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

Don’t look now but the Los Angeles Lakers went into their matchup with the Sacramento Kings looking to extend their winning streak to three games. The Lake Show survived a serious challenge from the Minnesota Timberwolves without their best two players in Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell with a huge run late in the last five minutes. Despite Lake Show Life’s warnings that the small ball lineup wouldn’t be a long term solution…

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

LeBron James was back in the starting lineup at center but the philosophy did not last the whole game… thank goodness.

The last time these two teams played, the Kings went into the locker room at halftime with the lead. In the second half, the Lakers beat on Sacramento so badly that Kings’ head coach, Alvin Gentry, actually apologized for his team’s performance and stated that they deserved a better performance. While Lakers Nation wonder what team is going to show up each night, at least Frank Vogel doesn’t have sound bites like these after a loss…

"“If anybody needs me I’ll be at home drinking.”"

Well after a very questionable call late by the officials that turned into a jump ball, coach Gentry might be even more distressed. The Los Angeles Lakers allowed another second rate team to hang around for four quarters, but they eventually beat the Sacramento Kings 122-114. They now have a three-game winning streak for the third time this season with the Atlanta Hawks coming to town on Thursday. Better hope Trae Young isn’t still hot.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

So let’s see here…Dwight Howard is a big body that can rim protect and bang with centers. What a revelation!

The staff of Lake Show Life fully realizes that most of the damage Dwight Howard can bring to himself is self inflicted.

• Yes…he fouls players out to 30 feet.
• Yes…he gets tangled up needlessly drawing flagrant and technical fouls.
• Yes…he does lose focus at times on defense and drop easy passes on offense.  

But when he is focused and gets major minutes on the floor, he can really hurt opposing teams’ front lines. The Lakers were getting beat up on the boards before Vogel had no choice but to put him in the game. He exploded scoring points at the rim in the pick and roll and hitting the offensive boards.

In the first half alone, Dwight had 12 points (5-8 shooting!), 8 rebounds (4 offensive!) and a steal that led immediately to a fast break bucket from LeBron. Dwight finished with a double-double, collecting 14 points and 14 rebounds (7 offensive!).

Dwight Howard can turn into a “Dwightmare” at times and that is a foregone conclusion, but Frank Vogel needs to do a better job of reading the room when it comes to Dwight being able to contribute from night to night. If this Dwight shows up, let him play. If he doesn’t, then hand him one of the best seats in the arena to observe and think about his future.

Talen Horton-Tucker started to get on a roll after struggling for weeks!

Lakers fans seem to forget that Talen Horton-Tucker was one of the many players that was out with COVID-19. That’s a serious situation here folks. It took him a while to get his conditioning and rhythm back after playing a couple of good games immediately when he returned.

THT looked very good in the first half of this game scoring 13 points off the bench (6-8 shooting!) with 3 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal. Here’s what is huge in this scenario. He was in control and played within the offense instead of putting his head down and getting himself in trouble in the paint.

THT finished with 19 points (9-13 shooting!), 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals.

To the fans that want this guy traded…get over it and leave this guy alone. How’s Kyle Kuzma doing these days in Washington after all of that complaining about his play? Just saying…

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!

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

Malik Monk and LeBron James eventually knocked out the Sacramento Kings! 

The Los Angeles Lakers lose this game if these two guys don’t take over in final stretch. When the game was in the balance, Malik Monk continued to move without the ball and knock down huge shots from beyond the arc. Then LeBron James just abused Damian Jones to six fouls and a seat on the bench.

https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1478603222856077312

These two scored 25 crucial points in the fourth quarter to close the game out. LeBron James continues to play chess while the rest of the NBA plays checkers with a stat line of 31 points (12-26 shooting!), 5 rebounds and 5 assists with only two turnovers.

Sorry Skip Bayless…but this is the definition of closing out a ball game. He preserved his energy throughout the game allowing his teammates to get untracked in the first half. But when it was winning time, boy the Kings got sent back to that state’s capital with freshly minted King James business cards.

Malik Monk is officially a part of the “Big 3” as far as Lake Show Life is concerned. This dude is not afraid and LeBron James trusts him more than Russell Westbrook. He finished with 24 points (8-15 shooting with six 3 point shots!), 4 rebounds and 4 assists.

This dude has bailed the Lakers out just as many times as Carmelo Anthony has this season and it seems that Lake Show Life is one of the few that noticed. Stanley Johnson has not been signed to a deal yet. If they don’t sign him, that money had better go to this guy because he deserves a raise…not now but right now!

Would you believe that the Lakers have to play this team again this week? The NBA schedule needs work.