Lakers vs Kings: Malik Monk kicks Russell Westbrook out of LA’s “Big 3”

The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

The interior defense of the Los Angeles Lakers in the first quarter!

Sometimes the staff of Lake Show Life wonders why the Lakers coaching staff doesn’t use these post-game reports. This part of the site is getting to the foreshadowing stage like this snippet from the story of the last article…

"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.  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."

Sacramento was abusing the Lakers at times in the first quarter. The Kings frontline was so dominant at times that Frank Vogel inserted Dwight Howard into the lineup earlier than anyone could ever expect. The Lakers need a rim protector badly and even though LeBron James was abusing poor Damian Jones on the offensive end, this is just a gimmick scheme that is not championship material.

Did anyone pass on to Frank Vogel that Buddy Hield and D’Aaron Fox can shoot?  

Sure Lake Show Life picks on Frank Vogel a little…okay we do it on the regular…ALL RIGHT! We do it a lot! But it’s situations like this that drive the staff nuts!

Buddy Hield and D’Aaron Fox destroyed the Lakers in the triple-overtime loss earlier this season. Why not put together a scheme to make it tough for these guys? Vogel is the defensive coach right?

Fox and Hield torched the Lakers combining for 56 points on the strength on nine shots from the land of the extra point.

Open invitation to the Lakers…hand me $1 million, a condo and a car to get to the arena and I will let this writing thing go and help you guys out. If a writer from a Lakers website can see these things…seriously, what’s the problem?

Russell Westbrook…

We have a correction here at Lake Show Life. Russell Westbrook did not have ten turnovers as previously reported. He only had nine. But see this is why the staff know there are cracks showing in Westbrook’s confidence…

"“My game is not predicated on shots or if I turn the ball over. Like, I miss some shots, that’s part of the game. I’m allowed to miss shots. I can do that. Like any other player, I can do that. I can turn the ball over, too. I can do that. That’s all a part of the game…When you watch a basketball game and figure out what impact making the right plays, boxing out, rebounding, whatever that may be, making the right play, making the right reads, that’s all about being a basketball player.”"

Lake Show Life is working on an in-depth feature on Russell Westbrook that we believe it will garner the same amount of attention as the debate piece that featured day one readers, McKinley Webb (Aka Kinfolk) and Ricky Welch (Aka Slick)…

MUST READ: Los Angeles Lakers: Laker fans debate the Russell Westbrook trade

To understand why he is on the bad part of this game goes way past the box scores. It goes past maybe even the eye test. There are smaller clues that show that Russ is being slowly iced out of the important part of the offense. Need evidence? Okay…

• Five minutes into the game, Vogel took him out and sat him down.
• He started the game 1-7 shooting from the floor.
• LeBron had the ball in his hand A TON!
• Anyone remember Russ in crunch time outside of those three missed free throws late? 

Yes, these post-game reports are worlds different from other Lakers sites because we pay attention and provide insight into the future. Russ is getting the ball taken out of his hands folks. The Lakers are fed up. Give him credit for not turning the ball over one time in this game, but that tends to happen when your usage rate falls through the floor.

For the record, he scored 19 points (19 shots to get there!) with only two assists. He had 7 rebounds but now let’s watch his attitude change over the next month because now he has no choice but to take a backseat role to other players on nights like these.

To quote Mama Agers…Watch our smoke!