Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons in a playoff opening beating by the Suns

Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton sent limos for the Los Angeles Lakers!

(Writer’s note…Some readers inquired on the meaning of sending limos. That statement means certain players sent limousines to make sure opposing teams get to the arena safely so they can get their numbers!) 

This headline statement is especially meant for Dennis Schroder and Anthony Davis. The Suns had a ball running their pick and roll offense that either ended up with a Deandre Ayton dunk or put back or Devin Booker basket from all over the court. Both players dominated the game and outplayed the Lakers superstars.

Deandre Ayton:

Going into this series, most media outlets favored the Lakers to win this series. If anyone watched how Deandre Ayton played in the final regular-season matchup, they would know that Ayton was the reason why. His production was non-existent only taking two shots the whole game while being mired in foul trouble.

In this game, Ayton systematically destroyed the Lakers frontline.

Ayton looked like David Robinson against the Lake Show with a stat line of 21 points (10-11 shooting!), 16 rebounds (8 offensive!) with a block. The only miss he had, he rebounded and scored anyway. The 8 offensive rebounds led to 12 second chance points.

The Lakers let Ayton get comfortable in every facet of the game on both ends.

Devin Booker:

Booker is the type of player who tends to give the Lakers guards fits. He has the quickness and shooting skillset to bother the larger wings while being able to bully the guards down low in the post. He showed the entire offensive repertoire on Sunday.

L.A. has really good perimeter defenders in Alex Caruso and, to a lesser extent, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, but they tend to be overmatched against players with a little more size and strength.

The most extreme example of this obviously comes against the Clippers, but Booker is just big enough to give those two guards problems. His game is also predicated upon getting downhill, and Caruso and KCP are better on the perimeter than in the paint.

Booker put on a show with 34 points (13-26 shooting!) and 8 assists and 7 rebounds. When the Lakers hit him with the double team, he made sure to make the right play instead of forcing shots, a bad habit he has corrected over his career. His assists led to 19 more points for Phoenix.

As you can see the Phoenix Suns had the two best players on the floor in this game which is a disaster for the Los Angeles Lakers. For any chance of the Lake Show to get out of this series, LeBron James and Anthony Davis will have to flip this script starting on Tuesday night. Read on to see how LeBron James set the tone for this debacle before the game even started.