The Los Angeles Lakers laid an egg against the Los Angeles Clippers on opening night. LeBron James rebounded and led the Lakers to a rousing victory against the Utah Jazz. Lake Show Life breaks down the game with Lake Show Life lessons.
The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Utah Jazz, 95-86 to even their record at 1-1. But let’s be clear here, fans on the east coast needed some no-doze to make the second half of this game.
To put this in perspective, social media paid more attention to Rihanna allegedly taking looks at Alex Caruso than the game itself. The Lakers improved from their first game against the Clippers while The Utah Jazz fell off the cliff. They were terrible.
The Lakers’ defense was stifling as they held the Jazz to a mere 37 points in the first half. The most damage was put on Mike Conley Jr. After shooting 1-of-16 in his prior game against the Thunder, any offensive confidence he had is gone.
Avery Bradley showed why the Lakers organization is thrilled about his defensive play, Conley was ineffective and could never get untracked. The Lakers starting forwards outscored the Jazz’s forwards 53-7. This just in to Lake Show Life, that’s pretty good.
Lake Show Life was very critical of Frank Vogel’s substitution patterns against the Clippers, but his decision to put in Alex Caruso for the first time this season basically opened up the Lakers offense. Once Anthony Davis moved to the center spot, LeBron James went to work and smoked the Jazz defense. For one night, Vogel’s plan to play Davis at the 5 worked. It will be interesting to see how long Davis plans to play along.
Bringing Caruso in gave the Lakers a secondary ball-handler who competed on the defensive end. After turning the ball over twice, he looked like the player the Lakers gave a $5.5 million contract to as the game went on.
Box scores will not tell the story with Caruso as he only scored two points (1-3 shooting), but his activity on the defensive end gives Vogel more options for secondary ball-handlers. LeBron James being the finisher makes the Lakers more dangerous than when James is constantly running the point.
Moreover, Davis at the 5-spot moved reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Rudy Gobert out of the paint and James had lanes to do his thing.
Lake Show Life Lessons start now!