Los Angeles Lakers: 4 lessons from victory over Chicago Bulls

Message to Luke Walton…This better work!

After the Cleveland Cavaliers loss, Walton stated that there would be lineup changes.

One was no surprise…one was a shock! At least to me.

Josh Hart was benched for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and JaVale McGee was benched for Tyson Chandler. The KCP move worked out well with him scoring 17 points and playing some good defense on Zach LaVine (Some of it was self-checked!). Caldwell-Pope was confident and played like he wasn’t trying to give the spot back anytime soon.

Now for JaVale McGee…this one was different. Let’s start here in the game vs. the Jazz…

Donovan Mitchell plays the high pick and roll with Rudy Gobert. Josh Hart goes over the pick (Big mistake!) and Mitchell takes off and dunks on McGee.

JaVale voiced his frustrations about the defensive schemes:

"“I just feel like some of the coverages that we were in should have been adjusted earlier,” McGee said. “But, we didn’t adjust and they kept succeeding at what they were doing.” He added, when asked about Mitchell: “They were setting good screens, and he was getting to the rim, and [Rudy] Gobert was dropping really hard, so it was kind of a conundrum being in between the Gobert lob or the Donovan Mitchell layup.”"

Yes, JaVale they should have…like in the preseason. This is nothing new. The Lakers have put him in this position all year-long. I guess an embarrassing dunk on national TV was the last straw.

Now Luke Walton’s take:

"“The deep drop is one of our coverages, and when we’re playing it the way we should, we’re actually really good in our deep drop,” he said after practice on Saturday. “Between some of the bigs we have — JaVale, Zu, Tyson — we clog up that paint. We’ve got long perimeter guards to get the back pressure, so it’s one of our better coverages. “We didn’t do it great last night. They shot a low percentage, but we could’ve done a much better job. To us, as a coaching staff, it’s always, ‘Well, let’s just play our coverage better. Let’s do a better job of what we’ve done pretty well this year.’ We switched the coverage up and had some success with our switching. We’ll move forward and get better.”"

Now all of a sudden McGee is on the bench? Coincidence? You make the call.

No offense to Tyson Chandler, he played well. He scored 8 points, didn’t miss a shot, grabbed 3 rebounds, has 2 assists and a block.

The point here is that JaVale McGee was the Lakers ONLY defense for the first eight games of the year until Tyson Chandler put on a Lakers uniform. If he is upset, he deserves to be. But McGee went out and played hard. Commendable.

For Luke Walton…

LeBron James and Rajon Rondo haven’t played consistent defense all year-long. Where were their benchings? How about a mean look? How about a “Umm…you missed that rotation.” Both players have been guilty of so many missed rotations that the amount would be an in-depth piece within itself. This looks petty.

When LeBron James and Rajon Rondo come back and pull the Lakers out of this mess…

Will you hold them to the same standard that you are holding JaVale McGee?

If not…

This is another vote for the Magic Johnson/Rob Pelinka regime to fire you. Because you have lost all credibility as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Breaking News to Lake Show Life…

LeBron James will NOT travel on the road trip for the next two games against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets according to ESPN. The Lakers have not ruled him out against Golden State next Monday (Umm….spoiler alert: Don’t count on it! I’d like to be wrong…but I doubt it!).

The Los Angeles Lakers are at 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.