Kyle Kuzma has got to figure out the balance of being a scorer within the Lakers scheme.
Kyle Kuzma did not extend his streak of 20-point games to three after looking like the answer to the Lakers’ 3rd scorer prayers. It is clear Frank Vogel is trying to give him more freedom to handle the ball. It didn’t work,
Kuzma missed his first six shots of the game. Kuz did get untracked with this buzzer-beater to end the 1st quarter.
https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1216936377318694913
Kyle Kuzma ended up with just 11 points on 5-of-13 shooting from the field, including 0-of-3 shooting from behind the 3-point line. But here’s the issue.
Kuzma has to be more of a playmaker. He can’t just score. To put this in perspective, Kyle scored 36 points against the Oklahoma City Thunder. How many assists? Close your eyes. What do you see? Nothing. That’s how many assists Kuzma had.
On one play Kuzma missed a lob pass to JaVale McGee and threw up a bad shot. JaVale screamed loud enough to hear “THROW THE LOB!” He was right because the Cavaliers never stopped the play. It was a play the Kentavious Caldwell-Pope read correctly time and time again. Kyle Kuzma has to find the balance as a scorer and make the right reads. In this game, he struggled.
These types of performances will do little to quiet the questions about Kuzma’s fit with this year’s roster with the team come playoff time. Hopefully, Wednesday’s game will be a bounce-back game for him.
The Los Angeles Lakers play the Orlando Magic on Wednesday. Lake Show Life will be there with post-game reports.