Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons in Ingram/Zion beatdown against Pelicans
By Ronald Agers
Wesley Matthews might have been the best shooter for the Los Angeles Lakers!
Hopefully, ESPN will allow Lake Show Life to steal the 30 for 30 concept for one report! (Cue the music!)…
What if I told you that Wesley Matthews was the Los Angeles Lakers’ best 3 point shooter in this game?!
Look, don’t go to the box scores and comment that Kyle Kuzma had more 3 point shots made than Matthews or Alex Caruso shot a better percentage. The game was over and the Lakers were down by 30 points. This is what we call “Looting in a riot”. The shots came when it didn’t matter.
Yes, Los Angeles Lakers fans, Wesley Matthews that scored 3 points in a six-game span with multiple games with zero points (Checking notes…including the last game!) hit his first three shots from distance.
Unselfish basketball leads to another Wes trey 🏹🏹 pic.twitter.com/ihKCO4Z5YP
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) March 24, 2021
Wesley’s shooting got the Lakers off to a good start in the first quarter. Why he only played 8 minutes in the first half is a mystery, especially when the rest of the roster shot 3-15.
Then just like in the Atlanta game on Saturday, Frank Vogel didn’t notice the hot hand, sat him down for a long period of time and Matthews cooled off. He finished with 14 points on 5-9 shooting.
This is starting to look more like a coaching issue more than Wesley’s poor play. 74 percent of Wesley Matthews’s shots this season are from behind the 3 point line. It’s not fair to park the man 25 feet from the basket expecting him to get hot (Which is hard enough!) and then sit him down 30-45 minutes in real time on the bench and expect him to shoot well.
If the Lakers trade Wes on Thursday, he should be thrilled to play under a coach that will put him in a position to succeed.
Frank Vogel has failed to use Matthews correctly.
Lake Show Life is a basketball website first. If the visiting players dominate the Lakers, they get some shine. We call it the “Limo” segment. The next page belongs to two players that sent the limousine just so the Lakers could get there safely so they could get their numbers!