Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron James makes Miami feel the Heat…Three lessons!

The Los Angeles Lakers were able to take care of the Miami Heat behind a dominant performance from LeBron James. Check out our three lessons from the game!

The Los Angeles Lakers didn’t get off to the start they were hoping for during their three-game road trip. Things began against the Orlando Magic, and they did not go well.

After a strong first quarter, the Lakers were handled rather easily by the Magic, who gained the upper hand in the middle two quarters.

Everyone seemed to be a step late, as the Lakers were coming off multiple days of rest. Atop that list was LeBron James.

LeBron James did not play particularly well against the Orlando Magic…

Los Angeles Lakers Defense Goes Poof to The Magic…Three Lessons!

The Los Angeles Lakers four game winning streak disappeared to the Orlando Magic in a game dominated by all of the weaknesses of the Lakers!

But, boy he decided to send a message to the Miami Heat, his teammates, me, the NBA and the whole human race that he can be a wrecking force when he wants to be.

LeBron James came out like gangbusters in the first frame dropping 19 points. He scored in every way possible. More on him later.

Lake Show Life will take this opportunity to welcome back Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who scored very well in this game backing up the scoring load of James. He has turned things around in recent games.

The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Miami Heat 113-97 on the second night of a back-to-back set, trying to make up for a clunker in Orlando. This put the team in a great position to finish the road trip with a winning record, presumably, when the LeBron James “Reminisce” tour rolls along to Cleveland on Wednesday when they play the Cavaliers.

Look, it’s going to be hard to overlook the accomplishments of LeBron James dropping “Fiddy” on the Heat but the Lakers did a lot of great things as a team to get the team as well.

The defense was much improved over the second and third quarter meltdown against Orlando. It seemed that the Heat had a hand in their face for every layup and dunk as the Heat was collectively worn down at the end of the game.

How good was the interior defense?

I watched Tyler Johnson block his own shot with the bottom of the backboard…

I watched two missed dunks by the Heat knowing they weren’t fouled begging for calls…

Hassan Whiteside…who had played well against the Lakers in the past, looked like a player that wanted to be anywhere but on the court banging up against JaVale McGee. Look, the Miami Heat are not a good team by any stretch of the imagination. Who cares! They are on the schedule.

What’s good news for the Lakers fans is that LeBron James did not care. He systematically did surgery on his old team. Lance Stephenson bet he wouldn’t shoot the last one at the end…

The procedure was a success and the spirit of the Miami Heat died.

Let’s get to it…here’s are the three lessons!

1. I Really Hope Cleveland Was Not Watching!

It is clear that LeBron James felt some kind of way losing the previous game to Orlando. LeBron James scored wait for it…51 POINTS!

He ended the game basically with a shot from the half court line that had the Miami Heat fans buzzing. The whipping that he put on the Portland Trail Blazers was something to see…

Los Angeles Lakers: 3 lessons from win vs Portland Trail Blazers

LeBron James officially became a Los Angeles Lakers player last night! He dominated and controlled the game in all aspects. Here are 3 lessons from the win.

This was more impressive. Why? Because this was a snapback game! He was sub-par the previous game and superstars tend to come out strong the next game to make up for it.

As you can see here in the first quarter highlights, LeBron is active, and more importantly, AGGRESSIVE! LeBron James set the tone to dominate a team that should be dealt with.

Like I have stated all season, LeBron James has to be the best player on the floor for this team to be successful. Against Orlando that was not the case. The Magic had TWO  Players that were the best players on the court in the previous game.

LeBron was basically two players in this game by himself. He was that dominant…

I basically started writing this post right here because I knew the Heat had nothing for LeBron James and they knew it too. Granted, LeBron James was hitting his 3-point shots early, but he saw Kelly Olynyk in the paint and did not bail him out with a jumper. LeBron put that shoulder into him and drew contact and scored the basket and got the foul.

How about here…

LeBron James shoots a long three and misses. Josh Hart grabs the rebound. Instead of camping out at the 3-point line, LeBron cuts to the basket, receives the pass and please watch how every Heat player gets out-of-the-way!

https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1064311280029200385

It got so bad, LeBron James drove the length of the floor at the end of the first half for a layup and the foul. Lakers announcer Stu Lantz actually said if he was Erik Spoelstra,  he would tell his team not to be scared of LeBron!

More video proof here!

2. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is a rotational player again!!!!

At the beginning of the season, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was playing his way so far down on the Lakers bench, that he would have needed NBA League Pass to watch the game. He was throwing up bricks, looked uncomfortable and the Lakers were looking for trade announcements even though he isn’t eligible until December 15th.

How about now.

KCP scored in double figures for the fifth straight game, scoring 19 points, which included 15 in the first half. He scored the way the Lakers needed him to…

From the 3-point line.

