Los Angeles Lakers: Anthony Davis dominates Minnesota Timberwolves, 4 lessons

The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves behind a dominant performance from Anthony Davis. Here are some lessons learned from the game.

The Los Angeles Lakers continue to roll along. The Minnesota Timberwolves was the next victim as Anthony Davis destroyed the Minnesota front line. What AD didn’t get to, LeBron James came through with the next wave to wipe out any chance for a Lakers let down as the Lakers took their fourth game in a week.

Los Angeles has raised their level of play to just plain unfair these days. Someone needs call 9-1-1 like Wyclef, because, since one week from their last loss to the Dallas Mavericks, the Lakers have run roughshod through every opponent since.

Before last week, the Lakers tried to find different ways to defeat their opponents. Now, the Lakers are trying to see how badly they can beat their opponents.

The Lakers’ win streak now stands at four games after a 142-125 beatdown of the Minnesota Timberwolves. The total is a season-high besting the season-high from the previous game against Portland.

The team followed Anthony Davis’ season-high (Like for now!) 50-point lead from the opening tip. Would you believe that there was a major debate on Twitter during the game about Karl-Anthony Towns actually being a better player than Anthony Davis?

This tweet is just an example of “Karl-Anthony Towns is the best big man in the league debate”. Sure he’s having a career season for the Timberwolves, but Minnesota is not a playoff team.

Anthony Davis is having a career season on the best team in the league. Another difference? The Timberwolves have now lost four straight and the Lakers haven’t lost four games YET! Plus, Towns can’t do this.

https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1203869932951240705

We’ll get to AD in a second, but Towns looked soft and was a non-factor in this game. Towns had a stat line of 19 points, eight assists, four rebounds and steal. The telling stat is the four rebounds. That total shows how often he was in the paint battling the trees that make the Lakers’ front line.

The Lakers played the game without Rajon Rondo did not play because of tightness in his hamstring. Avery Bradley is close to returning for the Lakers’ upcoming trip. If the Lakers seem unstoppable now, when Bradley gets his legs under him, the defense will stiffen up and things will improve even more. He has not played since Nov. 13 because of a hairline fracture.

The win improved the Lakers record to an NBA’s best, 21-3 overall. The comparisons to the cross the hall Clippers are starting to cease as the Milwaukee Bucks look like the only competition right now.

Lake Show Life Lessons starts with some dude the Lakers got in a trade this summer. That deal turned out okay for the franchise.

Anthony Davis showed up, showed out and sat down. Oh, he scored 50 points too!

It’s a very rare occurrence when an NBA player actually beats on an NBA team for four quarters. In this game, Anthony Davis did exactly that. He started doing his damage 45-50 seconds into the game.

AD grabbed the rebound and went coast to coast to draw the fouls and go to the line. Did he hit it? Sure, because the man hit all ten of his free throws. After that, AD just pouring it on in the first half, scoring 27 points before halftime.

The Los Angeles Lakers have eras that fans relate to almost immediately.

• There’s the Showtime Lakers where Magic Johnson ran the Lakers fast break that blew teams off the map.
• There’s the Kareem “Sky Hook” that was the most unstoppable weapon in sports.
• There’s the Kobe/Shaq three-peat era with all of the off-court drama to keep fans occupied on off days.
• There are the Kobe/Gasol years that brought the last two NBA titles to L.A. Did we forget to mention that they were back to back? 

Now there’s the LeBron/AD pick and roll era. Nobody in the NBA has been able to stop these two when they run the play. No one.

AD finished the night with 50 points, seven rebounds (three offensive!), six assists and four steals. He shot an absurd 20-of-29 from the field. Most of them were dunks and easy lay-ups. The only thing he didn’t do was shoot five 3-pointers as Frank Vogel wants. The fact that he didn’t tells you how easy it was for him.

The real debate for top big man will be Giannis Antetokounmpo and AD, not Karl-Anthony Towns. Right now, even the MVP is behind AD. AD has a jump shot and he hits free throws.

