The Los Angeles Lakers looked to gain momentum from the Portland Trail Blazers beatdown on Friday with a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves without their superstar, Karl Anthony Towns, who is currently in the NBA Health and Safety protocols.
The Los Angeles Lakers went STRICTLY small ball placing LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony at center with enough success to outlast the Minnesota Timberwolves 108-103. The win gives the Lake Show a two-game winning streak with the Sacramento Kings coming to town on Tuesday.
The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:
Malik Monk is that cat the Los Angeles Lakers will love this season but may have to say goodbye to…
Lake Show Life has made it clear that Malik Monk was one of the better pickups over the summer. Even though the Russell Westbrook and DeAndre Jordan signings will be criticized by some (Okay…a whole bunch!) people but Rob Pelinka deserves a ton of credit for getting a very athletic young scorer into the fold for the minimum.
https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1477835913828864003
Malik Monk finished with 22 points (8-14 shooting!) in 33 minutes.
For all of the fans that criticized David Fizdale for his record while Frank Vogel was out, it is clear that you haven’t been watching the games. It was Fizdale and fellow assistant coach, Phil Handy that gave him more freedom on the court instead of focusing on his defensive weaknesses on the court. Monk was struggling early in the season due to Vogel’s rotations and quick hooks when he missed a rotation on defense.
Malik Monk is making millions of dollars with each game he plays. The Lakers will have to pony up some money if they want to keep him. He’s that electric and he is coming into his own.
Now that he has confidence in his game, Lik’ Lik’ is gaining some chemistry playing with a certain superstar the Lakers have on their roster…
LeBron James is destroying the NBA analytically and with the eye test!
Enjoy the ride Los Angeles Lakers fans because this might be the last time that LeBron James plays at this sustained level of brilliance with high efficiency. For the month of December, he leads the entire NBA in points scored and has dominated all of the individual stats leading the Lakers in multiple categories over the season. Sure everyone will look at the 30 point games coming into this one…
DOMINANT 👑 pic.twitter.com/3VAg0k5CNP
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 3, 2022
But it’s bigger than that. He has made sacrifices (How much he’s willing will be discussed later!) by moving from primary ball-handler to center to open up the offense. In this game, sure he got his numbers but it was his defense and leadership in crunch time that helped the Lakers get over the hump.
LeBron finished with 26 points (7-15 shooting!), 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and a block. What’s more important is that he has only one turnover in the last two games. With Russell Westbrook’s point guard play (Much more on that later!), this is what is slowly turning the Lakers’ fortunes around.
Bottom line…Carmelo Anthony and Avery Bradley bailed the Lakers out with timely baskets in crunch time!
Both players scored 14 points in this game but to understand the importance of how these two played when it counted one had to watch the game and not the box scores.
Carmelo Anthony…
Melo for some reason loves the Crypto.com arena lights because he plays target practice under them. His four-point play (Video here) highlighted yet another fourth-quarter explosion with timely shots when the team needed them. He added another 3 point shot making Naz Reid fly by so badly that the Timberwolves had to sit him down because of matchup problems. This is the third game this season Carmelo has had timely shooting to help the Lakers avoid disaster.
Avery Bradley.
The Los Angeles Lakers had better find some of that money that they opened up in the Rajon Rondo trade to sign Avery Bradley and guarantee his money. Sure he hit a huge shot at the end of the shot clock in the fourth quarter, but his timely defense getting steal after steal late got this Lakers team the win.
Message to Rob Pelinka…Go ahead and mess with this guy’s money if you want because the Golden State Warriors will sign him guaranteed if you mess this up. If they do, there is no chance the Lakers beat them in the playoffs.
The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:
Russell Westbrook…
To make this point, we have to take you fans back to the Christmas Day game against the Brooklyn Nets. Remember when Russ shot 4-20 and single-handedly stymied that great Lakers comeback by ignoring LeBron James when he was in a zone for a driving dunk that was blocked by the rim? Then he left the arena for David Fizdale and LeBron to defend him?
This game was worse.
Russell Westbrook had seven turnovers in the first half. No this is not a typo. No this is not copied from the other 25 post-game reports pointing out that this is some of the worst point guard play since Smush Parker. Maybe Carlos Huerta? Jeremy Lin? If anyone has a worse player…there’s a comment section below.
For the Russell Westbrook apologists bringing up the triple-double streak, the Lake Show Life staff has a question… Are ten turnovers acceptable for an NBA point guard? College? Overseas? AAU? YMCA? Remember those toy Dr. J basketball goals for little kids? Just asking.
Who told Frank Vogel that it was a good idea to guard a professional NBA center with Stanley Johnson?
To be clear here, this is far from an indictment for Stanley Johnson. He has done a very nice job providing energy on the defensive end that hasn’t been seen all year. He will be signed soon to a contract.
However…
Naz Reid is an undersized center. He’s 6’9 and 264 pounds. Stanley Johnson is an undersized power forward. He’s 6’6 242 pounds. See the picture? Stanley can’t guard Naz. Simple physics. Now let’s get to common sense. If this is such a bad matchup, why not send a double team against a Minnesota team full of non-shooters? Well, the Lakers allowed Reid to go off for 17 points in the first half and was the main reason why the defense broke down for most of the game. Speaking of defense…
Rebounding.
With the small-ball lineup, there has to be some discipline on finishing possessions defensively. Man the Lakers haven’t figured out that concept yet. The Minnesota Timberwolves got 20 offensive rebounds in this game. Throw in Russ’ turnovers all over the place helps illustrate why the Timberwolves stayed close throughout the game.
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!
17 in the half for Naz 👀 pic.twitter.com/QAhAojstBR
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) January 3, 2022
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.