Watch this play…

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1055685225672364032

Ball anticipates the pick and roll and steals the ball from Jamal Murray and gets it to Kyle Kuzma for the slam dunk.

Notice that LeBron is playing the five spot. Plays like this have to happen for the Lakers to be successful on defense. Ball showed hard and Murray loses the ball. Defensive competition.

Finally…

The sequence here is started by Lonzo Ball grabbing the rebound and getting the ball to Stephenson. It changes the dynamic of the running lanes here.

When the ball goes to Lance, it shifts the defense which opens up the passing lane for Lance to hit LeBron for the slam dunk. Folks, Lonzo Ball right now is doing the hustle plays on defense that does not show up in the stat sheet.

Rondo, on the other hand, is not…check out these plays…

Rudy Gay gets the ball at the top of the key and drives for a slam dunk. If you are Rondo, you have to slide over and give help.

This was the theme in the last quarter. The Lakers can’t run if they don’t stop anybody. Rondo did not move.

For all those that say he was playing Forbes for the three…nope! He didn’t have his eyes on Forbes. This is a small thing that causes leaks in the defense. Gay can’t have that easy lane to the basket late in the game!

Another example…

Marco Belinelli back-doors Rondo for a layup and the foul. Rondo is committing the cardinal sin of watching the ball and not keeping an eye on his man.

Good teams like the Spurs will do this every time. Not only does he give up the basket, the free throw slows down the offense. The Lakers are not built to be a half court team. They need to run to be effective.

Now this is just ridiculous…

Rudy  Gay shoots a jumper where Lance Stephenson contests. Rondo is late on the box out and allows Gay to get the rebound and the putback. Instead of just letting it go, getting the ball out and running, Rondo pushes Gay in the back. Basket counts and he goes to the line. Again, it slows down the offense. There are not the only players involved in this scenario…

Want to Lance Dance? Let Him Dance With Lonzo! 

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Lonzo Ball and Lance Stephenson has a chemistry that can’t be denied…

But it goes deeper than that. Lance Stephenson earned the right to play in crunch time…WITH LONZO BALL! I mean this ridiculous!

You heard Luke Walton say that the Lakers resorted back to their old ways. Sure! Rondo is back! Even if you didn’t figure it out, wouldn’t you go with what worked over the last two games?

Lance Stephenson leads your team in scoring and plays probably the most efficient game since he was in Indiana…THE FIRST TIME!

Then follows it up bailing out the Lakers in the Denver game! Two 3-point shots, bringing energy and making the effort plays to get this team on the break running the Nuggets out of the Staples Center.

This is not just about Rondo and Ball individually, this will affect the team’s rotations going forward. We have now seen Lonzo Ball pass Rondo in the rotation if Lance keeps playing well (he did a good job in the first half of the Spurs game too!) should he move up in the rotation? Time will tell.

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.