KCP dropped three shots from the land of beyond in the first half. Here’s what even crazier, he drew two Heat players into fouls while he was behind the 3-point line, getting three free throws. After doing that, he knocked all of the free throws down.

You may read this and say…so? But, how many NBA players draw the foul behind the arc and not take advantage of it by missing one or two of the free throws? KCP is in a great rhythm and it carried over into his team defense as well. The Heat guards did not shoot well at all and were harassed all night long (More on that later).

Then in the fourth quarter, when the Heat cut into the Lakers lead, knocking it down to nine points, Caldwell-Pope got the ball in the left corner and took the ball strong to a cup for a difficult lay-up to basically seal the win for the Lakers.

I want to give a special shout-out to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. It wasn’t looking good for him coming out of the gate. As a shooter who was under as much pressure and was ridiculed by fans for his poor play, it’s not easy to do what KCP has done the last few weeks.

He has come from an afterthought and a trade piece to maybe an asset that the Lakers need going forward this season. I said it in the last post game against Orlando, he tried to go strong to basket and dunk on somebody. He missed and the ball went back all the way to the backcourt from the force of it going off the back iron.

After that…I knew KCP would be all right for the time being!

3. LeBron was LeBron, but rest of team is catching up with mental focus!

Watch this video here…the Heat snapped!

Not only did Josh Richardson get a technical foul…HE GOT TOSSED! A few seconds later, Erik Spoelstra had a technical foul.

This happened in the fourth quarter when Richardson went up for a dunk and missed. He screamed for a foul that was not there and then this happened.

A special shout here for Brandon Ingram here…

This was after a missed dunk earlier by Jones on the fast break. But this right here shows growth of Brandon Ingram! Remember the Houston game?

Brandon Ingram showed growth here. Sure he had something to say that I won’t repeat because this is a family post, but he did his talking afterward. He kept playing ball and knocking down key shots to help keep the Heat at bay.

This is how you shut people up…no shoving!

https://www.facebook.com/losangeleslakers/videos/357192941518976/?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARDSv6p_6tZ9eVx0ilcy1HP5F59iojOf-o90HN_9idPwdGq2S8SB-hZmdc146PzOkZ_8Ga-OPkAVp96buPUVBaKNwJ3NyLY5-1bm1pOrCWGiR6zPbVV2rzO6NJGKRDjMsr6j0NrM9FHiNDzTw7qEDKDMb0M9MTKisGVEBK5yHKqoI30zwz4DYcifAflK4iZ4MtzdjGNBxq5wGCOyF3doUFueialGb-UPxeywF2i6MxwdZaKS-qpEQl1DIJbCxh_AAEe-YPs78nv6KxpM_cDBgbVcPo5RaFi-dSj2tOEt5AypDeQC4kycXv8nJLFWY0OUCKsg9amcYPe4NWtusRAKcKM25HYK5Tu7&__tn__=-R

Just take them to the cup for a finger roll and tell them to take the ball out! Beautiful! When teams know that they are in trouble, they try certain things to throw their opponent off their game by trying to roughen the game up with physicality. Not on the Lakers watch! Not this time!

No punches were thrown…just shots in your eye! Leave Ingram alone! He’ll be all right!

How about Josh Hart!

This is always a guy that will compete and play hard. He’s going to show you how to take the heart and spirit from the Heat…

https://www.facebook.com/losangeleslakers/videos/342484239637291/?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARCo3pQ2qkqNypv6J3ZTQM24zZZD98kT9UG0wHye6yScEq3DByQSyFucHW59o2Qex4AUuNPmJU4qyrN87FiLGxU3rtZRpj9fb18Lkz-GfVJhL9JtZzrpSvpiAaXTdKuFv_jME4AZI_EeMlUcYr9101Z5kgdg3qPooONa0xq6bOY3wlPr8jXdsd7zldzln1MOm_DrCfY4gwtnOQ6SFV25CsjLH24rgg0qD3d05GX3oHd88qpqrqeFgEcvxgkxs8bF6qCqP3ev6WF8NDXwxEyzipuKs9bMoyQEOxtv3c6_IT6iEFDLroKED4XyV_D9s-PGhywcASC_yKi4oMPvf3RWFzeVbAe7sr7L&__tn__=-R

Josh Hart is out on the break here. Tyler Johnson tries to contest the shot at the rim. Hart lowers his right shoulder into Johnson and lays the ball up into the basket. This is a team with better talent and ability not playing down to the competition.

As for Hassan Whiteside…

The Lakers embarrassed him Sunday night. This is the truth. He missed layups at the basket and they took him out the game early. The combination of Tyson Chandler and JaVale McGee systematically wore him down and made him a non-factor! See…

Understand Whiteside has a $100 million dollar contract. He makes more than McGee and Chandler combined. Guess which franchise is getting more bang for the buck! I’ll wait!

I’m out like a LeBron James at the end…

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.