Los Angeles Lakers: 4 lessons from LeBron James, Dwight Howard destroying Cleveland Cavaliers
By Ronald Agers
The Los Angeles Lakers welcomed back LeBron James to the lineup as he played host to the Cleveland Cavaliers and a couple of old teammates, Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love. LeBron’s old team was allowed to stick around for one half. The second half was when the Lake Show Life Lessons start!
The Los Angeles Lakers are treating that four-game losing streak like that old annoying alarm clock back in the 1970s. Since then, NBA teams are having a ton of trouble scoring against the huge front line of the Lake Show.
On the road trip last weekend, the offense was just as devastating as the defense. For two games straight the offense was immaculate. The Lakers ran up 45 points against the Dallas Mavericks and 41 against the Oklahoma City Thunder. In both games, the Lakers almost dropped 80 points in one half.
To be clear here, the Lakers were sluggish and they stunk it up in the first quarter. Cleveland was led by LeBron’s old teammates, Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love, who beat up the Lakers on the glass.
The Los Angeles Lakers weren’t helping themselves offensively as they fell behind by as much as 14 points. With members of the Kardashian family in the front row, I thought the Lakers were going to suffer the Kardashian curse. (The writer believes in it. Don’t believe? Read here!)
Going into the half, they made things close reeling the Cavs lead into a more manageable 48-47 lead.
Then the second half happened and the Lakers flipped the switch and the script offensively setting scoring highs in the second half instead of the first half.
The Lakers scored a season-high 81 points in the second half and sprinted away behind the LeBron James and Dwight Howard showcase for the Staples Center crowd. The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 128-99 with yet another NBA milestone (Like again!) for LeBron James. More on that later.
Not only the Lakers find their offense, but the Lakers shut down Kevin Love. After Love scored 12 points in the first quarter, JaVale McGee put an end to all of the mess with the quickness.
https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1216930979920543751
The Lakers are now 33-7, five games in the loss column in front of the rest of the Western Conference. The Western Conference contenders will have their chance to catch up next week when the Lakers go on their extended “Grammy” road trip.
It might be their last chance. A sweep could allow the Lakers to run away and hide. After this win against the lowly Cavs, there are some facts that Lake Show Life would like to share.
- The Los Angeles Lakers are the only undefeated team in the NBA against teams with records less than .500.
- The Los Angeles Lakers are on a 9-game winning streak and most of these games are blowouts.
- The Los Angeles Lakers STILL haven’t lost in 2020.
The Lakers host the Orlando Magic (Record: 18-21!) on Wednesday before the “Grammy” trip. The Lakers beat the Magic earlier this season but played with their food as the Magic went on an extended two and a half quarter run. They almost lost.
The Orlando Magic are short on talent, losing two key players but as they showed in the first contest, they compete. Having won three of their last five games undermanned doesn’t give the Lakers the right to take the night off.
Let’s get to Lake Show Life Lessons. The second half edition.