Los Angeles Lakers: 4 lessons from record-setting win over Thunder
By Ronald Agers
![Jan 13, 2021; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) high fives guard Dennis Schroder (17) and center Marc Gasol (14) during a time out against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second half at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-USA TODAY Sports Jan 13, 2021; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) high fives guard Dennis Schroder (17) and center Marc Gasol (14) during a time out against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second half at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-USA TODAY Sports](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/7a527a61e859136d27af304c952a3d83dbf06b9dde0f8e3684d94c4877294c04.jpg)
Montrezl Harrell is continuing to to be a free agent steal for the Los Angeles Lakers!
The media can be a funny narrative based business. They can hype players to a certain level or try to bring down others with narratives that analyze without context. Montrzel Harrell is falling under the analysis without context.
After Harrell crossed the hall from the Clippers locker room to put on purple and gold, many statements from other team’s announcers have taken shots at Trezl’s game. It’s starting to look and sound stupid.
Montrezl Harrell continued his stellar play off the bench scoring 21 points (8-12 shooting!) with 6 rebounds and a block. But these media types are missing is the little things.
Watch these two plays right here.
Trey after trey for Carushow!
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) January 14, 2021
(📺: @SpectrumSN) pic.twitter.com/dyPA4iWsy6
Play one:
- Watch how Montrezl hustles up to get ahead of LeBron James to set a pick. Then LeBron follows him to the middle to collapse the defense.
- Look how wide open Alex Caruso is at the 3 point line. All he has to do is use a pass fake to Kyle Kuzma for an extra seconds to knock down the shot.
Play two:
- Watch how Montrezl runs up the floor to set the pick at the elbow for LeBron. Again LeBron uses that pick to drive and collapse the defense.
- He hits Markieff Morris in the corner who passes the Alex Caruso for another wide open 3 point shot.
Alex Caruso has been on fire from behind the arc. He is shooting over 50 percent for the season. Why? Most of the shots lately have been open ones like these. Harrell is doing his part to open up space for the shooters.
Dennis Schroder:
Lake Show Life Lessons has been all over Dennis Schroder this season. But he deserves a ton of credit for his play during this road trip. Despite being up and down from the field.
- 3-10 shooting for 8 points in the first Rockets game
- 6-9 shooting for 14 points in the second Rockets game.
- 4-12 shooting for 14 points against OKC.
Schroder is really playing great basketball. For the longest time, this site dared anyone to find a series of plays where Dennis set up his teammates. Someone must have showed him the challenge.
Breaking ‘em down!
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) January 14, 2021
(📺: @SpectrumSN) pic.twitter.com/7mWU6wvokZ
Plays like this is what the Lakers signed him up for. Lake Show Life was critical of Schroder because there was not enough playmaking as he has shown throughout the road trip. Look we all know that the man can score. Now we know he can set up teammates.
Now if you add Dennis Schroder’s efficient floor play with LeBron and AD, read on to see how the Los Angeles Lakers use it to combine the offense with a devastating defense.