Los Angeles Lakers: 4 lessons in ugly loss to San Antonio Spurs

Davis said the defense has been bad for nine games. Lake Show Life saw this as far back as the preseason!

We’ve already heard AD’s frustration over the defense. Now let’s listen to what he sees as the problem.

Let’s just look at the defensive breakdowns of LaMarcus Aldridge. He finished with 28 points to lead San Antonio.

• Play one: Aldridge gets to his spot and shoots a turnaround jumper over AD. No issues there, no one said the dude wasn’t an All-Star.
• Play two: Derozan passes to Patty Mills in the corner. Marc Gasol gets beat and Mills gets to the paint. AD falls asleep anticipating the block from LeBron. Instead, Mills passes to Aldridge and he lays it up. Kuzma is late with the weak side defense.
• Play three: Patty Mills and LaMarcus Aldridge play the two-man game on the wing. THT and Davis get their signals crossed while Aldridge hits the wide-open jumper.
• Play four: Spurs played the high pick and roll. Gasol doesn’t give enough resistance and allows Aldridge to cut to the basket. Kyle Kuzma is late with his rotation and the Spurs get an easy dunk.
• Play five: This was the play the Lakers gave up Marc Gasol for the night. They were picking on him bringing him out of the lane. Aldridge baits him into a foul and gets the free throw.
• Play six: The Lakers, most notably LeBron got caught watching the baseline drive and allowed Aldridge to shift and find himself wide open. Patty Mills passes the ball for the wide-open jumper.
• Play seven: LaMarcus Aldridge hits a buzzer-beater to beat the shot clock over Caruso. Obviously, by then, the man was hot! 

Bottom line, the bad habits that were being practiced on the road caught up with them in this game. The Lakers announcers mentioned that LeBron James had a goal of building good habits for each game. This ain’t it. They were bad on the offensive end falling down early. The turnovers they had turned into 16 San Antonio points and waiting to use the LeBron/AD. “on/off” switch didn’t work.

The Lakers win streak was built off teams that were low on talent (Memphis) or missing key players (Spurs). The ongoing question will be can the Lakers raise this level of play against the top tier teams in the NBA? They play an improving Chicago team before they travel to Houston.

Lake Show Life will be extending it’s post-game coverage this season! There will be a short post-game report shortly after the game in addition to the extended post-game of Lake Show Life Lessons! 

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