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

The Los Angeles Lakers swept through the Texas two-step defeating the San Antonio Spurs on the road. Lake Show Life breaks it down with Lake Show Life Lessons!

The Los Angeles Lakers are alone at the top of the Western Conference. Dwight Howard provided the spark to get the Lakers over the top in the second half against the San Antonio Spurs to get them there.

The most overused and overrated phrase by the Lakers fanbase and the media last year was “The Lakers were 4th in the Western Conference on Christmas Day!” It turned from a fact to an embarrassing excuse for the team’s collapse.

That was the past and this team is different. The NBA got a tweet from the Los Angeles Lakers’ social media team after the first preseason beatdown of the Golden State Warriors.

The comment section for the post-game report was filled with the word “overreaction”. Other teams trolled the Lakers tweet throughout the preseason.

Well, the tweets have stopped to the Lakers and the comment section sure seems to be quiet these days. Frank Vogel is a defensive coach and the Lakers showed against the Spurs that they can stop anybody. This includes a team battling for the number one seed early in the season.

After watching the Los Angeles Lakers ride the coattails of two stars that put on performances of epic proportions the last two games, the role players stepped to the forefront in this one.

After watching Anthony Davis dominate Memphis and LeBron bully Dallas, it would have been easy for the rest of the roster to depend on these efforts every night. But, with a team that considers themselves a contender, contributions from the team’s role players are even more important. It was the role players that outlasted a personal Dejounte Murray onslaught to get out of San Antonio with a 103-96 win.

The good news was the Lakers actually went into halftime with a lead. The bad news was the sloppy offensive performance riddled with turnovers that were basically gifting the Spurs points to stay close.

Even though the Lakers raced out to a 19-point lead, turnovers continued to give the home team life before guard Murray scored 14 points in a row to tie things up at 90 in the fourth quarter. The Lakers started the game with eight turnovers in the first frame and it added up to 18 for the game. LeBron (5) and AD (6) accounted for 11 of them. Those are the stars and will have the ball the most. They have to get better.

As for the Kyle Kuzma report. He did not shoot well overall and it’s going to take time to get his rhythm. He still had time to knock down 47-foot buzzer beaters!

Enjoy, Los Angeles Lakers fans! The franchise for right now owns a five-game winning streak and a seat on the throne as conference leaders going into Tuesday’s game against a struggling Chicago Bulls team.

Now on to Lake Show Life Lessons! The most effective player on the floor might shock you. It didn’t shock Lake Show Life.

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.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope came up huge for the Los Angeles Lakers!

To be clear here, the Los Angeles Lakers were on the ropes late in the game. Dejounte Murray flat-out exploded in the 4th quarter. Murray scored 14 STRAIGHT points for the Spurs to tie the game at 90.

Check out some of the moves here. He basically forced Frank Vogel to take Caruso out of the game. He was being abused.

https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1191177240496738306

Then the much-maligned (This is being kind here. This is a family website!) Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored two baskets back to back to stretch the lead back to 95-90. A lead that the Lakers never relinquished.

KCP finished the game with 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting which included two shots (Including the one above!) from distance. Going forward with KCP, Lake Show Life has some advice on dealing with this player.

You are going to have to take him for who he is. His jump shot dictates how well he plays. It’s up to Frank Vogel to know when he is effective or not. Is he talented? Sure. Is he inconsistent? Absolutely. But it’s games like this when the stars need a shot or two in games like this to win ugly. Think of KCP in that type of role, maybe he will be easier to stomach.

Because it’s a strong possibility that he is not going anywhere.

Now let’s start talking star power.

Another game, another milestone for LeBron James.

For now, LeBron James’ “Revenge Season” is off to a good start. Really did the man have a choice? LeBron James took over for Caldwell-Pope down the stretch getting to the line and finding weaknesses in the Spurs matchups as the Lakers did enough to get out-of-town with a win.

