The Los Angeles Lakers close road trip with win over the Atlanta Hawks

The Los Angeles Lakers close out their very long seven-game road trip in Atlanta taking on Trae Young and the Hawks. Trae Young and Clint Capela gave the Lakers fits, but LeBron James and the Lake Show defense closed out the game to go back to the West coast happy!

It looked like the old recipe for success was back in effect for the Los Angeles Lakers. Get Anthony Davis started early and let LeBron James close the game out in a 107-99 win over a well-coached Atlanta Hawks team.

This is not a game where the Lakers just fell asleep at the wheel. The Hawks can play and competed for the full 48 minutes.  The Lakers close out the road trip with a very successful 5-2 record under the circumstances and will be off until Thursday when they welcome the Denver Nuggets to the Staples Center.

Hopefully, the champs can figure out what ails them at home. The road record is impressive but the home record needs work.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

The Lakers were bullies in the paint!

It was a foregone conclusion that the Atlanta Hawks couldn’t stop a Lakers team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis from getting points in the paint, but the Lakers feasted. The Lakers scored 18 of their first 19 points in the paint to start the game on plays just like this.

Clint Capela got in foul trouble early:

One of the major concerns going into this game was Marc Gasol’s matchup with Clint Capela. Luckily for the first half, fouls did the damage putting Capela on the bench early. When Capela sat, the Lakers feasted on his replacement, Bruno Fernando. Let’s talk about those players that got fat in the scoring column in the game.

Anthony Davis handed out business cards!

In the first half, AD continued his momentum from the Boston game hitting not just all of his shots from the field (4-4), but HIS FREE THROWS (4-4)! The Lakers found some nuances to take advantage of the Hawks small lineup by getting AD down the floor early to beat the chance of a double team in the post. He finished with 25 points.

Montrezl Harrell gave out his business cards after AD was done!

If you thought Anthony Davis was doing work, Montrezl Harrell’s wave of production was just as impressive. He hit his first five shots from the field without a miss and hit both of his free throws. He finished with 19 points on a very efficient 8-9 shooting.

LeBron James? Oh, we’ll get to him in a minute!

The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

The Atlanta Hawks point guards gave the Lakers the business:

While the Lakers carved up the Hawks defense with Montrezl Harrell and Anthony Davis scoring in the paint, the Hawks did their damage by depending on Trae Young and Rajon Rondo to make plays and score buckets on their own.

While Trae Young had a slow start shooting the basketball, he provided his teammates easy looks collecting 6 assists in the first half alone. Rajon Rondo (Remember him Lakers fans?) used his basketball I.Q. and familiarity of the Lakers playbook to be effective as well. His first half was very effective hitting all of his shots and running the offense as smoothly as Trae did.

Both point guards hurt the Lakers with their dribble penetration. The point guard play showed another Lakers weakness. When Marc Gasol is on the floor, they can’t stop the pick and roll. Period.

3 point shooting was terrible most of the night:

7-23? from behind the arc? Nuff said.

The NBA fans are messing up right now!

Look it’s bad enough that COVID-19 is keeping NBA fans out of the arenas right now, but the fans that are inside the arena need to act like they have some sense. During the game, security was called to investigate a woman screaming obscenities at LeBron. A few games back in Cleveland, a fan was ejected for wearing “Gloria Goes West” T-shirts to mock LeBron as well.

In this era and with all of the unrest going on in this country, fans really need to act accordingly and stop messing up the experience for everyone else!

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

The Los Angeles Lakers finally shut down the Hawks offense:

The Lakers started the fourth quarter on an 11-0 run. Then when the Hawks made a huge run to make the game close late, the Lake Show locked up Trae Young and closed the game out with menacing defense. Then…well…

LeBron James did LeBron James things!  

LeBron closed the game out, scoring 12 points in the final quarter and the Lakers last nine points of the game. He’s the King and the rest of the NBA players are not.

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.