Lakers outlast Pistons despite Austin Reaves mismanagement

The Los Angeles Lakers found themselves sliding down the standings with a three-game losing streak going into a Sunday matinee with the Detroit Pistons. It seems that the Lake Show Life website hit a nerve with Lakers Nation with our critical analysis of LeBron James this week over his subpar play. Here’s what was learned…

LeBron James cannot be described as a declining player, no matter if it can be seen in 4K or not. 

It’s hard to believe that it has been one year since the huge melee between LeBron James and Isaiah Stewart. Side note, the Pistons’ uniforms were much better than the ones they had for this game!

The Los Angeles Lakers end their road trip at .500 with a 124-117 victory over the Detroit Pistons. It was a game the Lakers were supposed to win and had to win with the Boston Celtics coming to town for a nationally televised game on Tuesday night.

This post-game report is dedicated to long-time player and coach, Paul Silas who passed early on Sunday at 79. He was a three-time champion with the Celtics and the staff of Lake Show Life send our well-wishes to the Silas family, particularly to Houston Rockets head coach Stephen Silas.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

The Los Angeles Lakers played the Detroit Pistons in the first half!

The Detroit Pistons are the worst team in the NBA, and they showed the basketball world why. They are the worst first-quarter scoring team in the league, plus they were without Cade Cunningham. If the Lakers had lost this one, the staff of Lake Show Life would have used the 300-word minimum for this WordPress system with adjectives describing how bad this Los Angeles Lakers team really is. Man, the Pistons are hard to watch if you like little league basketball, much less NBA basketball.

They are on the clock for Victor Wembenyama as of this writing.

But man something special happened for Detroit in the third quarter! More on that later!

Lonnie Walker IV got the Lakers out to a strong start early.

While it took the Lakers about three minutes to get the ball to Anthony Davis to get him a shot to start the game, Lonnie Walker IV came out smoking knocking down two shots from beyond the arc in the first quarter to finish with 8 points.

After more solid production in the second half, Walker finished with 18 points. He has to start producing in other areas though. Not enough rebounds, not enough assists. If the Lakers have a playoff run, Lonnie has to do more than score.

Russell Westbrook is getting more and more comfortable running the offense coming off the bench!

The Lakers coaching staff have formulated a scheme for Russ using him to drive the ball in the lane and kick it out to the shooters. Boy has that worked like a charm. Then when he gets into the rhythm of the game, he hits cutting players to the basket.

In 14 minutes in the first half, Westbrook had 8 assists to go with 6 points on 3-5 shooting. A thought of maybe this guy deserved his starting spot back, but if Austin Reaves can score 25 points against Philly and can’t get out of the bench rotation, why entertain the debate? Especially when he was nowhere to be found in the final minutes.

He finished with 11 points and 9 assists.

Anthony Davis had a “solid” game!

Now let’s go deeper with this. Isn’t it promising that AD does not have to have a nuclear explosion for the Lakers to win a game? But he still finished with 34 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals and a block. Right now he is the best player in the NBA and the only thing keeping him out of the MVP talks is consistent three-game losing streaks by the Lake Show.

The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

Bojan Bogdanovic in the third quarter!

First off, this dude can shoot that thang. But…man…that third quarter!

Bojan dropped a career-high for a quarter scoring 25 points on a variety of 3-point shots and Patrick Beverley fouling him behind the 3-point line. The Lakers scored 30 in the same 12-minute period. The only thing that stopped him was his coach. When Dwane Casey sat him down, he went cold. Bogdanovic finished with 38 points.

The Los Angeles Lakers are screwing with Austin Reaves!

This is getting to the point of embarrassment. He hit two buzzer-beaters. One before halftime and one to beat the shot clock on crunch time to seal the game!

9 points on only six shots. But Patrick Beverley will be still donating bricks to every NBA city for the rest of the season…GUARANTEED! Hey Austin, do what Alex Caruso did and run!

The game shouldn’t have been this close!

Detroit is a bad team and bad teams find ways to lose. The last five minutes of the game was a perfect illustration of that by the Pistons.

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

Time to discuss LeBron James…and the reality of basketball! 

When the Sixers post-game report included the decline of LeBron James, it seems that Lakers fans were upset. Some thought the headline was harsh. One reader stated the writer called him “washed”. Let’s break down “declined” and “washed” shall we?

• Declined: To gradually become less, worse, or lower
• Washed: No longer successful, skillful, popular, or needed.

LeBron James finished this game with a stat line of 35 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. To the readers that want to cry out for their leader…we have this to say…

So what?

LeBron James will continue to feast on smaller bad teams that have no rim protection. That’s where his level is at now. But let’s look at the games before this one.

• Cleveland Cavaliers: AD gets sick. LeBron let’s go of the rope in the final 10 minutes when the game was close. Shots one time and watches Donovan Mitchell officially take over for him as the franchise superstar.
• Toronto Raptors: AD stays out the game for the same illness, so LeBron decides to sit out too!
• Philadelphia 76ers: LeBron has an inefficient game while riding on AD and Austin Reaves’ efforts to get the Lakers to overtime!  

Now, what do these teams have in common? They have either athletic wings or skilled big men or both. Then there’s the fact that the Lakers guards can’t stop opposing NBA guards either.

Boston Celtics have a loaded roster full of players that will have LeBron James working for 30 minutes or more on Tuesday. In short…

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Save that “I told you LeBron James would bounce back” drama until after the Boston game. Let’s see him cook against the best in the NBA.