The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:
The end of the second half!
The explosive start masked these issues of the bad matchups that were evident from the “small ball” lineup put together by Frank Vogel (More on that in a second!). After a slow Hawks start where they turned the ball over like Russell Westbrook in red and yellow, the Hawks cleaned up their act enough to finish the first half on a 27-11 run. They allowed Trae Young to get untracked by not getting back on defense allowing penetration and their pick-and-roll defense has been bad for so long that Lakers Nation is numb to it.
The rebounding!
This part of the analysis is going to be skewed slightly because the Los Angeles Lakers couldn’t miss at times shooting the basketball. However, the rebounding discrepancy kept the Hawks close despite playing very sloppy at times throughout the game.
Lake Show Life has made it clear that playing LeBron James at center is STRICTLY an offensive concept. LeBron’s dominant offensive run is supposed to supplement the defense by outscoring the opposing center. On the defensive side, however, the entire team has to do a better job of gang rebounding.
The Lake Show was outrebounded 53-47
Russell Westbrook’s steady decline…
Lake Show Life has a brand new handbook for all of the Los Angeles Lakers fans that are almost done with the lack of production from Russell Westbrook. Six pages of information for you to cope with for the rest of this season and the next. Instead of trying to explain the same thing over and over again. Please refer to the manual.
Look for an explosive outburst from Russ very soon.