Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons from win against Sacramento Kings
By Ronald Agers
The Los Angeles Lakers picked up a nice win against the Sacramento Kings. Here are 4 lessons from the game.
Friday night was full of emotion throughout Lakers Nation. The Los Angeles Lakers played their first game after the loss of the “Icon” Kobe Bryant at the beginning of the week. Head Coach Frank Vogel voiced his pride over the way the team competed under the circumstances. Unfortunately for the Sacramento Kings, the Lakers came out with a different emotion. Anger over a two-game losing streak.
The Los Angeles Lakers came out on a mission to end the Kings’ chances early. Boy did they do so with a WWE Attitude Era of the 90’s Smackdown showing in the first quarter, leading 44-22. From then on, despite a couple of catnaps in the 3rd quarter, they were able to coast in neutral to a 129-113 win.
The Lakers came out with intense pressure and pushed the pace to a level that Sacramento just could not match. It’s really hard to say if the Lake Show just played a very good game or the Kings just stunk up the state of California.
Luke Walton reminded everyone why the Lakers fired him last season with his rotations while Bogdan Bogdanovic and Nemanja Bjelica helped Kyle Kuzma‘s chances of staying in a Lakers uniform for the rest of the season.
The Lakers’ front office needs to screen all calls from the NBA team in the state capital. They are not a good team. To put this in perspective, the best player for the Kings last night was Buddy Hield. For some reason, he comes off the bench. Harrison Barnes is a starter and he scored two points when the starters were long gone.
This game was about the supporting cast. LeBron James had an off shooting night and Anthony Davis got most of these points from the free-throw line. In all, seven players scored in double figures. Four of them came from the bench with a couple we haven’t heard from in a minute.
In 16 minutes Caruso scored 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting (3-of-4 from long-range!) with a rebound, an assist and two steals. Considering there was a 4-game stretch that Caruso didn’t score a basket and put up a bagel last night against Portland, this looks like 40 points. He was on his way to getting the nickname, Caru-No-Show.
Some advice from the Lake Show Life reporter, it wouldn’t be wise for the “I told you so” comments about Rondo after this game. Sure, in 27 minutes he scored 13 points, dished out eight assists and grabbed three rebounds with two steals. This is the Kings remember? He still can’t shoot 3-pointers and when the man is on the floor, start praying that the opponents don’t go on a run. Come to think of it, the Kings actually did.
The man needs to start and put Danny Green on the bench. That is the only thing wrong in this game. He defends and is efficient. In 26 minutes, KCP scored 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting (3-of-6 from distance!) grabbed two rebounds and had two assists. Quietly, KCP has emerged as the consistent third scorer for this Lakers team. Might want to look it up. He’s easily the best 3-point shooter on the team. No check that, the NBA.
Kyle Kuzma:
He’s trying to fit in folks. He’s really trying. For the second straight night, Kuzma played aggressive, scoring 12 points with two rebounds with an assist and a block.
What made the game nostalgic in a sense was the Los Angeles Lakers pulled a “Kobe” scoring a season-high for the first half 81 points. To be clear here, this was not the prettiest game and not entertaining. It wasn’t as exciting as when the “Icon” scored his.
Lake Show Life recognizes greatness every chance we get. The Lakers move their record to 37-11 which is second in the NBA behind Milwaukee. Their two-game losing streak goes by the wayside and they continue the “Road Warriors” run. At 21-5, no other NBA team has as many road wins and the Lake Show has won all of the second games of back to backs.
Breaking News to Lake Show Life, the Los Angeles Lakers are good.
Now Lakers fans can enjoy two days of trade rumors before their next game against the San Antonio Spurs at the Staples Center on Tuesday night.
The supporting cast got some spotlight, let’s discuss the stars of the game in Lake Show Life Lessons!