Lakers get hustled by LeBron James again in loss to Hornets

The Los Angeles Lakers have one more game to play before the unofficial start of the NBA season on Christmas day. The Lake Show looked to break a two-game losing streak by playing the Charlotte Hornets, who are making a run in the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes with a record of 8-24.

Look, it is Christmas time, and with a Christmas Day matchup with the Dallas Mavericks coming up, it would be easy for the Los Angeles Lakers to overlook this team. Well…

The Los Angeles Lakers spent three quarters filling out NBA scheduling quotas, losing to the Charlotte Hornets 134-130. This looked more like a pickup game at L.A. Fitness than an NBA game. The only difference was one team came out of halftime hot.

Based on the approximately first 30 games, which team do you think it was?

Part of the holiday season is the infamous family fights. This writer and the Lake Show Life readers and commenters are considered just that…family. But with family, there are arguments. This ongoing argument is about LeBron James and the quality of play as of late and in upcoming games…

"LeBron James will let this franchise embarrass itself to force Rob Pelinka to make a deal. He’s quitting on the season folks!The staff of Lake Show Life knows that LeBron has let off the gas. We can’t be fooled. Basketball is an easy game to analyze. But it does take talent to shift blame and responsibility that belongs to the superstar and give it to the coaching staff, front office and his teammates.  With Klutch Sports handling the PR work, LeBron James is going to let this ship sink just like he did his first season in L.A. Who is he fooling? He’ll have groin soreness probably after the Christmas game and sit out for three weeks."

This statement ruffled some feathers to our fans. However, the Hornets used the same formula to beat the Lakers as this website laid out!

This play here would be a perfect “I told you so” moment but it is not about one player. This is a team sport. But again, this here is not what lost the game for the Los Angeles Lakers, it’s about a scheme that NBA teams are using and LeBron is the main ingredient.

It’ll take a few weeks of watching, but rest assured Lakers Nation will see it too.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

Austin Reaves is just playing so well!

The staff of Lake Show Life has given up on campaigning for this guy to be in the starting lineup instead of Patrick Beverley. This is probably the few months that Lakers fans can see him before he cashes in on a huge payday while the front office tries to convince you that Max Christie can grow into the same player for a mere fraction of the price.

But this dude really understands the assignment of playing a basketball game!

With a bad ankle, Reaves still finished with 20 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists. People talk about LeBron and AD being wasted, what about this guy?

Wenyen Gabriel played with a ton of energy!

The one thing the Los Angeles Lakers don’t have to worry about in the absence of Anthony Davis is the backup big men not playing hard and with energy. Wenyen Gabriel played very well in this one!

He finished with 13 points, 7 rebounds and a block. Where in the world was he when the Lakers needed size? Who knows?

The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

There’s no justification for this loss. Why waste time talking about the lack of effort on the boards, the listless play and trying to turn it on late? This Lakers team lost to a bad Charlotte Hornets team with LaMelo Ball almost gift-wrapping the game away.

This cannot happen.

Thomas Bryant really hurt himself!

Mason Plumlee laid the wood on Thomas Bryant going for a steal. Now sure if the injury was a wrist or shoulder, but he was in some real pain. He finished with 8 points and 13 rebounds.

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

The Los Angeles Lakers got hustled again!

Let’s revisit the comment that started the debate above. Some of our smart readers had some pushback!

Slick:

"To be real…LeBron is going out on his shield like a real OG to me. Nobody has ever done it this well at almost 20 years in the game. Cap won a Finals MVP at 38, but he had a prime Magic and Worthy doing most of the heavy lifting. Who does James have? Pat Bev and Dennis Schroder? Come on man…you keep taking pot shots at this dude like he is still in his prime. Not cool."

Corky Carroll:

"Yeah, I agree with you. I like it that Ron tends to tell it like it is, even when its not what we want to hear, but he is being a tad too hard on LBJ. The guy is giving us what he’s got and is not stupid…… he is trying to make himself last a big longer the best he can, and has been having some monster games doing it. We need to cut him some slack, its not the best situation for him either."

This game is going to be a trending subject of how the Lakers keep losing games while LeBron continues to put up numbers. He finished with 34 points, 8 assists and 2 rebounds. Now on the surface, this looks like a very good game for LeBron. But let’s look deeper.

In the third quarter, when the Lakers fell behind, LeBron had only two points in that span. After scoring 14 points early in the game, he wasn’t an offensive impact until the final 12 minutes (18 points and 4 assists!). The game was lost in the second and third quarters.

This game was not about LeBron James not getting help, Lakers fans…

• There are not many more games that Pat Bev scores 11 points while missing only one shot! He’s actually playing solid of late!
• Russell Westbrook woke up after two turnovers to play well scoring 17 points with 7 assists and 5 rebounds.
• The aforementioned Reaves, Gabriel and Bryant played well. 
• The Lakers shot well from the 3-point line!

The fact of the matter is this, LeBron will keep on dropping 30-point games, but if three opposing starters finish with 20+ points (P.J. Washington, Terry Rozier and LaMelo Ball) with a bench scorer scoring 19 (Kelly Oubre), the Lakers will continue to lose. Plus the offense is back to that stagnant predictable version that causes turnovers.

Lakers listed as a favorite to land prominent trade target

The Los Angeles Lakers were listed among the favorites to trade for Gary Trent Jr. this season. But what would a trade with the Raptors look like?

If LeBron James is considered a basketball savant, he needs to figure out this chess move the NBA teams are using that this writer, Ronald Agers has already figured out.