Los Angeles Lakers: 5 Lessons from the loss to the Spurs

1.) LeBron James played very well…but did not have a repeat performance

At beginning of this game, it looked like LeBron James sent a limo to get the Spurs to the arena. Why? Because he wanted to make sure they got to the arena safe so he could dominate them all over again.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1071258819903307777

LeBron James really stuffed the stat sheet, scoring 35 points, grabbing 8 rebounds and dishing out 11 assists. For three quarters, the San Antonio Spurs really had no answer for him. It was like he was sitting in the Spurs huddle because he was a step ahead of everyone in the game…

Case in point…

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1071221788258910209

With this alley-oop to Lonzo Ball, look at the presence to mind to first, read the play and see Lonzo Ball for the possibility of the play even working and two, make a one-handed flip pass on the money.

He basically bamboozled three Spurs players on this play alone…

Dante Cunningham had no clue that the play was coming and was flat-footed.

LaMarcus Aldridge was caught flat-footed as well and jumped to late and finally…

Bryan Forbes looking very bad at the end, fouling Lonzo for the and one. This is how comfortable LeBron James was at the beginning of the game.

It continued with his aggressiveness…

Coming down the floor, LeBron James lulls Dante Cunningham into believing a pick and roll was coming with Lonzo Ball. With the hesitation, James blows by Cunningham and goes to the basket. LaMarcus Aldridge is at the basket to rim protect but to no avail as LeBron hits the reverse lay-up with the left hand.

His first half stats?

In 18 minutes, LeBron James had 24 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists leading the Lakers to a whopping 72 points by halftime.

In the second half, it became a struggle as the Spurs made it a point to be physical and challenge every shot.

There was a consensus on social media from Lakers fans that the referees were a factor in this loss. This just in…they may be right. LeBron James was fouled a few times going into the lane which included a shot to the head from DeMar DeRozan trying to block his shot.

Whatever the case may be, the Spurs made a concentrated effort not to let James into a rhythm, that he enjoyed on Wednesday night.

For the Lakers, a couple of things needs to addressed going forward this season. There are going to be games during the season, opposing teams are going to send players to be physical with LeBron who don’t have any problems using their six fouls.

It is common knowledge that LeBron James is difficult to officiate considering his size and strength. LeBron is going to have to adapt to the way the game was called. The refs pretty much swallowed their whistles last night. LeBron James will have to adjust going forward.

The second thing is on Luke Walton. My goodness, how about drawing a technical foul or two to protect your players? When you see a bad call, let the referees know something and start screaming!

Remember this…

This happened after the first game against the Spurs! A game after the big brawl against Houston! He was complaining about the lack of calls this time about Josh Hart.

My thoughts…

"In my opinion his technical foul came one game late, but he can actually make an argument here that he couldn’t make after the first two games. If all of your players are aggressive, you can complain and have an argument. To be clear, Walton does have beef because Josh Hart had no business not seeing the free throw line once."

He has beef on the calls on LeBron James in this game as well. Here’s a thought…let it be known. Do you think Gregg Popovich has that problem? Luke Walton has to protect his best player by getting on the referees. If not, LeBron better start lifting more weights, because there will be nights like this and he will get worn down from the physicality as the season goes on.