We’ll show the good and the bad from the Lakers first week back from the NBA hiatus.
The Los Angeles Lakers‘ first game was against the Los Angeles Clippers. The purple and gold won the game 103-101 on a last-second putback by LeBron James. Many people viewed the Lakers’ slim margin of victory as a negative because the Clippers played without two of their top bench players, Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell. Those people were wrong to discourage the Lakers’ two-point victory.
Lou Williams is averaging close to 19 points per game, but his scoring average is fools gold. Sweet Lou is only knocking down 41 percent of his shots from the field, and he could be the worst perimeter defender in the upcoming western conference playoffs.
Williams has a -1.89 defensive real plus-minus, good for 123 out of 135 qualified shooting guards in the NBA. Lou Williams has an overall net rating of +3.6, much lower than the Reggie Jackson (+6.2) and Patrick Beverly (+5.7), the two ballhandlers the Clippers threw at the Lakers.
Small and inefficient shooting guards don’t fare well in the playoffs. The Clippers will probably only use Williams sparingly if they square off against the Lakers in a seven-game series.
Montrezl Harrell is a great player; nobody denies that. He’s one of the most physical athletes in the NBA, capable of bullying his way to the basket against anyone. With that said, He’s a non-shooter, and he’s undersized.
Harrell’s shooting woes make him one-dimensional on offense and at 6’7″ he’s too short to handle Anthony Davis.
The Lakers win against the Clippers was real.
The Lakers played the Toronto Raptors in their second game back. The Purple and Gold lost to Kyle Lowry and company 107-92. During the game, the Raptors decided not to let Anthony Davis beat them. Nick Nurse, the Raptors head coach, sent two players at AD every time he touched the ball, and the Lakers star Big Man made the right read to the open man. Unfortunately, on this night, the open man for the Purple and Gold couldn’t hit a shot.
The other major storyline from this game was the Raptors’ starting backcourt. Fred VanVleet and Kyle Lowry torched, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Danny Green. VanVleet was +26 points for the contest, while Kyle Lowry was an equally impressive +24 points.
The Lakers shooting woes were a fluke, but their defensive issues were real.
It was more of the same for the Lakers on defense during their third game against the Jazz. Donovan Mitchell scored 33 points, and Mike Conley dropped in 24 points of his own. Once again, the Lakers starting backcourt of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Danny Green had trouble sticking their assignments.
This game was close for the first three quarters, but it never felt like the Jazz were going to win. The Lakers had the two best players on the court– LeBron James and Anthony Davis–and they did their thing against the starless Jazz.
The Utah Jazz would be an ideal matchup for the Lakers in the playoffs.
Next, we’ll examine the good and the bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ first three games of the NBA restart.