Lakers vs. Trail Blazers: Lakers won’t make the Finals with Frank Vogel

The Los Angeles Lakers went on the road to Portland to take on the Trail Blazers after embarrassing themselves again blowing a huge lead to the OKC Thunder. Let’s relive a statement from the postgame report from the Thunder loss…

• Los Angeles Lakers blow another one against the Oklahoma City Thunder

"This shot is telling…no one is afraid of the Los Angeles Lakers. Someone has to say it."

The Los Angeles Lakers lost their second straight game 105-90 in a game that wasn’t even that close. To put this in perspective, Portland scored 12 fourth-quarter points with their starters out. This game was lost in the first and third quarters.

Anthony Davis left the game after seven minutes with a stomach illness while the rest of the Lakers just made their fans sick with their lack of effort.

Lake Show Life gives the “Damian Jones” award to Sekou Doumbouya who scored 10 points on 4-4 shooting. To anyone that does not know who Damian Jones is, he’s the center that shot 16-17 from the field last year in a Lakers uniform only to be cut so Andre Drummond could be signed.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

Anfernee Simons and Norman Powell couldn’t hit a 3 point shot to save their lives!

Otherwise, the Lakers would have lost by 40 points.

Malik Monk shot better in this game!

Malik’s confidence had evaporated over the course of the last few games but in the second half, he started shooting the ball without worrying about being yanked for missing shots (Stars don’t play in blowouts right?) and started hitting a few.

He led the team in scoring with 13 points. That should tell you how bad this night was.

Carmelo Anthony competed in this game!

Yes, Los Angeles Lakers fans, a guy that has been in the NBA 19 years and was almost blackballed out was probably the only one that did not wilt in this game. Did he shoot well? No. But he tried to stay in front of his man and he fouled people if they attacked the rim. Something DeAndre Jordan should have been doing, but he spent most of the game trying to coach like he was part of a Dick Vitale video.

Melo was second on the team in scoring with 12 points.

The game ended.

Self-explanatory.

The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

The first quarter!

Usually the Los Angeles Lakers start slipping in the third quarter. In this game, it didn’t take the first ten minutes. The Portland Trail Blazers finished the quarter on a 24-4 run to lead 36-14. The energy was not there. They weren’t ready to play and the Blazers flat out punched them in the mouth. What damage Damian Lillard did to the Lakers from distance was matched by what Josuf Nurkic did in the paint.

Frank Vogel’s rotations!

Montrezl Harrell, Kyle Kuzma, Marc Gasol and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope are probably rolling over in their graves right now with these Los Angeles Lakers lineups and rotations. What part of Anthony Davis needs to start at center does this man miss? This is Andre Drummond being forced into the starting lineup situation that derailed this team last year. Just some questions…

• If Kent Bazemore goes scoreless in the first half alone and Damian Lillard smokes him bad enough to get out of a season-long slump…why is he out there?
• Why does Lakers fans have to suffer watching Russell Westbrook and Rajon Rondo on the floor taking turns throwing up bricks at any time?
• What is Austin Reaves doing (Feel free to speak on this in the comment section!) to warrant a spot so high in the rotation?   
• Has anyone noticed that Wayne Ellington is not ready for game action?  Granted he scored after the game was over, but he’s still out there allowing dribble penetration.
• Does Frank Vogel notice that opposing starting centers don’t just play well offensively, they don’t miss? The Lakers haven’t caused a starting center to miss in two full games! 

This could go on but the staff needs to save some other issues for Monday when the Lakers play the Charlotte Hornets.

Russell Westbrook…

Lake Show Life had a special debate article featuring McKinley Webb and Ricky Welch about if Russell Westbrook would fit with this team. If any disgusted Lakers fan is tired of Westbrook’s antics, this is a must-read. What you witnessed in this game was discussed in full in this article.

•  Los Angeles Lakers: Laker fans debate the Russell Westbrook trade

This round goes to McKinley Webb. 1-14 shooting, 8 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists and 6 turnovers. This writer was never a fan of Dennis Schroder, but this performance is worse than any bad game the Menace played last year by a country mile.

The book is out on Russ. NBA teams are not just allowing him to shoot anymore. They are basically smiling at him yelling “REBOUND…LET’S RUN!” as soon as he raises his arms to shoot.

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

The Los Angeles Lakers will lose if the opposing team has a high-level point guard and competent big man.

Place this above statement into your memory banks Lakers Nation because Lake Show Life will be the first media website to say this. The perimeter defense was always bad, but this game just showed how bad things will get if this team comes out with no energy or pride.

Damian Lillard had only 4 points the night before but had 10 points before he started to perspire (In other words, break a sweat!). The Blazers passed the ball around in the first quarter like they were doing drills in the morning shootaround.

The problems with this team has been so consistently obvious, the staff of Lake Show Life has to find different ways to express the same issues without being flagged for plagiarism.

The fact that that the staff can figure out roster issues and defensive breakdowns seemingly better than the Lakers coaching staff leads to only one thing the front office can do to save this season.

Fire Frank Vogel! If the Los Angeles Lakers won’t do it…cool. But this team will not win the NBA title with him as coach.   

Lake Show Life would like to give a special shoutout to one of our day one readers, Ricky Welch (Aka Slick) who makes a very good point stating for the record that as long as Jeanie Buss along with Kurt and Linda Rambis believe in Frank Vogel and the injury narrative he’s staying. The staff agrees based on the Luke Walton debacle years ago. If LeBron James and Magic Johnson couldn’t get him fired, Vogel can relax and sip Pina Coladas while this titanic sinks.

Until David Fizdale takes this team over and provides a spark that the veterans will respond to, this writer guarantees things will get worse (Does anyone really believe that LeBron will be out only one week? Seriously?) because the Oklahoma City Thunder losses have shown that this team really needs the King to function.

Which is sad considering they have enough talent to survive without him.

Take that for data!