Los Angeles Lakers: 4 lessons from statement win over Bucks

The Los Angeles Lakers looked to bounce back from a bad loss to the Golden State Warriors on Monday. LeBron James and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope shot very well as the Lakers put the clamps on the Milwaukee Bucks star, Giannis Antetokounmpo to start a seven-game road trip with a huge win.

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 sent a message to the top five NBA teams on Thursday night against the Eastern Conference’s number one seed. They are still the champs.

For the first time maybe all season, the NBA schedule had an NBA Finals preview that lived up to the billing. Even though the Lakers and Bucks entered the game at the top of their respective conferences, both were coming off losses. At the end of the game, only one team has the top conference spot.

In the end, the Los Angeles Lakers won 113-106, giving them their second consecutive victory against Milwaukee dating back to last season. With the Lakers squad, there are two motivating factors that they really care about.

• Number one: The Lakers still haven’t lost on the road this year. With each win, they rewrite the record books. Based on the upcoming road schedule, they have a legitimate shot to sweep this trip too.
• Number two: The Lakers had a goal last year not to lose two games in a row. They haven’t lost focus on that goal. 

The Lakers tried to act like this was just another game, but LeBron let that cat out the bag with his performance. The NBA MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo was on the floor and he was going to upstage him. He did it late in the game by calling his shot!

https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/1352452609743884289

After this win, LeBron James is now 16-5 (.762) in head-to-head matchups against Giannis Antetokounmpo which includes a two-game winning streak dating back to last year. That record is tied for the second-best all-time winning percentage by one MVP vs another (min. 20 games).

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is number one with a .783 win percentage vs Hakeem Olajuwon. Bill Russell had a .762 win percentage vs Willis Reed according to ESPN Stats and Info.

This game showed the embarrassment of riches the Lakers have at this point. After their performance against the Bucks, the team is shooting over 40 percent for the season. Sure LeBron is shooting the best 3 point shooting percentages since 2013 when he was in Miami but look at what his teammates are doing.

• Alex Caruso and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope are both shooting above 50 percent.
• Kyle Kuzma is shooting close to 40 percent.
• To put this in perspective, out of the 14 players to take the floor this season, eight of them were above last season’s league average of 35.8 %. After this game, the percentage will improve.  
• LeBron shot 6-10 from behind the arc. One less miss and HE’D be shooting over 40% for the season. 

Last year, the Los Angeles Lakers were one of the NBA’s worst shooting teams (Remember Alex Caruso couldn’t shoot and the Lakers fans wanted to run KCP out of town!). Now they’re one of the NBA’s top five 3 point shooting teams.

Lake Show Life has said it time and time again, when the defense is on point, the defending champions are even better than last year because great shooting opens up plays like these.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1352450633341620225

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!