Los Angeles Lakers lose to champs when LeBron James backs out!

The Los Angeles Lakers couldn’t keep up with the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night. Check out our lessons from the game.

It is getting really hard to analyze the Los Angeles Lakers with all of the drama that is going on behind the scenes over the last two weeks. It first started with the Luke Walton coaching seat being doused with lighter fluid with LeBron James’ camp “asking” for a coaching change.

Then Anthony Davis has an announcement heard all around the NBA world stating that he will not sing the super max with the Pelicans and wants a trade. All for the low rate of $50,000, the price for doing business, when Rich Paul released the statement. With that came the social media Lakers GM’s giving out combinations that the Pelicans should take.

Hilarious isn’t it? It gets better…

There is starting to be a trend going on based on when LeBron James plays in games or not. After reports were released that the Los Angeles Lakers would be without LeBron against the Clippers, an hour before the game, LeBron plays.

This game was the complete opposite. Most thought that LeBron James would play against the World Champion Golden State Warriors.  Seemingly, even Luke Walton thought so based on his interview with Lisa Salters during the broadcast. How’s that great franchise player/head coach communication working out? The reason was that of “Load management” (also read…rest!) after playing over 40 minutes against the Clippers on Thursday. He also did not come to the bench and stayed in the locker room.

I watched that game, really?

LeBron James was ruled out about an hour before the game and it may have hurt the Lakers with a slow start especially if Walton’s game plan had James in mind.

The Lakers fell behind 7-0 before 30 seconds after the Warriors gave JaVale McGee his championship ring…

and was down as many as 14 points before the Warriors took a nap and the Lakers got back in the game.

Moe Wagner of all people led the brigade with energy and passion and the Lakers got back in the game 63-58 by halftime.

The Lakers actually went ahead 71-69 off a dunk by Ivica Zubac and led by as much as 10 points in the third quarter 81-71. Then the Warriors woke up…

A slam dunk from Boogie Cousins over Kyle Kuzma sparked a 17-5 run that got the Warriors the lead back 88-86 by the end of the third quarter.

Then Steph Curry started knocking down 3-point shots as he does and the Warriors ran away on a 44-20 run to end the game.

The Los Angeles Lakers battled hard but lost 115-101. It seems that wasn’t the only battle going on in the Oracle…

Here’s another side of the story from Ramona Shelburne.

I’m not sure about the Anthony Davis trade, but there probably needs to be a trade of some kind.

Does anyone want to revisit that Kevin Durant toxic situation a couple of months ago?

Let’s talk Lake Show Life lessons.

Rajon Rondo showed leadership and character another “veteran” (LeBron)  is lacking! 

Rajon Rondo is an acquired taste when it comes to liking or disliking him as a player. He can get in a fight with Chris Paul and get suspended. He can get into it with Stephen A. Smith for reporting it.

But this is a professional basketball player. I have always been a Rajon Rondo fan and he proved again why the Lakers brought him in to mentor the young players. He was one of the players that were offered in the Lakers first run at Anthony Davis. He was probably shocked more than anyone that he was trade bait, but he played an outstanding floor game against Golden State.

If you watched the game on TV, you could hear Rondo barking out orders for 48 minutes no matter if he was in the game or on the bench. The leadership of Rondo was imprinted all over this game.

Rajon Rondo came close to a triple-double scoring 12 points, grabbing 8 rebounds and dishing 11 assists. Whether he was leading the fast break with Zubac. 

Or giving out double doses of alley-oops to JaVale McGee in the pick and roll.

He had the Warriors bamboozled at times. In the second alley-oop to McGee, you see that Rondo drew three defenders to him which led to McGee getting easy access to the lob.

Rondo had the Warriors so frustrated at times, that DeMarcus Cousins actually shoved Rondo during the game.

Rajon could have easily turned on the Lakers franchise and packed it in with the trade rumors and not give his all. He did exactly the opposite. The Lakers played hard and competed for 48 minutes against the champs and the reason why is because they had a leader in Rajon Rondo. LeBron James had the Lakers back…way back in the locker room.

After the alleged blow up after the game in the locker room…the Lakers may need him to stay!

The good news is that Ingram played great. The bad…he played himself on the trading block!

This post game report shows the professionalism of Rajon Rondo on the previous slide. Let’s just keep the shout outs going and talk about the great play of Brandon Ingram seemingly every time LeBron James is out of the lineup.

