Lake Show Life
Fansided

Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons in a bad loss to the OKC Thunder!

By Ronald Agers

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA - AUGUST 05: Nerlens Noel #9 of the Oklahoma City Thunder is defended by Danny Green #14 and JaVale McGee #7 of the Los Angeles Lakers during the second quarter at HP Field House at ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on August 05, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA - AUGUST 05: Nerlens Noel #9 of the Oklahoma City Thunder is defended by Danny Green #14 and JaVale McGee #7 of the Los Angeles Lakers during the second quarter at HP Field House at ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on August 05, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 5
Next
Los Angeles Lakers
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) – Los Angeles Lakers /

The Los Angeles Lakers lost badly to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Los Angeles Lakers looked lifeless and soft in a blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Lakers have the number one seed locked up and played like it. Lake Show Life will break down the game with Lake Show Life Lessons starting with the Lakers needing lessons in 3 point shooting!

Well, the Los Angeles Lakers are the number one seed going into the Western Conference playoffs. That will be the number one sentence in the English language for Lakers fans and the defense mechanism for LeBron James in every interview leading up to tonight’s game against the Houston Rockets. The drama leading up to the game won’t be how much James Harden will score but will the Lakers show up.

They sure didn’t against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Lake Show Life checked the schedule and saw that the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder were supposed to play a basketball game against each other on Wednesday. Both teams displayed different agendas and it was an ugly basketball game.

Technically both teams participated, just one team showed up and played as they cared. If you want to read the report of the team that did, please go to the Oklahoma City Thunder website, Thunderous Intentions. The Lakers are rumored to play the Houston Rockets on Thursday.

The Lakers turned in one of their worst performances of the season losing to the Thunder 105-86. Dwight Howard sat out the game because of a sore knee. He was missed. Steven Adams abused his replacement, Markieff Morris.

Lake Show Life has been leery of the underlying issues of the Lakers without coming out and saying it. Now for the first time officially, we will. This is not the same Lakers team that was rolling before the shutdown. Now let’s take it even further. It’s not even close.

  • The Los Angeles Lakers miss Avery Bradley’s perimeter defense.
  • Because of that, the guards haven’t stopped opposing backcourts of any team since the first half of the first scrimmage game.
  • The Los Angeles Lakers miss Avery Bradley on offense. His cutting to the basket, mid-range game and occasional 3 point shooting is an underrated part of the Lakers offensive success.
  • Because of that, the starting backcourt of Danny Green and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope stand out at the 3 point line and just shoot bricks. 

Oh, it gets worse.

  • These last four games have been a Hollywood production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Anthony Davis. Either he’s aggressive and looks like an NBA 2K cheat code or he disappears from the offense altogether. Guess which scenario played out in this game (More on this later!)?
  • LeBron James’ game is broken down in three scenarios. Either he is injured, coasting or his decline is coming a lot sooner than fans think. (More on this later!)   

LeBron James and Anthony Davis were also ice cold from behind the arc shooting 0-8 from 3-point territory. They were no better from inside the arc. They shot a combined 33% from the field (10-30), which is a season-low.

This wouldn’t have been a huge issue, but the second-worst combined shooting performance of the season was 37% against the Clippers. Last week.

Lake Show Life is going to let the Los Angeles Lakers fans in on an important fact that other websites just won’t tell you. The Los Angeles Lakers can’t shoot. Yes, we said it. It’s the truth. You won’t see it now, but man, life tends to show you lessons we can’t.

The Lakers went a “We have no words!” 5-37 from the 3-point line. Let’s put that abomination in proper perspective. The Lakers are shooting a bad 27% from 3 point range coming into this game. Shooting 5-37 adds up to a 13.5% percent conversation rate. That’s half of 27%. In layman’s terms, AGAIN…the Lakers can’t shoot from distance.

Then there’s J.R. Smith, who looks like he forgot that he can actually shoot. His confidence is gone.

The Los Angeles Lakers will look to bounce back against the Houston Rockets on Thursday. In one of the major shockers of the NBA season, the Rockets stunned the Lakers with their super small-ball play after trading away Clint Capela to the Atlanta Hawks. That was the smallest winning starting lineup in NBA history.

Like Oklahoma City, the Houston Rockets are playing for the 4th seed while the Lakers have locked up the number one seed.

Get the point? Let’s go to Lake Show Life Lessons!

Home/Lakers News