Patrick Beverley deserves the same Westbrook criticism after Lakers win

The Los Angeles Lakers were riding high coming into the matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans for two reasons. Number one, the Lakers became the last team in the NBA to collect their first win. Number two, there might be a reasonable plan to help Russell Westbrook succeed in Darvin Ham’s system.

The Lakers welcomed the Pelicans, who feature possibly the next NBA global superstar in Zion Williamson, but were without their best player now in Brandon Ingram.

Post-game reports are not the most glamorous or preferred writing assignments, but it’s games like these that make it worth your while. Introducing Matt Ryan!

https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1588031294448885760

To say the New Orleans Pelicans blew this in regulation is being charm school polite.

• First, they missed two free throws when only one would have iced the game.
• Why the Pels would be worried about a back pick to fight over is worse…
• Who allows a complete cross-court pass in the NBA? By the way great pass by Austin Reaves…
• Matt Ryan will be known as Matty Ice from now on after that ridiculous shot since the football guy got benched!

The Los Angeles Lakers won…an… absolutely…wild…one coming back from certain defeat to beat the New Orleans Pelicans 120-117. This was not just the best game of the Lakers’ season, but of the NBA season. The Lakers have won two straight with the Utah Jazz up next on Friday night.

One thing is clear and this is an important observation on this team!

This is no longer a Los Angeles Lakers team that has to beg LeBron James to score 40 or AD to put up a 30-point, 15-rebound line. Everyone that touches the floor has to contribute or they don’t play. Everyone has a talent and now this team is becoming a sum of multiple parts.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win: 

The Los Angeles Lakers are wearing out teams with big runs to finish the first 24 minutes!

Even though the Lakers are struggling at 1-5, there has been one constant bright spot that is starting to become a consistent thing. In the last six minutes before halftime, the Lake Show goes on huge runs to either tie the score or go ahead.

Against the Pelicans, the Lakers exploded on a 12-0 run (17-2 overall!) for a 56-44 lead at halftime. If this team can continue this trend along with solving the third-quarter collapses that have gone back into last season, this team might have a chance to move up the standings a little bit.

Who was the catalyst of this run?

Man, this Russell Westbrook will be demanding engraved apologies if this type of play is in his future! 

To put this analysis into context, we must first go back to what Russell Westbrook said on November 1st. Take a listen…

Sure, Russ said this to be polite and play nice with everybody. But then in the first half, the NBA world found out that Russell Westbrook was serious and wanted to remind everyone that he was that dude.

Westbrook was the best player on the floor in the first 24 minutes leading the Lakers charge with 11 points (5-7 shooting!), 6 rebounds and 7 assists in only 16 minutes. This dude was balling! This guy had the arena rocking. When was the last time anyone covering the Lakers could make this statement?

Not only that Russ was banging with Zion down in the post…BY HIMSELF! Let that sink in. Westbrook finished with 13 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists.

Why wasn’t he on the floor at the end of the game? Man who knows. More on that later!

(In deep thought…) Hmm…maybe it’s that number 7 jersey…

Last year, Carmelo Anthony donned the number 7 jersey and was lighting it up from the outside, especially at home. Now that he’s gone, Troy Brown Jr. is doing work for the last few games. His efficient play has really helped the Lakers’ offense.

He finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Free throw shooting! 

The Lakers shooting 87 percent from the line (20-23 shooting!) can save a lot of games when the 3-point shooting stinks! It did in this game.

The Lakers attacking defense is starting to rattle opposing centers.

First Anthony Davis and Wenyen Gabriel made it hard for the two-time MVP in Nikola Jokic the last game and totally outworked Jonas Valanciunas in this one.  The Lakers are not going to grow anytime soon but if the effort continues to grow like Darvin Ham demands, they’ll survive!

The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win: 

Anthony Davis got off to a slow offensive start! 

In this game, this really won’t matter thanks to the total offensive production from his teammates and Russ’ explosion, but this can’t happen a lot of nights. AD started 1-7 to start the game.  The Lakers’ offensive system mandates that he gets in a rhythm early. With that being said, Davis can’t afford too many slow starts. The great thing is that he didn’t allow his slow start to affect his defense.

Time to have a discussion about Patrick Beverley…

Hey Lakers fans, you had a lot to say about Russell Westbrook and his struggles, where is that energy for Pat Bev? Can you remember the last time he scored more than 5 points this season? How about the last time he scored a basket of significance?

Now is this a discussion to get Russ back in the starting lineup? PFFT! Please, this is working too well. Russ could be outplaying LeBron and that won’t happen, but Pat Bev needs to start the game on the bench. He is not impacting the game enough at this point to warrant his position. If not Russ, Austin Reaves…you’re up.

 Wow…those third quarters…

Remember that 17-2 run to get a 12-point lead going into halftime? Well, there’s always a third quarter and this team just pollutes the Los Angeles area with their play in that 12-minute period. As soon as Jose “Grand Theft” Alvarado came into the game and started pushing the pace, the Pelicans went on a huge run to cut the lead to three points going into the final quarter. The Lakers were outscored 35-26 coming out of halftime.

This has to stop!

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

Lonnie Walker IV has bought Rob Pelinka some time!

The Lake Show Life staff told fans about Lonnie Walker IV. The only reason no one knew about him was that the Spurs had him on lockdown and didn’t let him play to his capabilities.

Here are his capabilities…

Lonnie led the building in scoring with 28 points on the strength of five shots behind the line of the bonus point. He is one of the reasons (Man Matt Ryan was the sole reason!) the Lakers won this game.