Los Angeles Lakers: 3 Takeaways from win over Phoenix Suns

The Los Angeles Lakers were able to pick up a much-needed win at home. Here are three takeaways from the victory.

The Los Angeles Lakers came into Staples Center with a lot on their minds. A three-game losing streak that included two blowouts to the Golden State Warriors and the Minnesota Timberwolves was bad enough, but plenty of other things were going on that wasn’t needed.

Luke Walton’s job security was brought up for the 734th time this season with reports of LeBron James’ camp “preferring a coaching change”.  

If that wasn’t enough, it looked like the Lakers would not even have enough firepower with Kyle Kuzma having to sit out with a nagging hip injury that had him stiff in the loss to the Timberwolves. With LeBron James still out and Lonzo Ball on the shelf, the Lakers needed something to go their way.

Who do the Lakers play next?…The Phoenix Suns? Okay cool.

The Lakers played a Phoenix Suns team that was also missing key players and found a way to win this game, 116-102. To be clear, the fans did not get their free tacos because the Suns scored in triple digits.

They should have gotten the free tacos anyway. The game was ugly to watch on both sides. The Suns had no business being anywhere near the Lakers after the first quarter, but the Lakers allowed them to stick around. The Lakers did not play well, but Phoenix is just hard to watch. But a win is a win.

I really felt bad for Devin Booker in this game. Sometimes it looked like he really should have broke out like “I’m David Ruffin and these are the Temptations!” 

A lot of it had to do with the gameplan of Luke Walton. Boy, is  he is really showing his coaching skills over the last two weeks. It’s almost like he gets insulted when his job security comes up and just shows genius. The dude’s attitude just changes.

The first thing he did was tactically double team Booker almost every time he touched the ball  and shadow his every move in the first half and force another Suns player to knock down a shot. Booker was harassed to the point that the first shot he scored was a wild shot going out-of-bounds crashing into photographer’s row.

The second thing he planned was to attack the basket on offense aggressively every chance that they got. DeAndre Ayton was injured so there was no rim protection early in the game. I mean none.

Dragan Bender, who was in the same draft class as Brandon Ingram and Ivica Zubac was straight up bullied down low. The Lakers had a lay-up line seemingly when he was in the game.
Let’s thank the players that made the game worth watching for 48 minutes.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope led the Lakers in scoring with 24 points on the strength of shooting 4-for-9 from 3-point land. He added 6 rebounds and played solid defense on Devin Booker in the first half.

Sadly, all of these guys are on the trading block.

Here are three takeaways from the win.

Barring something drastic happening…Say hello to your starting center

Ivica Zubac joined some elite company against the Phoenix Suns. Zubac joined Shaquille O’Neal, Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard as the only players since 1991 to tally 24 points, 16 rebounds and 4 blocks. Considering the other three are future Hall of Fame players, you have an idea of what type of game the man had.

The month of January has been good for Zubac and the Lakers especially now that he has taken the starting spot. This game marks the fifth straight game that he has scored in double figures. Plus his efficiency is off the charts shooting 56 percent from the field in the game.

When (or if) LeBron James comes back soon, Zubac’s position in the starting  lineup rotation should not matter. He is the only center in the lineup that has consistent post up moves. Plus he’s murder in the pick and roll on the offensive end. The one asset that Zubac has is the soft hands and the ability to catch the ball in close quarters and finish.

Now Zubac’s defense is getting better when he gets into a rhythm early and is engaged. He defended the rim early…

Then sent the Suns home late when they tried to attack the rim late trying to bully him! One of the blocks sent Devin Booker to the floor with so much frustration that he received a technical foul soon after.

He led the Lakers in a total domination on the boards out-rebounding the Suns by an absurd margin of 70-46.

But he’s in the trading rumors…believe it or not.

Brandon Ingram set the tone for the game like a star

Brandon Ingram came out like gangbusters in the first quarter scoring 11 points on 5-6 shooting. For the first half, he scored 17 points on 8-9 shooting on his way to 22 points. For the game Ingram shot 9-11 from the field for a blistering 81 percent from the field in a variety of ways.

He even knocked down his only three-pointer of the game further showing that the Lakers don’t need him jacking up five or six 23-foot bricks just because analytics is all the rage of the NBA.

Rajon Rondo coming back to the lineup will really help Ingram going forward. Rondo will gladly set the table and pace for the team which will free up Ingram to go back to his natural position playing the wing position. He can play point for a few minutes, but he can’t play the point for long periods of time.

Along with the 22 points, the floor game was impeccable as well as he filled the box scores with 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. We could talk about the free throw shooting, but let’s be positive here.

Luke Walton’s strategy to attack the rim early was executed with Ingram’s driving ability with the consistent finishes at the rim. Behind this strategy it exposed the Phoenix Suns’ weak interior defense and the Lakers exploited it all night long. It got so bad, the Suns brought in Emmanuel Terry out of the layup line at his G-League game to play Dragan Bender’s minutes in the second half.

What is not going to show in the box score is the defense that helped frustrate Devin Booker throughout the game. Ingram defense is really overlooked at times and needs more appreciation.

Why?

Because Brandon Ingram is in trade rumors.

Lance Stephenson is the possible reason why the Lakers did not blow this game

It’s scary to think that this Phoenix Suns team who is showing their intentions of entering the “Zion Williamson” sweepstakes (aka…tanking!) had a chance of winning this game.

Boggles the mind doesn’t it?

The Los Angeles Lakers were true to form struggling to score in the middle of the 4th quarter which is perfect for Lance Stephenson to turn the game into a streetball showcase similar to Rucker Park on a personal 11-0 streak to put the game away.

He scored from distance, he scored acrobatic layups…

He made plays for his teammates! 

He put on a show in a game that lacked any entertainment whatsoever!

The air guitar was in effect against Phoenix. In 22 minutes, Lance Stephenson scored 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting including the three 3-pointers that put the game away. He also corralled 3 rebounds and 4 assists. Now look, he didn’t have any turnovers technically, but we’ll let everyone reading this make that call…

Guess what everyone! All together now! Lance is…IN THE TRADE RUMORS!

In closing, this post game is dedicated in the honor of the Godfather of Los Angeles Lakers basketball, Dr. Jerry Buss.

Dr. Buss had a vision of bringing entertainment to NBA basketball decades before the rest of the league caught up. His vision was to make Lakers basketball an experience of entertainment on top of watching a basketball game.

With the help of Magic Johnson, who is now the President of Basketball Operations, the Lakers are one of the two most iconic (Boston being the other) franchises in the NBA bar none.

Ms. Jeanie Buss sent a tweet that says it all…

Happy Birthday Sir! On behalf of every Laker fan around the world I would like to say…

Thank you!