Darvin Ham must stand up to LeBron after Lakers loss to Raptors

The Los Angeles Lakers were coming off a loss last night to the Cleveland Cavaliers that was close until about eight minutes left in the game before Donovan Mitchell illustrated that the Cavs fans can officially move on from LeBron James with a 43-point performance that was powered by a 4th quarter explosion that put things away.

Well…this game was close at the end of the National Anthem up until the tip-off.

The Los Angeles Lakers played this game without a litany of players in the starting lineup.

• Anthony Davis, who is sacked with the flu…
• LeBron James, who was out with ankle soreness (Also read: Don’t put me out there coach without AD! I can’t carry this team by myself!)…
• Patrick Beverley with knee soreness (Also read: Darvin Ham can’t justify an NBA player starting who can’t shoot in a gym on offense and can’t stop light for lack of payment on the bill on defense!).

If this tone doesn’t give anyone any idea of how this game went, nothing will. This game was over at halftime, and this writer has better things to do, like…

• Take a shower…then brush and floss some teeth…
• Rearrange a sock drawer…
• Help with some homework…
• Clip toenails…
• Wonder how is it that a guy 3000 miles away has more insight than people working for this organization?

The Los Angeles Lakers will throw this performance into the trash and move on to Friday after a 126-113 loss to the Toronto Raptors. After a solid run of winning eight of ten, back-to-back beatdowns on consecutive nights show that life comes at you fast in the NBA. It doesn’t get any easier either.

On Friday night, the Lakers face Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers with James Harden in the lineup.

Then it’s Detroit before they face the Boston Celtics. It’s known that Lakers casuals do not watch the rest of the NBA teams, but let’s just say that the Celtics are the class of the NBA and Jayson Tatum is balling!

The game started with the Lakers down 11-0 and a 22-3 run in the second quarter pretty much turned the lights out.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss (Hey we have to fill it with something!):

The Lakers had better be glad that the Toronto Raptors can’t shoot!

Even though it wasn’t evident in this game, the Raptors are one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA. They were just as bad at times in this game too. They actually missed 11 straight shots in the second quarter and OG Anunoby can’t hit a layup to save his life. He even missed a dunk. Folks if it wasn’t for this, the Lakers would have lost by 50.

There were two instances in the second half when Toronto was making plans for after the game. That’s the only reason this game was close at the end.

The Lakers got to the free-throw line and hit them.

Before the second-quarter collapse, the Lakers kept it respectable by getting to the line. Much of it was Dennis Schroder and Russell Westbrook charging in the lane and not giving up. This is probably the only bright spot hitting 32-35.

The game was within shouting distance in the third quarter!

Give the Los Angeles Lakers credit for not rolling over and playing dead like they would have in the Frank Vogel era. The Lake Show carved the Toronto lead down to about 14 points before the Raptors made another push.

The game ended.

Nuff said.

The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

Did anyone think the Los Angeles Lakers would win with this lineup?

Here you go…

The Los Angeles Lakers were down 11-0 with this starting lineup before Russell Westbrook entered the game and picked up the pace of the offense. Nothing against Juan Toscano-Anderson, but before garbage time in the previous game, did anyone know he was even alive? He sure wasn’t in the rotation.

Austin Reaves proved that Lake Show Life post-game reports don’t lie!

First, we need to go to this quote basically roasting Pat Brickerly… oops, Beverley!

"Austin Reaves was amazing in this game to get the 8 points he had in this game. He was out of rhythm and any momentum he was gaining is being messed with by Beverley’s atrocious play. Bench him or put him in a situation to get suspended for another three games."

Austin Reaves was in the starting lineup and he was exactly as the staff of Lake Show Life said he is…out of rhythm and the momentum of his great play as of late was nonexistent.

The guards and wings of the Los Angeles Lakers can’t guard anybody…

The second the Lakers can officially lock up Anthony Davis to a max deal, they need to do it. He won’t win the MVP this year but he is the MVP of the league. Why? This team is a lottery team without him. He’s the best player on both ends without question and he cleans up a ton of his teammates’ mistakes defensively. When AD is out, this is how bad the Lakers look…

• Pascal Siakam: 25 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists.
• Fred Van Vleet: 25 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds.
• O.G. Anunoby: 23 points and 6 rebounds.
• Scottie Barnes: 13 points and 17 rebounds.

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

Darvin Ham has to challenge LeBron James!

To be clear, Darvin Ham has done a great job to start the season and right the ship. Now it’s time to show LeBron James who’s wearing the big drawers. LeBron should have played and not left his teammates out to dry. He didn’t take over in Cleveland and he wanted no part of the long-wing Raptors players chasing him all over the floor in this one. Say what you want about Russell Westbrook, but the man shows up every night to play rain, sleet, or snow if you want the mailman analogy.

LeBron’s analysis?

He mails it in when Anthony Davis is not around and it’s too tough.

The discussion around the Lake Show Life website when LeBron was out was whether he could conform to the offensive schemes that Darvin Ham wants which is fast-paced and a lot of ball movement. These guys play better with AD without LeBron than they do with him. That’s a fact and anyone debating hasn’t watched a game this year.

The coaching staff needs to call out LeBron for his off-and-on performances this year. If there is a player that will keep the Lakers out of the playoffs and point the finger elsewhere but himself, it’s LeBron.

Maybe we need to start calling LeBron James “Street Clothes”.

Shams report kills a potential Kyle Kuzma Lakers homecoming

We can comfortably say that Kyle Kuzma will not return to the Los Angeles Lakers any time soon after the latest report from Shams.

The Los Angeles Lakers will use trade rumors to cover up a dysfunctional performance!

Just look for a Kendrick Nunn and Patrick Beverley deal to the New York Knicks for Cam Reddish over the next 48 hours. That should cover this stench for a while.