Los Angeles Lakers: 5 lessons from the blown lead vs the Warriors

Dennis Schroder played an outstanding game at the start but fell in LeBron’s trap!

It was looking like Dennis Schroder was turning the corner. In the first quarter, Dennis really looked like the menace to Golden State as he was killing the Warriors with his own personal scoring barrage outscoring them 14-12. This was no longer the player that dribbled all over the floor looking for his shot. Now he is trusting the offense to get easy baskets. He hit five of his first six shots with relative ease.

Then this play happened.

• Schroder flops while defending Andrew Wiggins and instead of getting up, he lays on the floor.
• Wiggins hits Stephen Curry with the cross-court pass on the right-wing.
• Steph pump fakes and sidesteps AD and knocks down the 3 pointer to cut the lead to three points.
• Frank Vogel calls time out. it’s a good thing too because Schroder probably would still be laying on the floor. 

The game shifted for Schroder and the Lakers as he got frustrated with foul calls afterward and even though Dennis finished with 25 points, his effectiveness disappeared and he missed a huge free throw late. He also collected 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.

But just like LeBron, Dennis Schroder allowed the referees to get in his head and it cost the Lakers.

The next lesson is about the Lakers bench. With LeBron and AD not scoring as much as they usually do, they did a great job of picking up the scoring slack. Read on to see who we are talking about.