Lake Show Life
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LeBron James continues to wear down in Lakers loss to Timberwolves

By Ronald Agers

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MARCH 16: LeBron James #6 of the Los Angeles Lakers wipes his face in the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center on March 16, 2022 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Timberwolves defeated the Lakers 124-104. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MARCH 16: LeBron James #6 of the Los Angeles Lakers wipes his face in the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center on March 16, 2022 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Timberwolves defeated the Lakers 124-104. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by David Berding/Getty Images) – Los Angeles Lakers
(Photo by David Berding/Getty Images) – Los Angeles Lakers /

The Los Angeles Lakers went back on the road to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves who are currently in the seventh seed in the Western Conference. The Lakers are basically moonwalking into the play-in tournament almost by default. If the Portland Trail Blazers and San Antonio Spurs didn’t have their bags packed for Cancun while angling for lottery pick position (Also read: tanking!), the Lake Show season finale would be April 10th.

Usually winning basketball starts with an important concept of getting off to a good start. A solid start to a game lays the foundation for success that can be sustained for four quarters. This is a concept that has been lost on the Los Angeles Lakers this week.

In the last two outings against the Phoenix Suns and the Toronto Raptors, the Lakers have been outscored by a combined 47 points in just the first quarter alone. This number is hard to imagine but here’s a break down of how it happened.

  • The defense gave up 48 points to the Suns on Sunday night.
  • The offense had a terrible start against the Raptors, managing just 12 points in the initial period (Oh the Lakers gave up 33 points too!).
  • But oh that 3 point shooting! Over the last 2 first quarters, they’ve managed to make just 1 shot from the land of the extra point on 23 attempts in the combined 24 minutes. 

It didn’t get much better in the first 12 minutes of this game as the Lakers shot a near flat-lined 28.6 percent from the field in the first quarter spotlighted by a 0-10 performance behind the arc. How bad was it? Talen Horton-Tucker knocked down a beautiful fadeaway 3 pointer in the left corner with less than a second in the first frame only for it to be wiped away because he stepped out of bounds.

Despite two huge runs to make things close at the start of the fourth quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers got blown out…again…124-104. They have now lost three straight, eleven straight on the road and there are not many more ways to say that the Los Angeles Lakers are a bad team with no visible ways of getting better.

Sorry.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

The Los Angeles Lakers did not come out with this starting lineup! 

What’s even better is that Dwight Howard returned to the team after a family emergency kept him out of the Toronto game on Monday night. The staff of Lake Show Life continues to send well wishes to him and his family.

The NBA has caught up to the small ball schemes of the Lakers because all they have to do is dare them to shoot from the 3 point line and yell rebound before breaking out on a fast break!

Sadly, it didn’t matter because Dwight got in foul trouble in the first half and the collapses started as IF the small-ball lineup was used.

The third quarter!

Lakers fans, this was a totally different post-game report based on the first 24 minutes of the game. Minnesota was killing the Lakers. But the Lake Show obviously looked in a mirror at halftime because they showed some heart led by Carmelo Anthony, Austin Reaves and LeBron James.

The Lakers carved into a huge 77-46 halftime deficit by riding two huge runs on 20-6 and 7-1 to outscore the Timberwolves 31-19 to get back into the game. They dropped six 3 point shots in the quarter after shooting 2-21 for the first half.

https://twitter.com/SpectrumSN/status/1504276744878002178

Carmelo Anthony showed some heart! 

Maybe it’s the New York bias or understanding how badly Carmelo was messed over when he was out of the NBA for two seasons, but he was the one that really was trying in the first half when the Lakers were getting their doors blown off. He’s doing the best he can, but he couldn’t have signed up for leaning on centers and power forwards every night.

He finished with 16 points and 3 rebounds. He passed the eye test of players that didn’t let go of the rope in the first 24 minutes. If he doesn’t compete, maybe the Lakers don’t go on a run in the second half.

Karl Anthony Towns got in foul trouble.

KAT was in foul trouble pretty much most of the game and he still dropped 30 on the Lakers. Considering he scored 60 in the Spurs, just think what COULD have happened if foul trouble hadn’t slowed him? He probably could have made a run at Kobe’s 81.

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