The Los Angeles Lakers continued their “Homecoming” tour into Cleveland Monday to play the Cavaliers. After Anthony Davis had his showcase, it was LeBron’s turn to show out in front of his Cleveland loved ones. But unlike the Chicago game, the Lakers worked much harder!
Lakers fans, if you haven’t heard of Lake Show Life’s extended post game series, Lake Show Life Lessons, you need to get to know it. It’s not the only Los Angeles Lakers extended post-game report with in-depth analysis and highlights, it tends to foreshadow potential trap games like this one.
"Trap game alert:Lake Show Life again warns the Lakers and its fanbase against taking the Cavs lightly. They beat the Brooklyn Nets TWICE!With and without Kevin Durant."
Well, the Cleveland Cavaliers gave the Los Angeles Lakers a serious run for their money and in the early 2000s, they might have won a game like this. But they had LeBron James back then. The Lakers have him now and have collected their tenth straight road game, winning 115-108.
Breaking news from Lake Show Life! LeBron James is an all-time great!
https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1353909341410062338
The performance? 46 points, 8 rebounds , 6 assists, 2 blocks and 2 steals.
There’s nothing else to talk about that really matters, but we will go on.
The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:
LeBron James tried to match AD’s performance in Chicago!
Anthony Davis destroyed the Chicago Bulls with 37 points against the Chicago Bulls on Saturday. He scored 17 of those points in the first quarter. Guess what happened with LeBron James’ homecoming in Cleveland? Yep, you guessed it. LeBron matched AD’s point total with 17 points (6-7 shooting, 4-5 from distance!) including a buzzer-beater to finish the quarter.
Now that’s how you end a 17-point first quarter 👑
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) January 26, 2021
(📺: @SpectrumSN) pic.twitter.com/oANZPMz8pS
Anything else that was accomplished in this game came through LeBron.
The bad of the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:
Marc Gasol has had a very bad start to the road trip:
At the beginning of the season, the talk around the website was the uneventful play of Marc Gasol. That type of talk was kind compared to his play after the Chicago game and the first five minutes of this one.
After scoring the same amount as the post-game writer for Lake Show Life in Chicago, he had three fouls in as many minutes to start in Cleveland. He finished with two free throws and more calls for a backup center.
Andre Drummond was handing out business cards to the Los Angeles Lakers!
The Cleveland Cavaliers had some troubles keeping up the pace with the Lakers, but the reason they did was Andre Drummond. He gave the frontline fits in the first half, scoring 17 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in only 14 minutes. He finished with 25 points and 17 rebounds. Seven of those rebounds were on the offensive end.
For the second straight game, the Lakers come out flat in the second half:
In Chicago, the Lakers allowed the Bulls to get momentum allowing 33 third-quarter points. It just didn’t matter because they had a 30 point halftime lead. In this game, the Lakers gave up a Cleveland 12-2 run out of halftime to lose the lead at 70-69. The Lakers fall into bad habits at times, so this is an issue to watch going forward.
The story of the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:
You know that Kyle Kuzma really came out and…yeah right! We all know who the story of this game was. LeBron was the story when he was in a Cavaliers uniform, a Miami Heat uniform and every scheduled Lakers game for the rest of his career.
Birthplace of Aviation ✈️
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) January 26, 2021
(📺: @SpectrumSN) pic.twitter.com/XnJfbANJzC
At the end of the third quarter, he was seen smiling at someone in the crowd. In the last quarter, the man basically matched the ENTIRE Cavaliers team in scoring. Just amazing.
The Lakers tried to showcase LeBron James early in the game much like AD in Chicago and it wrecked the rhythm of the offense and almost burned them. Anthony Davis went back into his scoring funk after tearing up the paint in Chicago. Some of it was the Cavaliers loading up their centers to bang on Davis, but it was off night for the Lakers especially from the 3 point line.
Cleveland is not as bad as people think. Are they pretty to watch? No. But they have a defensive scheme that features a zone that gave the Lakers (Particularly Anthony Davis!) fits. Now that they swept the Nets with their stars, they believe they belong.
Lake Show Life’s more in-depth breakdowns will come in Lake Show Life Lessons tomorrow. Keep it locked for the only Los Angeles Lakers post-game report with highlights and in-depth analysis.