Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons in blowout loss vs. Brooklyn Nets

Kyle Kuzma played well, but the Los Angeles Lakers needs more!

Kyle Kuzma is having a master class on how to adjust while being on the Los Angeles Lakers roster. Sometimes it’s just not fair.

• First, he earned his way to a green light to shoot playing in the young core era.
• Then he had to figure out how to deal with playing with expectations when LeBron James came aboard the next season.
• Then his status changed again when the Lakers traded out Kuzma’s young teammates for Anthony Davis. Then the expectations changed from adjusting to LeBron to being the “third wheel” to score the basketball on a championship team. After a few injury setbacks, he had to learn to deal with trade rumors.
• Finally, when Kuzma gets comfortable being the energy guy that doesn’t need his plays called for him, his role changes…again.  

Now that Anthony Davis is out for at least four weeks (Think six weeks folks!), the coaching staff needed Kuzma to be more aggressive after scoring only 7 points against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The message was received in the first half. He came out firing early scoring in double figures in the first half.

Kyle Kuzma finished with16 points (7-13 shooting!) with 10 rebounds with a steal and a block. Kuzma is becoming a star in his role by offensive rebounding. He had 5 offensive rebounds which is a ton for a guy his size. He is really showing activity by crashing the glass on both ends.

Lake Show Life totally understands if Kyle Kuzma rolls his eyes when he hears this statement but…

The Los Angeles Lakers needs more from Kyle Kuzma on the offensive end while finding the balance with how he was playing before AD got hurt.

Now that AD is out for a while, the Brooklyn Nets gashed the Los Angeles Lakers defense by attacking the basket with James Harden and Kyrie Irving drawing the defense and hitting the shooters with timely passes. The Nets played small ball with Jeff Green playing the center spot. It threw off Vogel’s rotations between Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell (Much more on that in a second!).

If teams keep this up, Kuzma will have a ton of minutes going forward. Depending on when Schroder comes back, Kuzma is mandated to up the scoring total to 20-25 points a contest.

The good thing is that he’s capable of doing it.

Lake Show Life has been consistent in pointing out the defensive issues of the Los Angeles Lakers all season. The constant winning only masked the problem. Now that Anthony Davis AND Dennis Schroder are out, the Lakers will not struggle not only on the offensive end, but the defensive as well. Read on to see what we are talking about.