Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons in the preseason win over LA Clippers

Montrezl Harrell is that dude. The NBA is in trouble when AD plays with him!

If the Los Angeles Lakers win back to back titles, Clippers fans will staring at GM, Lawrence Frank and Jerry West. One, they gave Paul George that $190 million extension. Two, they let Montrezl Harrell walk. Folks, Harrell comes to play every night.

Lakers Nation will love this guy. Some of the Lake Show Life staff (Writer at the top of the list!) thought the Clippers would handle the Lakers last year. Harrell was one of the main reasons why. His energy and intensity was the X-factor to taking down the Lakers.

This play between Harrell and his “replacement” Serge Ibaka tells the story.

• Watch how Ibaka reacts to the errant pass in front of Harrell.
• Trez leaps and steals the ball from Ibaka before he has a chance to react. Ibaka does not go hard for the ball.
• Harrell goes the other way for the slam dunk. 

What does this show? Toughness. The willingness to dive in and grab the ball for his team. Just think of the potential when the stars comes back. Every championship team needs that guy that will do the dirty work. Harrell has changed two franchises in L.A. on this alone.

The new Sixth Man of the Year constantly beat up the Clippers’ front line down low for offensive rebounds. He finished with a double-double tallying 13 points and 12 rebounds (8 offensive!) with 2 steals.

Going forward, Trez has to be ready to take the mid-range jumper. Anthony Davis will be down low on the blocks while LeBron James needs his lanes to drive to the basket.  Harrell hesitated on a few shots from the mid-range.

Make or miss, he has to shoot them. Frank Vogel will encourage him to shoot like he did AD last year from the 3 point line. There will be plenty for him when the season starts.

Now that we’ve seen the players that stood out in a good way, let’s start looking at the other end of the spectrum. Read on to see who really needs some work.