Los Angeles Lakers: 4 lessons in dominant win over Houston Rockets
By Ronald Agers
The Los Angeles Lakers dominated the Houston Rockets defensively.
The Los Angeles Lakers went back to Texas to play a two game set with the Houston Rockets. Christian Wood and the Rockets caught the Lakers at the wrong time. A combination of a frustrated Anthony Davis over defense and a Christian Wood quote added up to three problems. Those problems turned out to be Anthony Davis, LeBron James and Talen Horton-Tucker.
Lake Show Life breaks down what else happened in Lake Show Life Lessons! The only Los Angeles Lakers extended post-game report with in-depth analysis and highlights.
The Los Angeles Lakers had this game won in less than two minutes. No check that, the game was over when Anthony Davis wasn’t happy with the nine-game performance of the Lakers defense a few days ago.
The Houston Rockets were in trouble. Now that LeBron James has co-signed the importance of defense to the point that the team goal is to have the NBA number one defense.
LeBron on the Lakers' defense: "We want to be the best defensive team in the league." pic.twitter.com/A9yO1KCdlA
— Ryan Ward (@RyanWardLA) January 11, 2021
Now the NBA is in trouble because if this team meets this goal, there’s not too many teams that can stay with them on the court. This game was a perfect example of that. At the end of a total 120-102 beatdown of the Houston Rockets, the message from Anthony Davis about defense was received and taken very seriously.
This is the Los Angeles Lakers team that this series and readers were asking for. They played easily their best two-way game, forcing turnovers, dictating tempo and rendering James Harden, one of the NBA’s best scorers a nonfactor. The Lakers had seven steals and seven blocked shots in the first quarter alone, turning defense into offense quick fast and in a hurry.
What they did to P.J. Tucker and Eric Gordon just wasn’t fair. Sure, Lake Show Life saw the end of “Micro Ball”, not the Houston Rockets!
This was a total team win for the Los Angeles Lakers which was different from the top-heavy dependency of just LeBron and AD.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope:
It was good to see Kentavious Caldwell-Pope back in the Lakers lineup, his energy and efficiency helped set the tone for the offense early. Plus he will be in every highlight for the next couple of days for catching a ridiculous left handed pass from LeBron James.
KCP flip flopped places with Wesley Matthews, who didn’t play because of a sore Achilles tendon.
Montrezl Harrell:
Trezl continued bringing the energy and toughness off the bench. Harrell finished with 16 points and 8 rebounds (2 offensive!), with a steal and a block. Now that the defense has picked up around him, Montrezl will be even more dangerous.
Dennis Schroder:
Schroder played a strong floor game against Houston. For the first time this season, Dennis made it a point not to only defend, but he worked with the offense. He didn’t shoot well (3-10 for 8 points!), but he was great with his perimeter defense and stuffed the box score with 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks.
The Los Angeles Lakers are off Monday and run it back against the Rockets on Tuesday.
To the new Los Angeles Lakers fans that are checking us out for the first time, welcome to Lake Show Life Lessons. Our extended post-game report with video analysis will cover the progress for the Los Angeles Lakers the entire season!
Over the next several pages we will provide highlights of certain players and coaches. Afterward, the comment section is loaded with knowledgeable fans adding their basketball knowledge. We usually start with the stars.
Let’s get to Lesson One to find out who!