Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron and the bench bully the Bulls, 5 lessons
By Ronald Agers
Sometimes fans of the Los Angeles Lakers need to relax. Give Kyle Kuzma a minute!
No offense to the entire Los Angeles Lakers fanbase, but some can be very impatient. Kyle Kuzma is playing in just his third game since coming back from a stress reaction in his foot. His play has been uneven based on the speed of the game and his timing is off.
The Lakers’ plan is to implement Kuz as the third guy, to lead the team when James and AD are out of the game. Like Davis on Monday, Kuzma makes the mistake of making a statement that he was treating the games like preseason games.
It’s amazing how some comments get taken out of context. He had no preseason games, what else is he supposed to do? For the first half, Kuzma looked like he was in too much of a rush to get where he wanted. He was out of rhythm and it looked like it was going to be a long night.
In the 4th quarter, he started to find his rhythm and this play got him started.
He hit Thaddeus Young with a hesitation move that froze him at the 3-point line and he finished at the rim over Luke Kornet. As you can see, the confidence was brewing and Kuzma rode that wave of confidence to 11 of his 15 points in the 4th quarter.
He is struggling from the 3-point line but so what? He has to get his legs back under him and when he does, the shots will start falling. What’s more impressive was the fact that he started taking the ball to the basket when his shots from distance were not falling.
Have patience Lakers fans, Kyle Kuzma is going to be fine.