Brandon Ingram scored 20 points and corralled four rebounds. Add three assists and a block and you see that Ingram was effective in a game where distractions are surrounding the franchise. At 21 years of age where his pecking order changes by the day, Ingram is rounding himself into a star. After setting a career high this week against the 76ers.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1091924239425462273

He continues to be consistent scoring the basketball along with using his length to bother Stephen Curry on the defensive end. Curry got off in the last quarter, but it needs to be recognized that Curry has not shot well in the first two games while starting 0-8 in this one.

Curry seems to struggle with the Lakers length and rushes his shots more against L.A. than any other team. Even the 3 pointers he hit were well contested.

Some NBA analysts want to compare Ingram to Kevin Durant. Outside of the fact they share the same body type, watch here the mid-range game that Ingram shows against KD.

Here’s the issue. I’m going out on a limb saying that the New Orleans Pelicans have cable TV or an NBA app.

Meaning, they will definitely be adding Ingram to a demand list that right now does not include the kitchen sink.

How’s this for dysfunction? Any Lakers player not named LeBron James can play great and still get traded. Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?

Anthony Davis can attest to this…He can’t help a team with bad transition defense!

This is not saying the Lakers did not try, but they were awful in execution. Anthony Davis can relate to this because the Pelicans are one of the worst teams in the NBA in defensive efficiency. In other words…

They do not get back on defense. Against Golden State, the Lakers did not either. Plus the defensive rotations were absolutely awful.

Forget the moves that Stephen Curry put on Zubac. Good luck with anyone stopping Curry off the dribble much less a center. Pay attention to the ease Curry had going to basket. No defensive rotation to protect the guy that is supposed to be rim protecting.

This is not fair to Zubac. If the Lakers require him to double team with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, there needs to be somebody back to put a body in front of Curry to contest. Either KCP rotates over and the Lakers take a chance on Cousins shooting a three or Michael Beasley has to rotate over to contest.

The Lakers allowed Klay Thompson to go nuts again in the first half giving up 23 points. After the 44 points he laid out in the Staples Center, I thought he was going to get another limo piece in this post.

But the Lakers allowed the Warriors to get out and run anytime they wanted and it killed the Lakers chances. Plus other defensive breakdowns.

Klay Thompson would go baseline with little resistance.

Or Durant would backdoor the Lakers and dunk on them.

Or just the Lakers would jog back while the Warriors turned defense to offense.

Many times NBA fans will hear about teams being selfish and not sacrificing. Most think it’s all about the offense. You can be selfish as a defensive player as well.

The Warriors won this game on the defensive end and the Lakers lost it the same way.

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.

Lakers Rumors: Anthony Davis requests trade, LeBron James’ corporate takeover begins!

Recent Los Angeles Lakers rumors involve Anthony Davis, who has requested a trade from the New Orleans Pelicans, showing LeBron James' influence.

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.

Then McGee went to the media.

"“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.”"

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."

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.

I would be shocked if Luke Walton makes it through February as the Head Coach!

Look there are dust-ups in locker rooms all the time. We all saw one with the Golden State Warriors between Kevin Durant and Draymond Green. There was another one just this week between DeMarcus Cousins and Draymond Green (He gets into it with a lot of people huh?). Shoot, the Warriors can scream at each other up 25 points like in the Staples Center.

This is different. Luke Walton is losing the locker room. If anyone wants to say different, God bless and have a good day! Stephen Curry leads his team and has a great relationship with his coach.

LeBron James is setting Luke Walton up to be fired. It’s no secret to anyone that is paying attention.

LeBron James can stroll in and not tell the head coach that he’s not playing until an hour before game time. All of this about say 10 days after his “camp” wants a coaching change.

Then you can hear Klutch Sports representative Mark Jackson doing the broadcast waving his hand like a bunch of five-year-olds who wants the last piece of candy saying “Hire me!”

Now, this.

For half of the season, I was at the head of the line screaming Luke Walton was not coaching this team. Now that he is, they have turned on him. The trade deadline is going to be really something because not only the roster will be changed, the coach could be gone too.

But if Walton gets fired now, you know he has a place where he left. Remember Mike Brown got fired from the Cleveland Cavaliers and got a front row seat watching the Warriors spank LeBron James in the Finals while the Cavs paid him.

That’s a bright side option for Luke Walton.

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.