Los Angeles Lakers: 5 lessons from win vs. San Antonio Spurs

If Dwight Howard keeps this type of energy, he will be back in the starting lineup in less than two weeks! 

Not to break hands patting backs here, but there was one writer that wrote a piece calling for the Los Angeles Lakers to sign him to the roster. Then the same writer broke down scenarios why Dwight Howard should be starting for the Lakers.

Feels good so far to be spot on sometimes.

Dwight Howard right now is balling. Period. To the people who don’t think so, they are not watching the games. The energy that he is bringing to the floor on a consistent basis is making a five-course meal out of JaVale McGee‘s minutes. The message is being sent to JaVale, either play with more fire or sit.

This is not a Luke Walton retaliation tactic here. Frank Vogel has found a way to keep Dwight Howard focused. When he is along with an engaged LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the NBA can’t score without a ton of work.

Lake Show Life would like to give advice to fans of opposing teams. Don’t make disparaging comments to this guy. He’s still strong and can cause damage. Here’s the skinny.

Derrick White went in for a lay-up. Dwight sends him to the floor hard. I mean, really hard. Two guys in the stands must have said something to get under Dwight’s skin. I saw him point to them twice. He couldn’t take out his anger on them but, he found somebody.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1191177340434317312

The very next time the Lakers came down the floor, Dwight Howard hooked up with Avery Bradley in an alley-oop dunk so vicious, Jakob Poltl probably wanted to tell the fans to shut up. Furthermore, if he would have gotten a fine for a technical foul, the entire roster should have taken up a collection to pay the fine.

Superman is back in the building? Shaq is starting to call him that. Speaking of Shaq, that dunk brought back some memories of what he did to Chris Dudley back in the day.

For the rest of the night, the Spurs saw plays from Dwight like this.

Notice where Poltl is one this dunk. Way under the basket out of the way. It seemed from that moment on, the Spurs were intimidated by Dwight Howard’s intensity. If he wasn’t executing put back dunks, he was affecting seemingly every Spurs shot at the rim.

After sending the message with the White foul, outside of Dejounte Murray, no one would challenge him. Howard finished the game with 14 points, 13 rebounds (four on the offensive end!) and two blocks. Even one of his two assists was a perfect alley-oop to Anthony Davis for a dunk.

Not only is he skilled enough to make this signing a steal for the Lakers, but he is also now the muscle down low for some real rim protection that will make teams think twice about coming to the basket strong.

I know Lakers fans can’t stand him right now, but he’s starting to come on a little bit.