LeBron James and the Lakers run past the Magic: The good, bad and story

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

Well low and behold, Frank Vogel played the matchups instead of his philosophy!

It is almost comical at this point that Frank Vogel continues force-starting lineups with AD at the center spot down his and the rest of the Lakers Nation’s throats. Dwight Howard started in this game and he made a major impact in spurts during this game. What a concept. The Lakers are bigger than the Magic and they took advantage of it.

Then Jordan continued the concept of “You can’t coach seven feet” to give the young Orlando team something to think about. There were times in this game, especially the third quarter where they really were intimidated.

The Magic players’ head was on a swivel every time they drove to the basket. Plus when they were looking for the big centers, it gave LeBron time to catch them from the weak side to block their shots which he did three times like this one.

The centers were great rim protectors that slowed down the guard penetration. No one is saying to run this rotation every game, but if the matchups call for a big lineup…USE IT!

Russell Westbrook…

For the Westbrook apologists and advanced stats folks that watch box scores instead of games, Russell Westbrook finished with 19 points (9-18 shooting!), 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Yippee. But here’s a quote from long-time Lake Show Life reader Corky Carroll after the OKC Thunder game…

"…am I wrong when I notice that Dr. Russ and Mr Westbrick are back, how many turnovers from him in that game? How many against the Grizz, 6? As much as I wanna like him, and I do want to, he is just driving me nuts with his bi-polar basketball."

Well, Corky, to answer your question…nope. He had five turnovers in this game and was terrible in the first half with some turnovers you would see in a little league YMCA game.

Hopefully, he didn’t injure himself at the end of the first half when he crashed into the banister, there is an opening at the bottom of those and NBA players have been seriously hurt in the past.

But that being said…

The man has to start playing consistent basketball. He’s had enough time to figure it out and everyone should be tired of the excuses at this point. He looks lost in the offense and it’s rare that he even runs offensive sets anymore.

The message is clear from the staff of Lake Show Life…this is going to get ugly when the Lakers play the real contenders.

The Lakers play the Dallas Mavericks next.