Lakers crack the Russell Westbrook code in season’s first win

The Los Angeles Lakers found themselves as the last team in the NBA looking for a win coming into Sunday’s matchup against the Denver Nuggets. After the Sacramento Kings defeated the Miami Heat, the rest of the NBA teams now look at Lakers’ matchups not wanting to be the first team to get the Lake Show off the snide.

Before the game, the Los Angeles Lakers honored their first superstar in franchise history, George Mikan, by retiring his jersey.

The Los Angeles Lakers got their first win of the season beating the Denver Nuggets 121-110. Win lose or draw, the Lakers finally seem to be going in the right direction. Multiple players contributed in this game offensively which finally matched the outstanding defense for a change.

If the Lake Show Life staff included in the post-game report that LeBron missed his first six shots with multiple blown layups, most would think that this game would be a blowout right? Nope. A strong start by Anthony Davis bought him some time to get his stuff together for 26-point night with 8 assists and 6 rebounds.

Zion Williamson and New Orleans Pelicans are up next on Wednesday night. No Brandon Ingram, who is out with a concussion.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win: 

Anthony Davis might be the most dominant player in the NBA when it comes to the first quarter!

With all of the issues the Los Angeles Lakers have this year, it is very hard to find consistent bright spots to start this season. But quietly AD is really starting out of the gate well in games when he gets the ball.

Davis was wearing out the Nuggets early in the first stanza with 11 points early. He looked loose despite dealing with back issues. He didn’t stand out at the 3-point line shooting needless shots, but instead got to his sweet spots and put the ball in the basket. He finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds (Six offensive!) with a much better effort against Nikola Jokic.

Russell Westbrook has decided to fight for his NBA career!

This game could be the start of something big! Darvin Ham or somebody on that coaching staff reminded Russ that starting a game is nice, but closing out games in the final five minutes is the goal. By accident, the Lakers may have solved their bench-scoring problems while Westbrook is slowly gaining his rhythm and confidence back.

Russ is providing energy and pace to a team that really needs it when both LeBron and AD have lulls in offensive production. It starts with letting Russ cook against the opponent’s second unit, then he gets comfortable enough to expand to other areas of his game.

Russ finished with 18 points, 8 rebounds (Four offensive!) and 8 assists.

This is far and away his most impactful game of the season.

The Los Angeles Lakers scored more points than their opponent in the third quarter! 

This is breaking news Lakers Nation. This team has been atrocious coming out of the halftime break basically losing games in the third quarter. In this game, the Lakers blitzed the Nuggets with a 38-point third quarter to actually have a lead going into the final quarter for the first time this season!

It bears repeating…

The Los Angeles Lakers won an NBA basketball game!

The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win: 

Who cares? The Los Angeles Lakers won an NBA basketball game!

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

The support players actually shot the ball!!!

There was an interesting comment made about the analysis after the Minnesota game. Let’s relive it…

"The Los Angeles Lakers guards (Not named Russell Westbrook!) are scared to shoot!These shots from all of these players are widely spread out. Open shots (ESPECIALLY FOR BEVERLEY!) are being passed up. They are not being aggressive enough for anyone to worry about them. Lonnie Walker IV just had an off night, it happens, but if these guys don’t take the open shots and pass, it doesn’t mean anything. It hurts the offense."

Now here’s the comment that was made by one of our readers…

"An indication of how bad this team is was having the author praise Westbrook for shooting 31%! (“Hey! That was a nice pass!!!) Oh well. At least “He Who Shall Remain Nameless” avoided any blame…again. I’m not from LA but I feel bad for the fans. And worse days are coming."

This is actually NOT a trolling statement here because on the surface, Russ shot 6-17 from the floor and still played well. However, let’s break down why this dynamic won the game for the Los Angeles Lakers.

See, the Denver Nuggets did not play any better than in their win earlier in the week. The difference was that no one outside of LeBron or AD was looking to shoot the ball. Everyone else was passing up shots. In this game, multiple players were shooting the ball in the realm of the offense. Fans and media are concentrating on percentages and the supporting players were scared to shoot.

That allowed Jokic to stay in the lane and not move around as much. In this game, Austin Reaves, Lonnie Walker IV and Troy Brown Jr. took the opportunities given to them and delivered.

NOW!

That opens up the offense and Jokic has to move around. See the difference?

The point? In basketball, passed-up shots are just as detrimental if not worse than missed shots. Why? If the other team knows that Lakers players aren’t willing to shoot then it helps their defense load up on everyone else.

In closing, this writer wants to dedicate this article to Covie Travis, who lost a two-year battle with cancer. She was my aunt and godmother who was the light of my life. The family sent her home to heaven a few hours before this game.

I love you Aunt Covie.