Los Angeles Lakers: Goodbye Rockets, bring on L.A. Clippers! 3 Lessons

If the role players shoot like this, the Los Angeles Lakers will make the NBA Finals!

Music selection: It’s a family affair…Sly and the Family Stone!

The Los Angeles Lakers set a franchise record knocking down 19 shots from the land of the extra point. That’s not the real story. The role players were responsible for 16 of them. ESPN announcer Jeff Van Gundy said it best. If the role players are shooting like this, the Lakers are unbeatable.

He’s not lying. In this highlight package here, just look at some of the players that were dropping shots out of the sky. If the Rockets looked at AD or LeBron too long, the role players made them pay.

Danny Green:

To the readers new to this website, there is an ongoing backstory going on with Danny Green. Much like most of Lakers Nation, Lake Show Life has been critical of Green’s overall play for weeks. There is ONE reader that has stood by him. McKinley Webb. He is somewhere reading this sipping a cool Mai-Tai’ based on Danny Green’s best two-way performance since the plane landed in Orlando.

Green put on a shooting display that justified his $14 million dollar contract, scoring 14 points on the strength of four 3 point shots in six attempts. He also found time to collect 4 rebounds and a assist. He had a team-high plus/minus of +35! Plus he helped defend James Harden 94 feet. Happy now Kinfolk? 

Markieff Morris:

Frank Vogel has a decision to make. Will he keep Markieff Morris in the starting lineup in the next series? He’s balling folks and his long-range shooting will cause Ivica Zubac or Nikola Jokic trouble. 

Morris was the X-factor turning the entire series around being inserted into the starting lineup. He kept right on killing the Rockets dropping 16 points,(He shot a perfect 4-4 shooting from deep!) along with toughness that helped break Houston’s spirit. Add 3 rebounds and 3 assists, most would think that is a productive 24 minutes of work.

Kyle Kuzma:

Kuzma has made the transition from scorer that just chucks up shots (You know, what Harden and Westbrook will be called next year!) to a player that knows how to play basketball. Kuz efficiently frustrated the Rockets defense with 17 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists off the bench. When he realized how to use cuts to hurt the Rockets, he got calmer and his confidence is skyrocketing. He has that “Flintstone” swagger that Flint Michigan ballplayers have.

Other players that played well:

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope shot very well scoring 10 points on 4-5 shooting (2-3 from distance!) while rotating defending James Harden. Talen Horton-Tucker? That rookie can play. Period. If he’s traded, it had better be a deal for Giannis Antetokounmpo. He scored 10 points (4-7 shooting!) in 10 minutes. This dude will be a walking bucket in a few years. 

How about Rajon Rondo? Well he was the reason why the staff hung around. Read on. This is going to be good!