Los Angeles Lakers end losing slide with win over Orlando Magic

The Los Angeles Lakers were facing a must-win in Orlando after getting swept in a two-game series against the Dallas Mavericks. After starting strong the Lakers fell asleep and allowed the Magic to stick around, but pulled away to a much-needed win. 

The Los Angeles Lakers ended their three-game losing streak by beating the Orlando Magic 114-103. At numerous points in this game, everyone involved would have been more entertained watching LeBron James workout clips on Instagram. At this point, the Lake Show Life staff wants LeBron back more than the fans do.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

Anthony Davis is starting to get untracked!

It was understood (At least to people that actually know basketball!) that it would take a few games for Anthony Davis to get his rhythm and timing back. This game against the Magic was the start of something big.

After shooting only 24 percent from the field in his first two games, AD came out smoother and crisper knocking down his first three shots. He finished with 18 points and 8 rebounds.

The words “aggravated” and “setback” IS NOT a part of his analysis. AD is getting it together fans…book it.

Man what Montrezl Harrell did to Mo Bamba…

The Los Angeles Lakers would have won on Saturday night if Montrezl Harrell had played. You don’t have to go any farther than the energy Trezl brought in the third quarter for proof. He basically bullied a 7′ plus Mo Bamba so badly that he might get a call from the NBA office.

Harrell destroyed Bamba and brought the offense to life.

This play turned the game around. Harrell finished with 18 points.

The Orlando Magic are on the clock waiting for Adam Silver to hopefully say “For the first pick of the NBA Draft, the Orlando Magic select…”  

The Los Angeles Lakers were in no danger of losing this game. Seriously. This post-game report could have been written immediately after the Dallas report on Saturday night.

• Los Angeles Lakers get swept in two-game series with Dallas Mavericks

The Orlando Magic are tanking unapologetically looking for ping pong balls to get the number one pick on July 29th. That’s all, that’s it. This game looked like it was a contractual obligation to Bally Sports to have at least 70 games on their air to honor a television contract.

The most hilarious part of the game was when the Magic commentators mentioned that Orlando had trouble scoring the basketball after the trade deadline. Oh really? Then the team scored 16 points in the first quarter.

They have either traded or released…

• Nikola Vucevic
• Aaron Gordon
• Khem Birch

Those three are the Magic’s biggest and/or most talented players on the team. Throw in Terrence Ross not playing for some reason (Back spasms?), this was supposed to be a classic 1…2…3 Cancun performance.

The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

The second quarter.

This team is notorious for at least one bad quarter a game. If you thought the final quarter against the Mavericks was bad. How about the second quarter of this one?

• The Lakers gave up a 31-13 Magic run, blowing a 16-point lead to fall behind 47-41. The Orlando Magic shot 11-13 from the field during that stretch.
• Then Chuma Okeke inbounded the ball to himself (Refs blew the call!). Eventually Gary Harris got fouled on a 3-point attempt by Kyle Kuzma. Harris hit all three free throws to push the deficit to 50-43.
• The Lakers gave up 40 points in total.

All of this against an Orlando squad that’s currently playing 5 rookies.

The Los Angeles Lakers defense is slowly getting worse.

Lake Show Life is going to let Lakers fans in on a secret. Analytics can really skew reality in NBA basketball. The best version of this year is the narrative about the Lakers’ defense. Are they one of the top defenses in the NBA? Yes. If that wasn’t the case, the team would be sporting a 17 game losing streak instead of three.

But they are not the top defense in the NBA. Broadcasters can keep saying it over and over…they are wrong.

The slippage from the previous game continued into this one as the Magic got the shots they wanted and every time the Lakers made mistakes, there was a price.

By the way, to anyone that is wondering who is the top team? The New York Knicks.

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

Ben McLemore, Montrezl Harrell and Dennis Schroder closed this game out.

The fourth quarter played out in three parts.

• Ben McLemore knocked down consecutive 3 point shots to start the quarter.
• Montrezl Harrell spread his chaos from Mo Bamba to the rest of the Orlando Magic roster. By the end of the game, all of the players were wary of him.
• Dennis Schroder flipped the switch and gashed the Orlando defense with his mid-range game. 13 points in the final frame.

In short, the Lakers flipped the switch after going through the motions for 24 minutes straight.

Good teams find ways to win and bad teams find ways to lose. 

The Los Angeles Lakers are the defending World Champions and the Orlando Magic is doing exactly what was mentioned earlier.

Despite what you have read. The last part is the most important.

The Los Angeles Lakers need LeBron James back ASAP!

The reports are getting stronger that the Lakers will be getting LeBron James back sometime next week. That time can’t come fast enough. Lakers fans, Lake Show Life is warning everyone to get over this narrative of “Oh, everything will be fine when AD and LeBron get back in the lineup.” 

Basketball does not work that way as Stephen A. Smith discusses on First Take. A must listen

The Lakers struggled against a very bad Orlando team. But at this point, this team needs any win they can get.