Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons from the win over the Miami Heat
By Ronald Agers
The Los Angeles Lakers all of a sudden can’t lose a game after opening night. Why? All of a sudden NBA teams can’t score in the second half. Lake Show Life breaks down the adjustments of Frank Vogel in Lake Show Life Lessons.
Anybody remember when the sky was falling on opening night? The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Lakers and LeBron James was criticized for not taking the challenge laid out by Kawhi Leonard? It seems like a lifetime ago in the NBA world. Now it seems that Kawhi Leonard is getting all of the complaints and questions, while LeBron James seemingly can’t lose.
It seemed as Dwyane Wade watched from the baseline near the Miami bench, he was probably thinking about suiting up one more time. Can’t say that the Heat didn’t need him. He spoke to the Heat earlier before the game, but instead of a speech, the Heat needed him to make a shot. A trend that is starting for the Lakers centers around defensive adjustments by Frank Vogel making it impossible for opposing teams to score in the 4th quarter.
This is how good the Lakers defense is right now. Sure it’s easy to say that they own the number one defense in the NBA. It’s another thing to say this.
Vogel says their analytics guys told him they had the Lakers contesting 88% of Miami’s shots tonight. That is... really good. BK
— Kamenetzky Brothers (@KamBrothers) November 9, 2019
Bottom line, Frank Vogel wants defense and he is getting defense. Especially in crunch time. To put this in perspective, the Miami Heat had 76 points with 6:05 left in the game. The Lakers gave up four for the rest of the game. Two was scored after AD, LeBron, Dwight and JaVale were done for the night. Bottom line, outside of Jimmy Butler and Goran Dragic, the Heat couldn’t shoot. They shot an anemic 6-35 (17.1%) from the 3-point line and the Lakers wasn’t giving out do overs, winning the rebounding battle 48-37.
The Lakers extended their win streak to seven games and have the best record in the NBA at 7-1. This 95-80 win showed more of a total team effort combined with the dominance of Anthony Davis and LeBron James. It also showed that Frank Vogel and his coaching staff are on the same page.
Remember when the sands of the hourglass was turned on a countdown to Jason Kidd taking over for Vogel? LeBron wasn’t going to listen and Vogel was in over his head? Uh, yeah right. Well we all need to let that go. With an extended home streak after an impressive 3-0 road trip, the Lakers could easily make a run that can create some distance from the rest of the conference.
Let’s get to Lake Show Life Lessons.