James finished the game with a triple-double filling a stat line of 21 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists. He is the first Laker player to have two triple-double in a row since Lamar Odom way back in 2006. For the fans counting at home as he climbs the all-time list, he now stands at 83 for his career. To top all of this off he moved past Kobe Bryant on the NBA’s all-time steals leader board.

James is a different player from what he displayed last year. He is aggressive and looking more to attack the rim with more force. He is not looking to jack up 3-pointers all over the gym.

As you can see, he sees a smaller Bryn Forbes at the rim. Instead of flipping up the ball soft or pulling up for a fadeaway jumper, he muscles him for a layup. Or you can listen to Snoop Dogg’s version of the action.

As long as the Lakers continue to keep this winning streak going, it will mask an ongoing problem about James playing the point guard position. Statistics show that nothing’s wrong. Shoot, he leads the NBA in assists. What could be wrong?

The Lakers started the game slowly (Again!) not scoring for the first four minutes of the game. For every smooth delivery like this.

He turns the ball over at a high rate for him to play the position. LeBron James turned the ball over 5 times in this game. Lake Show Life broke down his play over the first five games and his uneven play at times leaves questions.

As for those free throws, going 5-of-10 is not going to get it done. Lakers play by play announcer Stu Lantz called “short” numerous times in the game. That’s a problem. If these struggles get back in LeBron’s head like last year, it will affect his aggressiveness.

However, it’s easier to point these things out in a win over a loss.

The other star was pretty good too.

AD was consistently solid throughout the night! A double-double being solid? Let that sink in? 

Anthony Davis finished the game with 25 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks. But it was on the defensive end that he made the most noise. The San Antonio Spurs superstars were almost non-existent in the game.

LaMarcus Aldridge was held to 8 points on 2-of-9 shooting. He was ineffective and looked soft in the post. AD basically outplayed him.

Plus he found time to get back on transition defense to block shots.

Derrick White really had a tough night. Here he got his lay-up thrown into the photographer’s row and the shot he took from Howard will have him up at nights. This was considered an okay night compared to his past performances in his short stint as a Laker. Why? Because he is starting to spoil everyone with his skill set.

What 7-footer do you know has the ability to do a step back that with work will challenge James Harden? Then have the ability to shot a fadeaway that cannot be blocked?

This play is what will make the Lakers a favorite for the NBA championship here when the offense catches up with the defense.

This play here shows AD posting up DeMar DeRozan in the post. Sound the BBQ chicken alert (Shout out to Shaq!) as Davis scores easily. This play is important because the Lakers went to this play, time and time again, late in crunch time forcing the switch to get this matchup. Every time the Lakers either scored or got to the free throw line.

After the third or fourth time, Rudy Gay basically moved DeRozan out-of-the-way to guard him as LeBron knew to exploit the matchup every time the Spurs switched.

What AD is bringing now is the ability to force teams into bad matchups. LeBron James for the second game in a row is taking advantage of this and it’s working well late.

Avery Bradley‘s injury will be the story going forward, but he played great before he got hurt! 

Sadly this post-game can’t say that all went well for the Lakers. Avery Bradley left the game in the fourth quarter with a lower right leg injury and never returned. Here’s an update on his health from Mike Trudell after the game.

The shame of it all is Avery Bradley had his most complete game of the season. He scored 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting while locking up DeMar DeRozan. In this game, his jumper caught up with his suffocating defense.

Hopefully, this is a small injury that won’t keep him out a while because if this is the defense he provides on a nightly basis, the Lakers will eventually be in the top 5 in defense overall.

He is one of the players that is definitely figuring out his role on his team at a rapid rate and how to use LeBron’s talents to get easy baskets by running the floor.

https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1191160013018013697

If Avery Bradley is out, this will be a serious blow to the Lakers on the defensive end.

The Los Angeles Lakers sweep the Texas “Two Step”. They finish their short road trip in Chicago on Tuesday night.