Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons from blowout loss to the Boston Celtics

Kyle Kuzma got lost in the shuffle (Again!) and Rajon Rondo is showing fans why Derrick Rose is in Lakers rumors these days.

Earlier before the game, Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports reported that the Lakers were among some contenders taking interest in Derrick Rose of the Detroit Pistons. Lake Show Life will have a full report about that situation for you. Stay tuned for that. But for now, the two major pieces in the deal, Kyle Kuzma (The player to be traded!) and Rajon Rondo (The reason a trade is needed!) played absolutely terrible in this game.

To think these two players were instrumental in bailing the Los Angeles Lakers out last year in the TD Center. Let’s look at Kuzma’s contributions.

With the Lakers down two points, Kuzma receives the pass from Brandon Ingram, ignores the swing pass to LeBron and knocks down a huge 3-point shot to give the Lakers the lead. He finished with 25 points in the game.

Then after Kyrie Irving (Man things change in the NBA doesn’t it?!) hit a layup to put the Celtics up by one. Then Rajon Rondo hit a shot for the ages. With time running out, he hits his first buzzer beater of his career.

Those were some great times. Tired of reminiscing? Now back to reality.

Kyle Kuzma:

Kyle Kuzma was playing well in AD’s absence. In the five games Davis missed, Kuz averaged 20 points a game. When AD returned, so did the wild inconsistencies of Kyle Kuzma.

In 23 minutes of action, Kuz shot 4-of-12 from the field for a very inefficient 13 points. The playmaking the Lakers could use from Kuzma? Sure, let’s see, zero assists. The two-way player that was in Houston did not make the trip to Boston. Maybe he’s in New York somewhere.

Rajon Rondo:

The good news is about the Lakers rumors floating around is that the Lakers front office knows that Playoff Rondo will not deliver this year. If this is the backup point guard for the playoffs, the Western Conference opponents will kill him on the defensive end. No check that, Rondo actually has to try first.

Vogel had very little choice but to stick with Rondo considering Alex Caruso scored one more point than the readers looking at this report. Quinn Cook and Troy Daniels went back to watching the game on cable TV. Then when the Lakers fall behind, for some reason Avery Bradley disappears without a trace.

Rajon Rondo scored 13 points and dished out 3 assists. If you think Rondo played well based on these stats, that tells a lot. His defense was atrocious enough to contribute to three different Celtics scoring at least 20 points, including Jayson Tatum, who scored 27 points. The other two happened to be the Celtics starting  backcourt who combined for 40 points.