Lakers get blown out at home by the Bulls: The good, bad and story

The Los Angeles Lakers started the “measuring stick” week by playing the last of their five-game homestand against the much improved Chicago Bulls. Afterward, they go on the road to play the NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday.

In this game, the season’s pendulum swung the other way as the Los Angeles Lakers got blown out by the Chicago Bulls 121-103. The game was not even as close as the final score indicated and the fans of Lakers Nation get another 48 hours of finger-pointing, making excuses about injuries and passing around ideas on who on the roster should be traded.

Anyone that paid any attention to this game should plainly see at this point that the Los Angeles Lakers do not have an offensive scheme. The Chicago Bulls ran their offense like a well-oiled machine while the Lakers wait for their official offensive system in LeBron James to return to the lineup.

Until this writer sees something different with some type of consistency, the offense is basically rolling the ball out and let LeBron, Russ or Rondo figure it out.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

Man…Russell Westbrook decided to make a “point” about his point guard play…early!

Russ came out hotter than baked clams in the first half. He even brought out that tired rock the baby to sleep gesture (Which is weak considering he’s shot enough bricks to build a baby room!) after shooting a jumper over Alex Caruso. He finished the half with a very solid 19 points on 8-14 shooting. On the surface, this looks very good considering Russell’s subpar shooting performances at times this year.

But if you read on, the staff of Lake Show Life will illustrate why some of us basketball types call this “Fool’s Gold”.

Talen Horton-Tucker is probably the only Laker that played with reckless abandon!

THT gets a special shoutout from Lake Show Life for not giving up in this game. He played hard and competed until the final buzzer. However, the staff agrees with Lakers announcer Stu Lantz on dunking the ball so hard after thumb surgery…

Outside of this misguided youthful exuberance, Talen led the Lakers with 28 points while adding 6 rebounds and 2 assists. He led the team with 3 point makes with four. The biggest takeaway is that this kid brings that Chicago toughness (Inner streetball hunger!) and swagger to this team that needs to be acknowledged. At this point now that the Lakers are wildly inconsistent, this guy will hand out the grit and grind every single game. It’s sad his performance was wasted.

The way the Los Angeles Lakers honored Alex Caruso in the first quarter!

The most overused narrative not only in sports but in business companies period is the word “family”. As much as other companies use the word as a punchline, the Los Angeles Lakers use it correctly and wear it as a badge of honor. They always give respect for each and every player that contributes to the franchise success and Alex Caruso was no different.

He did exactly what he did as a Laker…0 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and walked out happy with a win.