Los Angeles Lakers: 5 Lessons in a huge season series loss to Portland

The Los Angeles Lakers are running out of time in the season and was facing a must-win matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers. A loss would cost the Lakers the season series. Then the Lake Show would have to finish with a better record than the Blazers and Dallas Mavericks.

Lake Show Life breaks down what else happened in Lake Show Life Lessons! The only Los Angeles Lakers extended post-game report with in-depth analysis and highlights.

The Los Angeles Lakers will probably be in the Inaugural NBA’s Play-In Tournament sponsored by State Farm starting on May 18th until the 21st. After losing the season series to the Dallas Mavericks a couple of weeks ago, the Lakers lost the season series to the Portland Trail Blazers 106-101.

Lake Show Life Lessons starts early with the rules of the tournament if the season ended today theoretically.

• The Lakers are the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference, which puts them in position for a play-in game with the No. 8 seed.
• The Trail Blazers now own the tiebreaker with the Lakers, meaning that if they both end the regular season with the same record, Portland would go into the playoffs as the higher seed.
• The Lakers don’t own the tiebreaker with the Dallas Mavericks either and the Mavericks currently have a two-game cushion on the No. 7 seed.

Now if there are Lakers fans that really want to be a part of the band that plays the music on this Titanic of a season (Does anyone know Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’?) continues to sink, here’s some hope.

• Over their last five games, the Trail Blazers will play the Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns, and Denver Nuggets. We at Lake Show Life suggest you watch NBA League Pass and become fans of those teams.
• Meanwhile, the Lakers have to take care of business against the Suns and the New York Knicks while not falling asleep against Houston, Indiana and New Orleans.

Some major storylines from this game.

Alex Caruso showed more heart than any other Laker not named Anthony Davis!

The Lakers had better find some money for this guy, because he deserves it. He’s the last point guard on the bench and probably should have sat out with a foot contusion. He chased Damian Lillard all over the court trying to slow him down and still found time to score a season-high 18 points.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1390885516627779592

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope just refuses to shoot the ball!

If you look at the box score and see 17 points on 5-9 shooting, you would think KCP shot well. Here’s the problem. He was shooting 4-5 in the first half! In crunch time, he flat out passed up open shots. KCP has to be the greatest shooter in NBA history with the worst self-confidence. If he had Ben McLemore’s mindset, he’d be averaging 25 points a night.

Frank Vogel is out of answers. 

Read this quote via Lakers reporter Mike Trudell…before the game.

"“I’m not afraid of the play-in tournament with this team, we can beat anybody … but we definitely want to be in the Top 6.”"

Now after the game…

"Vogel said the Lakers can’t focus too much on the standings. They’ll try to win as many games as they can, but they’re in an adjustment phase, like they’ve been most of the year, without key players. Get LeBron/Schroder back healthy, and they’re confident regardless of opponent."

Need a translation? LeBron…HELP!

This statement will be mentioned a few times throughout this post-game report.

Montrezl Harrell, the reigning NBA Sixth Man of the Year coming off a 14-point 4th quarter against the Los Angeles Clippers, did not see the floor in this game.

To the new Los Angeles Lakers fans that are checking us out for the first time, welcome to Lake Show Life Lessons. Our extended post-game report with video analysis will cover the progress for the Los Angeles Lakers the entire season!

Over the next several pages we will provide highlights of certain players and coaches. Afterward, the comment section is loaded with knowledgeable fans adding their basketball knowledge. We usually start with the stars.

Let’s get to Lesson One to find out who!