The Los Angeles Lakers survived two bullets by upsetting the Phoenix Suns on Sunday and surviving the New York Knicks in a marathon on Tuesday. The team lowered the championship banner in front a couple thousand fans as they took on the NBA’s worst team in the Houston Rockets without Anthony Davis and LeBron James.
The Los Angeles Lakers pulled off one of their best performances of the season against the New York Knicks winning by two points.
The next night, they followed it up with one of the most embarrassing performances winning by two points.
One night after Talen Horton-Tucker bailed the Lake Show out with a last second shot followed by a defensive stand, Kyle Kuzma (19 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists!) stepped up with a layup with 6.9 seconds left to survive the worst team in the NBA.
KYLE KUZMA PUTS THE LAKERS IN FRONT!@HoustonRockets 122@Lakers 123
— NBA (@NBA) May 13, 2021
6.9 remaining. HOU ball. pic.twitter.com/TBvgz1ndPy
Then Wesley Matthews for the second straight night makes his presence felt on the defensive end as the Lakers win 124-122. A franchise record 86 points in the paint sealed the deal.
A win’s a win right…right?
The Lakers played without their four primary ballhandlers/playmakers in this game.
- LeBron James: High ankle sprain (According to Yahoo Sports!, Chris B. Haynes, he returns Saturday!
- Anthony Davis: Groin tightness. (If anyone saw the previous game against the New York Knicks, it’s highly unlikely he was going to play anyway. He earned his rest!)
- Dennis Schroder: Still in NBA’s Health and Safety protocol.
- Alex Caruso: Foot contusion.
Mathematically, the Lakers still have a chance to get in the 6th seed (Psst! Not going to happen!).
The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:
The Lakers held Anthony Davis and LeBron James out for rest.
Bottom line, if the Los Angeles Lakers had lost to the Houston Rockets after basically running James Harden out of town to Brooklyn, they would have deserved every rock thrown at them for the next three days. The Rockets are basically waiting on NBA commissioner Adam Silver to announce the top four picks of the upcoming draft at this point. This is the most shameless tank job from this franchise since the Ralph Sampson/Akeem Olajuwon era back in the mid-80’s. This was the game to buy some time for the stars to get ready for the playoffs. If they fail to get out of the play-in tournament, they play in less than a week.
The Los Angeles Lakers went crazy after a slow start.
The Lakers looked like they were going to tempt fate by falling behind 16-11. Then the defensive alarm went off and they shut Houston down. They raced out to a 17-1 run (Extended to 20-5 overall!) and before anyone could blink the Lake Show was up 34-26 by the end of the quarter.
So (Checking the notes…) Markieff Morris plays well when he starts?
To be clear Markieff Morris had been terrible for weeks. Coming into the game, Morris had missed 27 of his last 28 shots from behind the arc. Then he gets in the starting lineup and states his case that the Lakers picked the right Morris twin.
He had 5 points (Hit a 3 pointer!) with 3 assists and 2 rebounds.
Keef was active on both ends and making plays?
Keef to Kentavious
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) May 13, 2021
(📺: @SpectrumSN) pic.twitter.com/v7zu3ZYSZs
Three first half fouls slowed Morris’ production. He finished with 14 points with 4 rebounds and 4 assists. Heshot 50 percent from behind the arc. BREAKING NEWS!
So (Checking the notes…) if Montrezl Harrell gets on the floor, he tends to score buckets!
If the Los Angeles Lakers do not make it out of the play-in tournament, Lakers fans do not have to look no further than the two games Frank Vogel was handing out DNP-CDs to Montrezl Harrell. If it wasn’t for Talen Horton-Tucker knocking down his last second shot against the Knicks, Vogel could have been on the hook for only playing Harrell five minutes.
Montrezl Harrell needs to be on the floor…PERIOD! Why? The man brings energy and buckets.
He hit his first four shots from the field before he even broke a sweat. He finished with 16 points.
Andre Drummond was one of the difference makers!
The Rockets front line was run over by Andre Drummond in this game. He finished with a double double scoring 20 points (9-13 shooting!) and 10 rebounds (3 offensive!). He flirted with foul trouble but go no more than four.
Talen Horton-Tucker was the other difference maker!
The New York game winner gave this guy a ton of confidence if he didn’t have enough already. The difference is this game is that THT cleaned up some of his floor game. He had his head up early collecting 5 assists in the first quarter. There was a “changing of the gears” in this game that Lakers fans don’t see very often. He finished with 23 points and 10 assists along with a huge steal at the last play of the game.
The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:
The second quarter!
The Los Angeles Lakers are notorious for having at least one bad quarter. The second frame applies here. The Lake Show allowed Houston to stick around giving up a 12-4 run.
The defense in the third quarter!
43 points? To a 16 win team with eight players in uniform? Carrying on…
The Lakers made Kelly Olynyk look like Larry Bird!
Kelly Olynyk was handing out business cards scoring 24 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists in only 25 minutes.
They allowed two players that no one has ever heard of to explode!
A show of hands Lakers fans…Anyone ever heard of Armoni Brooks? Anyone. If you don’t, that’s because he has only played 17 games prior to this one. He finished with 24 points.
How about Cameron Oliver? Yep, see this is his second NBA game. He was in Australia earlier THIS WEEK! He finished with 17 points.
The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:
To the Lake Show Life readers that has followed the Lessons series from a 37-45 debacle to last year’s summit…this is for you enjoy!
To much time passed between this…
And this…
"The road for back-to-back starts in about a week, so let's get going."
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 13, 2021
LeBron has his eyes on another championship 👀 pic.twitter.com/7aAeq6xNVH
Enjoy everyone, no matter what happens in the postseason, there are 29 other teams that did not have a celebration like this on this day.
Lakers Nation wait for the return of the superstars this weekend!
This season’s injuries to James and Davis have stalled the Lakers chances for back to back championships. LeBron has played in just 43 games this season, while Davis appeared in 34. With the Lakers closing their season out on the road at Indiana (May 15) and New Orleans (May 16), three solid days of treatment and rest is paramount.
Los Angeles stands one game behind Portland and Dallas for the sixth seed in the Western Conference standings. Both teams won their respective games (Both teams’ magic number is one!) so barring some unforeseen major issue from either squad, the Lakers will be in the play-in tournament.