Here are three lessons from the Los Angeles Lakers loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
If you are a Los Angeles Lakers fan, you are probably feeling frustrated and angry. You feel tricked, bamboozled, led astray, cheated. Hard to blame you at this point. There are major issues with this team and the just wait until Rajon Rondo, LeBron James and Lonzo Ball gets back into the lineup together line (also read excuse…) is getting real old.
The Lakers suffered another bad loss at home losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves 120-105 despite the return of Rajon Rondo, who had been out since Christmas Day. We’ll get back to Rondo in a second. Let’s talk Lakers reality.
The Lakers lost another season series to a Western Conference opponent. With the loss, the Lakers lost the series 3-1 to a Minnesota team that is tied in the loss column with 24.
You will hear a lot of chatter speaking with “When LeBron James gets back, the Lakers will be all right!” You know, the same narrative that was used at the beginning of the season.
Here’s why that narrative makes no sense.
The Lakers have now lost the season series to the Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs and now Minnesota. Teams that the Lakers will fighting for playoff position at the end of the year. If these teams are all tied in the loss column at the end of the season seeds six through nine, guess who is out?
If you say the Los Angeles Lakers…gold star for you!
This is not about a team that got run out of the gym by a Golden State Warriors team that no one in the NBA can match right now. Klay Thompson being on his game, the offense rolling, no shame in this.
This game is a little different…this was a bully game! Lunch money got taken.
This game was about the Lakers getting destroyed on the backboard especially of the offensive rebound variety. The Minnesota Timberwolves had wait for it…22 rebounds. Those second chance opportunities amounted to 34 second chance points. Karl Anthony Towns basically teamed up with Taj Gibson and manhandled the Lakers over…
The Lakers were also in a giving mood, turning the ball over 20 times leading to 34 Minnesota points. Game over.
The Los Angeles Lakers never found the right combination of players to handle the physicality of the Timberwolves. It was a smaller sample size of the domination they suffered in Minneapolis a few games back. They were allowed free access at times driving to the basket with little resistance from Zubac or McGee at times.
Either Minnesota scored, got the offensive rebound and reset or just decided to dunk on people.
The Los Angeles Lakers got beat by a team very short on players. Minnesota played without Jeff Teague and Derrick Rose had to leave the game with a sore ankle. That left Jerryd Bayless a rarely used backup who lit the Lakers up for 16 points and 8 assists.
To add insult to injury, Luol Deng made an appearance in the game and produced!
Let me say that one more time…Luol Deng made a major contribution in this game. In 11 minutes, Deng scored 7 points and grabbed 3 rebounds helping the Wolves pull away.
This is a bad loss for the Los Angeles Lakers…real bad. Losses like these are the topic of conversation around game 75 when the playoffs come around. Bookmark this game. This one will be one of them.
Let’s get to it…
Lake Show Life lessons!
Rajon performs great in return
The Lakers fans could not wait to get this guy back into the lineup, and it easy to see why. He brings leadership on the floor that was missing since Christmas no matter if the Lakers won or lost.
Rajon Rondo scored 15 points and had a season high 13 assists. He got out of the gate fast in this game scoring 8 points, grabbing 2 rebounds and 4 assists in the first 10 minutes. He did his usual coaching on the floor and barking out instructions on the defensive end. If you want to know how bad things were from the 3-point line for the Lakers, Rajon Rondo also was the best 3 point shooter hitting 3-5 from long distance.
What I like about Rajon Rondo is he will not back down from anyone and will compete as long as he is on the floor. He will do anything to gain an advantage.
I do mean anything.
Rajon Rondo got a technical foul for try to distract Taj Gibson while he was shooting a free throw.
During the game, you could see that Rondo’s finger is far from 100 percent. TNT’s announcer Chris Webber mentioned a couple of times that Rondo would throw the ball underhanded to protect the finger. It’s going to take time for him to trust the finger long-term and it’s important that Luke Walton notices that as well.
Rondo was on the floor for way too long after the game was basically over with no chance of coming back. The Lakers have until Sunday to get treatment for the finger before the Suns game on Sunday.
Brandon Ingram led the team in scoring…still the enigma to Lakers fans
Brandon Ingram led the Los Angeles Lakers in scoring with 20 points on an efficient 8-for-14 shooting. He also grabbed 6 rebounds while playing solid defense on Andrew Wiggins when he was on the floor.
For some reason associated with the rotation patterns of Luke Walton, when Ingram was on the bench, it allowed Wiggins to gain momentum and he hurt the Lakers interior defense.
Ingram shared the point guard duties with Rondo, but tallied only one assist in the game.
It’s about time to start facing facts about Brandon Ingram…
Ingram is an extraordinary talent, but he does not have point guard instincts to make the proper plays at the right time like LeBron James, Rajon Rondo and Lonzo Ball. He just doesn’t.
It’s getting to the point that this responsibility is being shoved down the throat of Ingram and it flat-out is killing the Lakers at times when the team struggles to score.
The message is clear here for the Los Angeles Lakers, if LeBron James’ injury is more serious than what is being reported… The Lakers may have to hit the market and make a trade for a stabilizing point guard that will execute the offense in tough times.
Finally…
Okay…I’ll concede to the fact that this team needs shooting
I’m going to throw out a couple of stats here…
The Lakers are shooting 38 percent on mid-range shots. That ranks 26th in the NBA.
The Lakers are shooting 33 percent from the land of the extra point. That ranks 28th in the NBA.
The Lakers are shooting 68 percent from the free throw line. That ranks 29th in the NBA. It used to be 30th but the outstanding shooting from the OKC and Houston games brought them up from being dead last.
The Lakers front office was criticized for not having enough shooters on the team to surround LeBron James.
However, Lakers do not have enough shooters period. Luke Walton made changes in the lineup because the team had a stretch of falling behind early. His concerns were valid because as long as the Lakers shoot this poorly, they can’t make strong comebacks.
The Lakers shot 8-for-28 from the 3-point line for a measly 28 percent. Take out Rondo’s respectable 3-for-5 from distance and the team shot 5-for-23. This is not going to win games plain and simple.
The starters, Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope combined to shoot 1-for-10. Get the picture?
The free throw shooting is just getting to be unacceptable. The Lakers shot 9-for-14 for 64 percent. This is just not good. LeBron James can come back, but shooting like this will not make any difference at this point.
It’s that horrid.
Other news…
Kyle Kuzma is battling a nagging hip injury that he had treatment on for the last couple of days. He looked stiff at times after he was knocked down hitting a lay up early in the game. This is something that will be watched and Lake Show Life will keep you posted.
The Los Angeles Lakers are now past 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.