Los Angeles Lakers lose to champs when LeBron James backs out!
By Ronald Agers
The Los Angeles Lakers are on the verge of crumbling…the plan is blowing up and it will be ugly!
The Lake Show Life has been all over the Anthony Davis trade drama this week and will continue to through Thursday at 3:00 pm (Deadline for deals to be at least in the discussion!). I see that trade as a potential disaster.
If you have not read this, you need to because it basically predicted the “toxic” situation that reportedly went on in the locker room last night. Let’s assume that the JaVale McGee part is true.
Remember McGee lost his starting spot because Walton wanted to address the slow starts. Have they been addressed? Uh, no. I’m not saying that a few weeks back was not the issue, but that scenario was probably floating around.
It started in Utah a couple of weeks back when JaVale McGee got dunked on by Donovan Mitchell.
"“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.”"
"“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."
Umm, weeks later, let’s see if that got fixed.
Well, if JaVale was that guy that was reportedly “upset”, he has a right to be upset. Along with his minutes.
JaVale McGee played only 11 minutes scoring nine points on 4-5 shooting. What was worse, the team defense of the Lakers, especially the rim protection, was awful. These plays look like McGee is out of position but he is a product of defensive breakdowns that gets him thrown under the bus.
I really don’t know what it is about playing the Warriors and Lakers players falling like flies, but Ivica Zubac injured his finger in the game and will have an MRI on Sunday.
Walton and McGee might need to get on the same page, quick.