Los Angeles Lakers are streaking the wrong way, 4 Lessons from Denver Nuggets loss!
By Ronald Agers
Lake Show Life breaks the game down between the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets with Lake Show Life Lessons!
The Los Angeles Lakers couldn’t do anything wrong until this week. Now it seems that everything is starting to go wrong. Injuries, slippage in defense and no LeBron James adds up to a three-game losing streak for the Lakers.
When the Los Angeles Lakers was feasting on lesser teams to start the season, most “experts” panned the success of the team.
Lake Show Life saw it as insurance. For what you ask? Times like these when injuries start to become a potentially serious problem. AD playing through nagging injuries was enough.
Now LeBron James is out with a thoracic muscle strain officially and a rumored groin issue according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
"James first sustained the injury, a pull in the rib cage area, against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday and played through it during Thursday’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. James didn’t require an MRI, but this is a significant issue and not just a load management situation, sources told ESPN. Earlier this week, James said he didn’t plan to miss any games this season for rest. James has also been dealing with a nagging groin issue recently, sources said. Last season a groin strain on Christmas Day derailed James and the Lakers’ season."
More on LeBron’s injury and the effects later. The fact that he didn’t play against the Denver Nuggets is a discussion that will be floating around the shopping malls while Laker Nation is finishing up their last-minute shopping. The Lakers have flaws and it’s up to the coaching staff to figure something out.
With no LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers (and possibly the Clippers if he sits out on Christmas!) found out how serious the lack of playmaking with James out of the lineup in a 128-104 beatdown to the Denver Nuggets on Sunday night. After a period when it seemed the Lakers could not lose, they have now suffered three losses in a row to drop to 24-6 on the year.
But here’s the funny thing, though. The Clippers have a slide of their own going on, losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder a couple of hours earlier. Who would’ve thought that the two L.A. teams would play on Christmas struggling for a win? Welcome to the NBA in 2019-20.
Frank Vogel made a mistake putting Rajon Rondo and Avery Bradley in the starting lineup at the same time. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had been playing well in the starting lineup and should have stayed there. The combination of Rondo and Bradley was a disaster and the offense suffered.
The Lakers looked disjointed without LeBron to the tune of 19 turnovers compared to the Nuggets eight. With or without LeBron, the Lakers will not win many games with a negative assist to turnover ratio. The Nuggets dominated in the assist category over L.A. 31-18. The constant turnovers allowed the Nuggets to win the fast break points battle 21-9.
The offensive stagnation that almost burned the Lakers in Orlando definitely was a problem on Sunday. After obtaining a 67-65 lead, the Nuggets ran away with the game with a 40-15 run. The game was never in doubt again.
A Christmas Eve version of Lake Show Life Lessons starts now.