Los Angeles Lakers small-ball lineup won’t hold up against contending teams

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

This LeBron James starting at center going forward is kind of cute. At least until the NBA Finals contenders come to town!

The staff of Lake Show Life celebrates this move because David Fizdale and Phil Handy came up with a scheme to at least mask some of the endless issues that this team faces. Who cares if this move works or not. At least the Lakers are trying which is a lot considering that Frank Vogel ran the same dull philosophy that anyone could read and react to before the Lakers even started to execute for 20 games.

It also shows that DeAndre Jordan and/or Dwight Howard will face one of these consequences.

• They will spend the rest of the season at the back end of the bench (Think Jared Dudley last year and Rajon Rondo this year up to this past weekend!).
• One of them will definitely be traded. Sure every Lakers fan will want Jordan gone, but no GM who wants their job is willing to gamble their millions in salary to make a deal for him? Look for Dwight to be dismissed.
• If DeAndre Jordan is cut outright, Lake Show Life can finally start talking about this team making it out of the play-in tournament. The Rondo trade saved $7 million off the salary cap with a $1.7 trade player exception. 

Now that LeBron James has decided to play center for the future even when Anthony Davis returns shows that Fizdale has some juice. Luckily, on offense, it works out great. LeBron goes nuts scoring and facilitating while THT, Malik Monk and yes, Russell Westbrook have room to operate in the paint. That’s the good…

Here’s the bad!

Lake Show Life has already discussed Naz Reid going off in this game, thanks to the coaching genius of Frank Vogel putting a smaller Stanley Johnson on him. But this is about LeBron James not being committed on the defensive end to play center. Get used to a lot of plays like what you saw above. Soon after. LeBron was seen arguing with Phil Handy before halftime (Video seen here!). 

The Los Angeles Lakers have gotten away with this matchup scheme for one reason…the teams they have played for the most part are bad. The Portland Trail Blazers gave a Google visual definition of how to lay down in a basketball game and the Minnesota Timberwolves missed their best big man in Karl Anthony Towns.

This will not work against NBA Finals contenders in the Western Conference like the Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz and the Golden State Warriors. LeBron is not committed on the defensive end enough to beat these teams with a small lineup.