Los Angeles Lakers “Activates” in the second half, beat Houston

Kyle Kuzma teamed up with LeBron James to get the crowd excited!

Let’s be clear here. Kyle Kuzma was late coming to the party in the game. This was not the dude that won the Rising Stars Challenge MVP last Friday night. He looked more like the dude that wanted to be with his girl in Miami.

But he showed up in the second half and made his presence felt.

Kyle Kuzma scored 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the floor, grabbed six rebounds and dished out five assists. More importantly, he actually woke up when LeBron James challenged him in the huddle. This is a very important scenario right here considering the Lakers are going to have to ride both of their shoulders to get in the playoffs.

Was LeBron right to get on Kyle Kuzma? Yep!

Then, a few minutes later, Kuzma is a recipient of a LeBron James deep pass on the left-wing for a fast-break dunk.

This play here is indicative of what the Lakers need from Kyle Kuzma every game.

Kyle Kuzma went down to the post and squared James Harden up on the baseline. Kuzma blew past James Harden and dunked on his so hard that Giannis Antetokounmpo got about five more MVP votes somewhere.

TNT analyst Chris Webber talked about trust being a major factor going forward in this playoff push. The trust is going to start here with these two. For better or worse, it will be up to Kuz to find a balance on trusting his instincts and trusting LeBron.

For this game, he was right to trust LeBron James.

Speaking of LeBron James…