Los Angeles Lakers close out road trip with win over the Charlotte Hornets

The Los Angeles Lakers closed a long seven-game road trip in the Queen City to face the Charlotte Hornets. The game basically decided if the Lakers went back to West Coast above .500 or not. After over 47 minutes, Alex Caruso put the game away for the Lake Show. 

At this point, the Los Angeles Lakers are just happy the road trip is over after beating a very game Charlotte Hornets team 101-93 on Tuesday.

With the win, the Lakers ended the seven-game road trip with a record of 4-3. Considering all of the injuries that reside with this roster, Lakers Nation should be very happy! Speaking of happy fans, the next game is on Thursday against the Boston Celtics at the Staples Center…WITH FANS!

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

This second-quarter stretch.

The Hornets led 48-39 with 2:52 left in the first half. Then…

• Kuzma hit a 3 pointer.
• Schroder scored 5 straight points. 
• Then Kuzma scored 5 straight points.
• Charlotte was held to only one basket.

After that 13-2 stretch, the Lakers were winning at halftime 52-50.

The Los Angeles Lakers third-quarter defense!

The Lakers went small. Alex Caruso was inserted into the game and all of a sudden the Hornets could not get anything going offensively. The Lake Show ended the third quarter on a 12-2 run and gave up only 16 points.

In a game where both teams were missing their best players, it was going to come down to the team with the best defense. The Lakers really took their defense to the next level after halftime.

The “Flintstones” from Flint Michigan!

Writer’s note: Sorry but this writer is extremely biased. Any player in the NBA from Flint Michigan is going to get shine when they play well.

This game had two players from Flint Michigan in Miles Bridges (Charlotte) and Kyle Kuzma (Los Angeles). Both players were balling folks.

Bridges put on a crossover so nasty the crowd gave an ooohhh while his pass to Bismack Byombo brought out the ahhhsssss!

Kyle Kuzma on the other hand…

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1382140734761881601

Kyle Kuzma did outperform Miles Bridges scoring a game-high 24 points. Miles finished with 13.

Don’t sleep on the Flintstones. They have a ton of ballplayers that can give you the business out of Flint.

Dennis Schroder was an important influence for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Let’s be clear here, Dennis Schroder was playing through a lot of pain in his back. Since the Brooklyn game, he has lumbered just to make it through the last two games. After taking ownership for the turnover problems, he really played well in this game. Schroder finished with 19 points and 6 assists.

For the first time in quite a while, Dennis used his veteran savvy to control the game. He used his teammates well and when it was time to score, he took his opportunities.

The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

Ben McLemore’s defense.

The story on Ben McLemore was he was a shooter that the Lakers desperately needed. Defense on the other hand could be a problem. The Hornets spent every second he spent on the floor trying to pick on him. He had three fouls in his first eight minutes.

Then there was this as well…

https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1382130775567441920

His first game against the Miami Heat was not great on the defensive end either with bad rotations, but that was understood because of familiarity. This game was different.

Can McLemore shoot the rock? Absolutely, but if Ben wants minutes in the postseason, he is going to have to improve his defense. The games will slow down and better teams will find a way to isolate him on the defensive end. If his jumper is not falling, DNP-CDs will be in his future.

Andre Drummond.

It looks like the Charlotte Hornets paid their cable bill and watched Drummond’s performance in Brooklyn. What was worse, they saw what the Knicks did to defend him the night before. Doubling Andre has given him fits the last two nights. He’s got to get better because this will be the norm until the stars come back. he finished with the same amount of points as fouls with four.

The Los Angeles Lakers let more players no one has ever heard of explode!

In the Knicks loss, the Lakers allowed Elfrid Payton to score 20 points on 8-11 shooting. In this game, Jalen McDaniels was having a career night. He scored 16 points on 7-12 shooting!

The Martin twins Caleb and Cody, who have spent most of their Hornets tenure going back and forth down the I-85 and I-40 corridor to the Greensboro Swarm played good as well.

Caleb finished with 17 points while Cody had 6 points in limited action. Both had highlight dunks.

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

The Lakers shot well enough from the 3 point line and nailed their free throws!

This was a very evenly played game from both teams but in the end, the Lakers outperformed Charlotte from behind the arc. The Lakers hit 16-44 while the Hornets didn’t make one from long distance until the second half, finishing at 9-35.

Bottom line, if the Lakers continue to shoot near 90 percent from the line, this team will win a lot of games. The Lake Show hit an absurd 17-18 from the charity stripe adding up to 94.4 percent!

Alex Caruso in the last minute of the game!

With 40 seconds left in the game, here’s Alex Caruso’s list of accomplishments.

• He hits a huge 3 pointer with the shot clock running out to put the Lakers in a great position.
• He then locks up Devontae Graham at the other end forcing a miss and getting an important rebound to draw a foul.
• Steps to the free-throw line and knocks down both! 

If you are wondering why his teammates and coaching staff love him so much, this is why. Caruso finished with 13 points (4-6 shooting!), 6 assists, 2 rebounds and lockdown defense.

It’s been five years since Kobe Bryant played his last game!

This is how huge this game was. The Golden State Warriors had set a regular-season record for wins and they stopped to tune into what Kobe Bryant was doing to the Utah Jazz. This day marks five years since Kobe gave out his career portfolio and Google page scoring 60 points in his final game. Lake Show Life put together a special Lessons piece of that game.

Must read: Los Angeles Lakers: 3 Lessons from Kobe Bryant’s final game

We close this post-game out with some of Kobe Bryant’s best moments.  What he did to Ben Wallace, Steve Nash and Dwight Howard…

https://twitter.com/ThrowbackHoops/status/1381655959659970561

Mamba out.

Rest in Peace Kobe and Gianna Bryant along with the other passengers that passed in that helicopter crash that fateful day. The world misses you… still.