3 Lessons in a weekend of Los Angeles Lakers back to back games

The Los Angeles Lakers split a back to back this weekend against Memphis and New Orleans. The Grizzlies beat the Lakers pretty good before LeBron James put on a showcase with Zion Williamson on Sunday. Lake Show Life combined both games and laid out some observations in Lake Show Life Lessons, the weekend edition.

The Los Angeles Lakers were riding high going into last weekend for back to back matchups on the East Coast. The team absolutely destroyed the Golden State Warriors on TNT without LeBron James, who was resting a sore groin.

Before that game, LeBron James seemed a little bit motivated (Some might read it as looking over his shoulder for Zion!) when he dropped 40 points earlier this week on the New Orleans Pelicans. Was the performance a fluke? Well, we’ll get to that later.

Based on these two performances after a great game against Boston, the historical win streaks the Los Angeles Lakers were putting up was believed to go on for another two to three weeks.

Playing Memphis on Saturday, with both superstars banged up with a 3-0 season record against the Grizzlies, it wouldn’t be surprising if this was a Lake Show Life post-game report.

The Los Angeles Lakers were down three starters in LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Danny Green. With the Lake Show on the road, they tried their best the Lakers lost to the Memphis Grizzlies. Who cares? Every team has a scheduled loss here and there, and dropping one without three key rotation players certainly applies here.

Wait a minute, this just into Lake Show Life, we’re being told Anthony Davis and LeBron James did play despite the website advising against it. Well if they are playing, the Los Angeles Lakers should sweep the season series. Especially with Memphis coming into the game with multiple-game losing streak. Right?

Danny Green did sit out allowing Alex Caruso to get the start at shooting guard. But the Lakers never got untracked and got blown out 105-88 for their first loss since opening night snapping an NBA record road winning streak against Western Conference teams on the road. It was the first road loss for the team outside the state of California, period. Let’s just say that the Lakers had to lose sometime.

This loss dropped their record to 45-13. The season series against Memphis is now finished with a 3-1 edge. It’s amazing how many storylines are attached to the Lakers franchise. The number one seed is basically a lock unless Los Angeles goes to sleep at the wheel. The eighth seed, however, is a virtual dogfight between these teams in the back to back.

With Memphis’ five-game losing streak going into Saturday’s game, it allowed the New Orleans Pelicans a chance to overtake them for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Now the narrative being doled out is which team would the Los Angeles Lakers want to face.

Naturally the Lake Show Life refuses to even deal with that discussion. If this team is as good as advertised, the Pelicans and Grizzlies are basically battling it out for a cigarette and a blindfold because the first round should be a sweep, five games at the most. Neither team can beat the Lake Show four times in a week.

Speaking of the aforementioned Pelicans, The Los Angeles Lakers had a rematch on Sunday to finish out the three-game road trip.

Anthony Davis sat this game out with a sore knee, but without him the Los Angeles Lakers were able to take care of business beating the New Orleans Pelicans 122-114 behind a dominant performance from LeBron James. More on him later.

With AD sidelined, the Lakers needed someone to step up and have a big game to counter Zion Williamson, who is playing lights out since coming back from injury. Plus the and the surging Pelicans need to string some games together now that they are three games in the loss column behind Memphis with Sacramento (Shocking right?), San Antonio and Portland still in the hunt.

The Lakers swept the Pelicans with a perfect 4-0 record. However, the Pelicans never got blown out like Memphis did this season. Every game was competitive and exciting. Sunday night’s game was no exception.

With the New Orleans Pelicans having the easiest schedule out of all of the contenders, most believe that the Pelicans will grab the 8th spot.  Let’s be clear, the NBA and the media do too. Look at the storylines here.

1. The tried and true angle of “Old guard vs. New guard storyline with LeBron James desperately holding on to the title of being the face of the NBA with Zion Williamson coming on strong.
2. The complete disdain Pelicans fans have for Anthony Davis that would love to see a historical upset to throw in his face.
3. The three players, Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart having something to prove to their old team.
4. This writer stated that New Orleans would make the playoffs on the radio time and time again before the season started. 

It’s hard to imagine a first-round series more fun than the Lakers and Pelicans, even though Ja’ Morant is a beast. Memphis may be a more competitive series based on matchups, but in terms of fun, no series comes close to the Pelicans.

Now the fun starts this week, the Lakers will return from their three-game road trip to take on the Philadelphia 76ers, who are expected to be without Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid and Josh Richardson on Tuesday.

Don’t sleep on this bunch. The Clippers got a serious challenge from them this weekend. After that, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Clippers in the two following games. The Lakers haven’t beaten the Bucks or Clippers this season.

Let’s deal with the here and now. Lake Show Life Lessons starts with the Rookie of the Year race. Or what narrative the media is trying to start.