It has been a rough season for the Los Angeles Lakers. The last month in particular they found themselves fighting for a playoff spot in the play-in tournament, something deemed inconceivable at the start of the 2020/21 campaign, yet injuries have derailed the NBA champions’ expectations for the season.
Luckily they managed to pull together a much-needed winning streak down the stretch, defeating the Golden State Warriors in their first (and only) play-in game and getting a ticket for the playoffs.
If the last month was a trying time for the Los Angeles Lakers, it was a true roller-coaster for Kyle Kuzma.
After a rare healthy (for a Lakers player) and productive season, through the last stretch, Kuzma’s positive trend turned in a hiccup of great and bad performances. One night he is an All-Star, the other he is a veteran-minimum contributor.
The scoring column in his box score in consecutive games since April 28 says 11, 2, 24, 6, 25, 4, 23, 19, 6, 8. His shooting has been mostly erratic, culminating with an 0-for-6 from three in a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on May 7.
Things did not get better in the postseason. Quite the opposite.
In the play-in game, he scored just six points in 22 minutes of action and it went downhill since.
The Lakers have found themselves facing the second-seed Phoenix Suns in the first round of the 2021 playoffs, but Kuzma has yet to show up in the series.
Zero points in Game 1, two points in Game 2, eight in Game 3. We finally saw a timid reaction from the 25-year-old in Game 3 with 11 points, but still on an awful 1-for-5 from the arc and a -13 plus/minus. Far from great.
Losing Anthony Davis in the first half, the Lakers desperately needed someone to make up for the vacuum left on the scoring board. That is the moment the All-Star Kuzma would be most helpful but failed to show up.
With Davis’s injury and his availability in the air, several Lakers will have to step up to cover his production if they want to survive. As one of the better scorers on the wing for the team, Kyle will absolutely be at the top of the list of the expected contributors from now on in the series.
There is going to be pressure on him. The Lakers cannot win if the other offensive threats, Kuzma and co., do not provide the scoring load Davis used to carry by himself.
Tough times are made for tough people. This series is going to be a big test for the Los Angeles Lakers to understand if they really have what it takes to repeat, and we are going to see if Kyle Kuzma will be able to take the challenge and live up to the expectations.
There is no better time than now to elevate his game, as he did in the regular season with LeBron James and AD out with injuries, and show that he is a valuable member of a team with championship aspirations.