Lake Show Life
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Los Angeles Lakers win the second of two straight vs Grizzlies

By Ronald Agers

Jan 5, 2021; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) waits for a pass from guard Dennis Schroder (17) against Memphis Grizzlies guard Dillon Brooks (24) in the second half at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 5, 2021; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) waits for a pass from guard Dennis Schroder (17) against Memphis Grizzlies guard Dillon Brooks (24) in the second half at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Los Angeles Lakers now have a four-game winning streak.

The Los Angeles Lakers finished up their two game set against the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday. Like the previous game on Sunday, the Lakers allowed Memphis to hang around with listless play, turnovers and allowing huge runs. But in the end, the Los Angeles Lakers stay undefeated on the road.

The Los Angeles Lakers are the road warriors of the NBA. Despite a rough game that the Lake Show nearly fumbled away, they closed out their first four-game road trip with a 94-92 win over the Memphis Grizzlies.

If you thought the Sunday game was hard to watch, this one was much worse.

The Lakers couldn’t hit a shot (43.7 percent shooting! 29 percent from distance!). The bench was outplayed by the Grizzlies’ reserves being outscored them 36-22. All bench players had a negative plus-minus, with Talen Horton-Tucker being especially bad at -22.

This two game set in Memphis has been all about this unwritten NBA rule. Teams that have superstars usually win and the ones that don’t tend to lose. The Lakers have two stars and they turned it on when the street lights came on.

LeBron James:

26 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists, a steal and a block!

Anthony Davis: 

26 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks!

When Memphis was up 79-77 with 4:40 left in the 4th quarter, these events happened.

  • LeBron James hit Anthony Davis in the corner for a 3 pointer.
  • LeBron James scored with a turnaround jumper.
  • LeBron hit another jumper.
  • Anthony Davis and LeBron James run a two man pick and roll with AD tearing the rim down.
  • LeBron  James scores another jumper signaling that Dillon Brooks is too small!
  • AD and LeBron both hit their four free throws!

The Good:

LeBron James starting asserting himself in the second half dropping 11 points in the third quarter and 21 points in the second half. This game showed the continued evolution of LeBron James knowing when to turn on the pressure when the Lakers offense is struggling.

Anthony Davis getting the ball early in the game to get a rhythm. Remember in the Showtime days when the Lakers made it a point to get the ball to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the first few half court sets? It looked like Vogel went back to basics allowing AD to touch the ball early. That ended up keeping him engaged and keeping the offense afloat in the first half.

When the Lakers were down late, the combination of these two scored or assisted on the final 15 points.

The Bad:

The Los Angeles Lakers have allowed huge Memphis runs in both games of this two game set. The Lake Show allowed a huge 27-5 run on Sunday. In this one, the Lakers gave away a early lead with runs of 21-9 in the first quarter and a 14-5 run in the second. The trend here is the team comes out of the gate with a scoring burst, then starts coasting along and the offense gets sloppy. This was especially evident against against the Grizzlies’ second unit.

The center matchup was all Memphis. With Marc Gasol saddled with fouls, Gorgui Dieng and Jonas Valanciunas collectively hurt the Lakers inside. They combined for 26 points and 15 rebounds while Gasol finished with 3 points. Another day, another game, another example that a backup center in needed for the Lake Show.

The 3 point shooting was just brutal to watch. Let’s take AD’s 4-10 shooting from behind the arc out of the equation. The rest of the team shot 5-21.

The last 30 seconds of the game. The Lakers really tried to flirt with disaster with turnovers from LeBron James and Anthony Davis and missed rotations giving up 3 point shots. Just a microcosm of the entire game.

The Story:

The Los Angeles Lakers are continuing to practice bad habits. The extended runs they give up, the turnovers and playing with the on/off switch is now becoming a trend. The majority of the Lakers wins have come against teams that are low on talent or missing stars from the lineup. Los Angeles has done what they have supposed to collecting wins against teams like these, but will they raise their level of play against the top tier teams in the NBA?

Lake Show Life’s more in-depth breakdowns will come in Lake Show Life Lessons tomorrow. Keep it locked for the only Los Angeles Lakers post-game report with highlights and in-depth analysis.

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