LeBron James actually was in foul trouble in this game. Then LeBron put on a show in the second half!

Yes, Lakers fans, LeBron James actually had four fouls in the first half. Then he went to the locker room until the second half started. He didn’t have a foul for the rest of the game. He only played 28 minutes in the game. That’s not to say that he didn’t put in work in that short span.

Gorgui Dieng got dunked on in those 28 minutes if Lake Show Life recalls.

What was funny about this play was that someone screamed at Dieng that LeBron was going to shoot…twice. It didn’t help. James’ effect on the game was evident even though AD was the star of the night.

The Lakers lost the lead when LeBron sat down with his third foul. When he came back into the game, one assist to Davis for a dunk and one to Danny Green and the deficit was gone. So was Minnesota’s chances.

LeBron James filled the box score with 32 points, 13 assists four rebounds and a steal. He controlled the game and kept feeding the hot hand in Davis. He also found time to show off his range.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1203889051364839424

To be clear here, that was longer than 30 feet. Plus, the shot was contested by Jarrett Culver. That was one of the six 3-pointers he dropped in eight attempts. His last one shut down the Staples Center while he celebrated with his teammates.

Between AD and LeBron, you see a budding partnership with the Larry O’Brien trophy in mind. Good luck to anyone stopping this duo.

The Minnesota Timberwolves announcers actually called Alex Caruso “Nonathletic”.

Again, Lake Show Life realizes that most fans can only get the Lakers games on the local cable channel, Spectrum SportsNet. But if you can ever stream the other team’s broadcast during a blowout, DO IT! It can be some of the most ridiculous commentary you ever want to hear.

First, Utah Jazz announcers, Craig Bolerjack and Matt Harpring sounded off on LeBron James being totally unprofessional for celebrating Kyle Kuzma blocking two shots in a row.

In this game, Timberwolves announcers, Dave Benz and Jim Peterson pointed out that Alex Caruso was nonathletic. Three times. Really?

Showing all of the highlights of the many players Caruso has dunked on is a totally different subject for another time, so let’s just deal with this game.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1203875156419940352

Here’s a very “non-athletic” Caruso running the fast break hitting AD in stride for the slam dunk. He hit Davis with a no-look pass later in the game contributing to his total of four assists.

Alex Caruso added 16 points and four rebounds to his strong play-making to back up LeBron James at the point. With his consistent defensive effort off the bench, the Lakers extended their lead in the first half when James was out for the half with four fouls. he also had a sweet “non-athletic” lay-up.

There are going to be many nights like these when the Lakers are blowing out opponents. The visiting team’s announcers are just as entertaining as the game itself sometimes.

Happy Birthday Dwight Howard from the Los Angeles Lakers and Lake Show Life!

Dwight Howard played well in this game and contributed to the win. But, Howard was a winner before the game even started. How many people actually get a chance to get serenaded by the Laker Girls singing Happy Birthday?!

He got a hug from all of them too. (Sure beats the Nike Huaraches the writer got for his birthday!) But let’s get back to the game.

Dwight Howard continued to contribute to NBA’s version of the WWE tag team champions with JaVale McGee, scoring eight points and grabbing six rebounds (three offensive!). He helped form a wall keeping Towns and pretty much every other Minnesota player away from the rim.

The center position is starting to really be an intimidating force for the Lakers. McGee did not miss his three tries and Dwight shot 3-of-5 from the field.

The shooting percentage would have been better had Vogel not given him a present by not killing him for pulling up for a 3-pointer on the fast break late in the game. Up until that point, Dwight was scoring the old-fashioned way.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1203879276807770112

That Lakers pick and roll will be a major problem for the NBA. The size and athletic ability make this team lethal. Remember Howard is on a non-guaranteed contract. Carmelo Anthony got his contract guaranteed, how about giving Dwight a present and guaranteeing his contract?

The Los Angeles Lakers have the next two days to practice before getting back on the road to play the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night.