The Los Angeles Lakers started their Grammys trip on the road playing the Orlando Magic. The story to be honest is not what’s happening on the floor but in the front office. The Lakers found a new meaning to the term rock bottom by being beat at home by the Indiana Pacers a couple of nights ago, but that term perfectly illustrates the Russell Westbrook situation.
The storylines about Russell Westbrook being benched to close the game out have brought out opinions that are almost laughable at this point. The Lakers Nation blame game contestants at this point are Lakers head coach, Frank Vogel, who is on a game to game evaluation that makes no sense and Russell Westbrook a $44 million player that Kendrick Perkins actually went on a sports television show explaining why Russ should come off the bench…
Russell Westbrook’s former teammate @KendrickPerkins says it’s time for a change in LA 👀
— First Take (@FirstTake) January 21, 2022
“It’s time for Russell Westbrook to come off the bench.” pic.twitter.com/3Ll7uYXMit
The drama is so bad at this point, Russell Westbrook sat down for an interview with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski to speak on his continued commitment to the team.
"“We obviously haven’t been fully healthy, but I’m committed to making this thing work. The communication is there with everybody in the organization to make this thing work, to make this team we all want it to be in the future.” “Everybody is trying to figure out what to do and how to do it. I try to put my head down and do the best that I can do for our team, and whatever is asked of me, I try to do it to the best of my ability. That’s all I’ve been trying to do since I got here.”"
To anyone that watched the entire 48 minutes of this game, the Lake Show Life staff gives you kudos for loyalty because the quality of basketball in this one could cure insomnia at times. It was ugly folks.
The Los Angeles Lakers were down eight points at the half, but dogged the Orlando Magic on defense in the second half giving up only 47 points to win 116-105.
The Lakers are back at .500…again.
The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:
LeBron James continues to put up monster numbers in the first half…But is this a good thing anymore?
It sounds kind of strange to say LeBron James lit the Orlando Magic up for 18 points while using the entire repertoire of basketball moves while staying efficient. But Lake Show Life will explain why this could be an issue when the Lakers fell down double digits in the first half and was behind 62-54 at the break.
This is possibly a trap that the Lakers continue to fall into. Elite NBA teams can live with LeBron scoring 30-35 points a night, but if it’s 40-45 percent of the entire team’s total, that means no one else is contributing offensively with any consistency. It wasn’t until Melo got to the party late (Much more on him later!) that the Lakers got going.
LeBron dropped 29 points (12-23 shooting!) and added 7 rebounds, 5 assists with a block. He is now the fourth Lakers player to score 25+ points in at least 16 consecutive games, joining Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and Elgin Baylor.
The last 45 seconds of the first half and the start of the second half!
This stretch was almost a carbon copy of the last game against Orlando. The Magic was up three points at the half before the Lake Show ran them out of the gym. Well here’s the sequel in Florida.
The Lakers were down ten points with less than a minute to go before Westbrook raced the length of the floor for a layup. In the second half, the focus came back and the Magic got rolled over again with a Lakers quick 9-0 run before anyone broke a sweat to take the lead back. The Lakers outscored the Magic 31-16 in the third quarter and held Orlando to 5-19 from the field.
They played the Orlando Magic.
There’s a reason the Magic are 8-38 this season coming into this game. The displayed it in the second half as the Lakers blew their doors off for the second time this season. Cole Anthony was especially bad scoring only 4 points and didn’t score a basket until the fourth quarter.