Los Angeles Lakers lose the ‘New York State of Mind’ in loss to Knicks

The Los Angeles Lakers wanted to finish up their “New York State of Mind” portion of the road trip with a “Big Apple” sweep of the New York teams. After embarrassing the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday, the Lake Show met an old friend in Julius Randle while taking on the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden.

The Los Angeles Lakers had a severe letdown against the New York Knicks on Monday, as they fell 111-96 at basketball’s ‘Mecca’ in Madison Square Garden. The momentum from Saturday did not travel a few blocks from Times Square.

The Lakers turned the ball over 24 times and the Knicks scored 29 points off of those turnovers. Dennis Schroder led the team with five turnovers. The Lake Show has now turned the ball over at least 20 times in 10 games this season. Going into this game, they ranked dead last in turnovers per game with 15.7. Nothing will change after this one.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

Markieff Morris is on a scoring tear these days!

Lake Show Life would like to introduce you to the most efficient scorer since LeBron James has been out. Not Dennis Schroder, the statistical leader, but Markieff Morris.

Morris has started every game on fire since the Milwaukee game with long-range bombs to get the offense untracked. It was no different against the New York Knicks. He was stroking those shots with relative ease.

Markieff Morris had 13 points on 5-6 shooting by halftime. Notice the number of shots here. If he actually got 12-13 shots a game, the offense would open up even more and he would be the leading scorer in LeBron and AD’s absence. The Lakers need to find a way to find him in the second half. He only got five more shots finishing with 17 points.

Dennis Schroder was handing out business cards to the Knicks!

Dennis Schroder all of a sudden is on fire. Well, the website debates on if Schroder is worth the money he wants will continue for quite a while.

Must read: Los Angeles Lakers: Three offseason bailout plans from Dennis Schroder

After a dominating performance on Saturday night giving the Nets (Most notably Kyrie Irving!) the business scoring 19 points in slightly more than a half, he followed that up with 18 points by intermission in this one!

It’s not because he was gunning either. He shot 6-8 from the field (1-2 from 3 point land and hitting all four free throws!) and broke down the New York defense with relative ease. His strong play commanded a double team but the lack of 3 point shooting from the others took him out of the game scoring-wise.

THIS!

Nuff said! Carrying on!

The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

Markieff Morris and Dennis Schroder got banged up early in the game!

Markieff Morris:

Really? More players on this roster got hurt? Keef scored 5 points in less than a minute before he got injured and left with a lower leg injury. He did return before the first quarter ended. Frank Vogel is on record calling Morris an unsung hero with the absence of the superstars and this would have been a huge loss if he sat out a few games.

Dennis Schroder:

Schroder injured his tailbone taking a charge from Blake Griffin in the Brooklyn game on Saturday night. But after hitting a circus shot early, he was holding his back.

He kept playing (Boy he was giving the Knicks the business!) but he was grimacing the rest of the way! On the defensive end, he got exposed as the Knicks attacked him.

Man, the Lakers have a revolving door of players in and out of the lineup with injuries. Hopefully, Markieff and Dennis’ injuries are not lingering and overall these injuries just stop.

(Checking notes!) Montrezl Harrell didn’t score?

Man the iron was unkind to Montrezl Harrell. 14 minutes, zero points (0-4 shooting!), 2 rebounds and with an assist and a block. On social media, this is what is called “Doing cardio”.

In other news, Wesley Matthews joined Trezl in the aerobics exercises. Zero points (0-3 shooting!), zero rebounds, an assist and a block.

Man, this Lakers team turns the ball over too much!

To put this statement in perspective, The Los Angeles Lakers turn the ball over so much that this paragraph could be copied over easily for the rest of the season. The Lakers had 8 turnovers in the first quarter alone. Not only do they turn it over, it’s almost a guaranteed basket or a trip to the free-throw line for the opponent.

This is not about lacking superstars, this is about execution and taking care of the basketball. Bottom line, this team was bad.

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

The Los Angeles Lakers couldn’t knock down 3 point shots! 

The Brooklyn Nets got long-distance calls from the Lakers all night led by Ben McLemore’s five 3 pointers. In this game, the Lake Show donated bricks to the New York state construction sites from beyond the arc. After knocking down 19 in the Barclays Center, the Lakers only finished 12-36 in Madison Square Garden.

Julius Randle destroyed the Los Angeles Lakers!

It looks like Jules hasn’t gotten over how he was ceremoniously dismissed when LeBron James was signed to the purple and gold. This is not the man that played his first four years in Laker Land. Randle finished with 34 points 10 rebounds and 4 assists. This was the best player on the floor and the Lakers had no answer for him…AT ALL!

Andre Drummond got welcomed to the top of the scouting report.

Tom Thibodeau is not Steve Nash folks.

He devised a scheme that made SURE Andre Drummond would not be an impact in this game. Every time Drummond touched the ball at least three Knick players were on top of him. The stats might not look good scoring-wise (3 points!), but it’s not because Dre didn’t try. New York made sure if they lost, the big man was not going to be the reason.

Man the Los Angeles Lakers turn the ball over… 

Oh, we’ve talked about that already?

Not much time to worry about this one. The Charlotte Hornets are next tomorrow night!