Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons from blowout win over Detroit Pistons

The Los Angeles Lakers were able to blowout the Detroit Pistons. Here are four lessons from the win.

I’m not ready to call Kyle Kuzma the second best player on the Los Angeles Lakers yet. In my mind that is still left to be determined. But I will go on record to say that Kyle Kuzma is the straw that stirs the proverbial Lakers drink.

The last three games prove all three levels of importance of having Kyle Kuzma on the floor no matter if LeBron James is healthy or not.

The first level was shown on Sunday, with Kuzma out of thew lineup with a back contusion, the Lakers were blown out by 22 points by the Minnesota Timberwolves. To make this even more embarrassing, this is a team that seemingly fired their head coach while the players were in the shower after the game.

The second level was on Monday, after Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram get called out in the media for passion, they both played well in a comeback victory over the Dallas Mavericks…

Brandon Ingram and Lonzo had great bounce back games each, but the difference was Kyle Kuzma was back in the lineup. Did he shoot well? No. He shot a horrid 4-20 from the field for only 13 points. But it was obvious that he was out of rhythm and coming back from a sore back, I challenge anyone to come out like gangbusters. However, he was aggressive and the Mavericks had to pay attention to him that opened up lanes for Ingram to dominate…

Wednesday night was Kuzma’s turn. The Detroit game was the top-level of what Kyle Kuzma can do for this Lakers team. Kuz found his jumper and pretty much destroyed the Detroit Pistons defense in a 113-100 win. The Lakers are now on a two game win streak leading into a road game against Utah on Friday night. The Lakers are now 3-5 in games without LeBron James and probably put up their most dominating win since Christmas Day against the champs.

Ball movement was a very key component in this win as the team tallied 30 assists in the game headed up by Lonzo Ball (more on him later). What makes this exciting is that we can all see that the offensive scheme of moving the ball and staying at a high offensive pace can work. The season high total for the Lakers assists in a game is 34, so this total being tallied without the services of LeBron James and Rajon Rondo means no more excuses for the young core going into the second half of the season.

This scheme does work if everyone buys in and executes.

On a sad note, the Pistons scored 100 points so the fans did not get free tacos…sorry.

Let’s get to some Lake Show Life lessons…

Kyle Kuzma was the best player on the floor…

There was talk on Twitter that Kyle Kuzma could easily go for 50 in this game. The way the Pistons were playing, 60 was not out of the question. For three quarters, Kuzma gave them the business…

Kyle Kuzma scored 41 points on an absurdly efficient 16-24 shooting and dropping 5-10 from the 3-point area. It really is amazing that some actually complained about the fact that he had zero assists and only two rebounds in the game. If I was as hot as Kuzma in this game, I wouldn’t have passed the ball either. Some just don’t get the point.

What is the exciting point here is that his teammates realized that Kuz had the hot hand and made sure that he got the ball in positions to score. Kuzma basically broke the spirit of the Pistons, scoring 22 points in the third quarter on the strength of four 3-point shots. On the last one, he was fouled and the game was over from that point.

Kyle Kuzma joined the company of Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry, James Harden and his teammate LeBron James as the only players to drop 40 points or more in three quarters. This just in to Lake Show Life, all of these guys are pretty good scorers.

This had to feel good for Kyle Kuzma. He grew up being a Pistons fan in Flint Michigan. You had to know the family was watching and he gave them something to enjoy the entire time he was on the floor.

What impressed me the most about Kyle Kuzma was that he could have easily gone back in the game and tried to get 50 points. Instead he saw the big picture and spent the last frame resting his sore back not risking aggravation that could hinder him on Friday against Utah.

For a 21-year-old that had the crowd in the palm of his hands, that shows major growth in maturity.

Let’s get to another reason why Kuz may have had no assists…

Lonzo Ball showed the essence of what he brings to the Lakers…

There is much to be said about Lonzo Ball and how he does not score as well as D’Aaron Fox or former Lakers point guard D’Angelo Russell. But have you noticed something about those players? Their teams are below .500.

The point here is…Can we let Lonzo Ball play the game and leave him alone?

Lonzo Ball had only five points in this game. But he led everyone in the building with +/- of +24. Lakers fans that happens to be a ton and it’s an amazing stat. He started out slowly looking for his shot, not as aggressive as he was in the Dallas game but he eventually figured out a way to get involved in the offense…

Just watch how he crosses over the Pistons defender and takes the ball to the hole. He challenges a bona fide shot blocker in Andre Drummond and scores with the off-hand. Again, aggressiveness is the key component here. Lonzo has missed that same type of lay up numerous times just flipping the ball up quickly, but here he did not worry about the contact from Drummond and finished strong.

Lonzo’s floor game included 11 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals  and a block on Luke Kennard that actually bounced off of JaVale McGee’s face.

What gets left out of the box score was the defensive presence against the Detroit backcourt. Pistons point guard, Reggie Jackson looked very bad in this game. He was inefficient and struggled to get the Pistons into their offensive sets. This is because of the defensive pressure of the Lakers on the perimeter.

Will he need to score more against better teams? Sure. But tonight, he orchestrated the offense and made sure the ball found the hot hand of Kyle Kuzma.

The Lakers brought a “Warriors” mentality to the Staples Center

It seemed every basket was assisted by various playmakers. This is what the Lakers have been preaching all year-long, but this is one of the few games where the Lakers fans got to see it when it really works.

"“It felt like it was skipping around out there until it hit Kuz’s hand and would go up every time.” — Walton on his team’s ball movement."

This is what makes the Golden State Warriors so dangerous. Do the Lakers have that type of talent? No. But any defense can be broken down with quick ball movement. All night long the Lakers eliminated a potential matchup problem that could have been created by Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond with their size. Blake Griffin was not a factor in this game and for the first time in his career had zero rebounds in this game. Plus the ball movement opened things up for Kyle Kuzma’s explosion.

Speaking of Kuzma, he raised some eyebrows talking about a “Death lineup” meaning the Lakers had a small ball lineup that would give opponents major problems. Many an eyebrow was raised.

I just rolled my eyes considering that it hadn’t worked at all this season.

But…

If the ball was moving like it was in this game to the point that the team can tally 30 assists on a regular basis. He may be on to something here.

Happy Birthday B-Easy! 

The Lakers fans in the Staples Center were disappointed they didn’t get the free tacos for holding the Pistons under 100 points.

I was disappointed the Michael Beasley did not get 20 points for the game!

B-Easy scored 19 points in the game, but more importantly, he scored 15 of those in the 4th quarter. Why is that important? Kyle Kuzma was afforded the luxury of resting his back while Beas closed the game out.

It is even more gratifying to everybody considering it is his first birthday since the death of his mother. He talked about how important the support of his teammates was to him through the tough times.

Michael Beasley could be a very important piece for the Lakers in the second half of the season. He scored very well, but he set up his teammates putting them in position for easy baskets as well.

The main thing Beasley gives the Lakers is consistent scoring. This guy has been a professional scorer his entire career. I have been a fan of Beasley since the Miami days and I can say I have never seen him more focused and engaged as he is now. It is amazing to see how far he has come since training camp.

It has been reported that LeBron James will be reevaluated on Friday for his injured groin and could meet the team in Utah (Also read…He ain’t coming!) but after this performance it has been shown that if the Lakers execute, they won’t need him as much as everyone thought last week after the loss to New York.

The Los Angeles Lakers are about to the halfway point in 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.