Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons in last-second loss to Miami Heat

Montrezl Harrell needs more minutes in the Los Angeles Lakers lineup!

Let’s get to the fact that Montrezl Harrell is too small to defend big centers. Okay. Everyone cool? With a Lakers team that is struggling to score points, why are Montrezl Harrell’s minutes being split between Marc Gasol and Markieff Morris?

For all of his defensive shortcomings (Energy and effort not being among them!) Harrell can give the Los Angeles Lakers scoring down low when he is on the floor especially at the baseline. Let’s compare Harrell’s Brooklyn’s stats with the first half of this game.

• Brooklyn: 15 minutes, 10 points (5-8 shooting!) and 4 rebounds. 
• Miami (First half):13 minutes, 10 points, 5 rebounds with 2 steals.

Montrezl Harrell had a double-double with 18 points (7-12 shooting!) and 10 rebounds in 24 minutes. However, Frank Vogel had Harrell sitting on the bench in lieu of Marc Gasol in crunch time.

Lake Show Life wants to know why.

Marc Gasol:

Let’s go back to this Gasol buzzer-beater before halftime.

You could see his teammates trying to encourage him to keep shooting. In the second half, Gasol air-balled a 3 pointer by at least a foot and a half. After that, he wasn’t even trying to look at the rim, much less shoot.

Marc Gasol has lost his confidence. It’s obvious he doesn’t want to shoot the ball. He passed up numerous shots after the airball even when he was open.

Gasol finished with only 6 points on 2-6 shooting in 24 minutes. He also had 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks. Montrezl may struggle against opposing centers, but at least he is scoring the basketball to justify him being on the floor. The Lakers are playing 4-on-5 when Gasol is on the floor on the offensive end.

Markieff Morris:

In 17 minutes, Keef scored 2 points on two free throws. He missed all three of his shots from the field and had 2 turnovers. Morris’ 17 minutes of ineffective play was a bigger mystery than Gasol having more minutes than Harrell in the last game.

Maybe (No check that hopefully!) the Morris minutes were planned. This is the only way the Los Angeles Lakers can actually execute the plan Lake Show Life thinks they should do.