Lakers defeat Magic, prove LeBron James doesn’t need to be Superman

The Los Angeles Lakers are becoming examples of false promises and wasted resources as they start their four-game road trip in Orlando to take on the Magic. The Lake Show embarrassed itself in the third quarter on Christmas Day.

• They allowed the Dallas Mavericks to set a franchise record for scoring in a quarter with 51 points which eliminated an 11-point halftime lead at the drop of a hat!
• The Dallas Mavericks, with a Christian Wood miss, allowed the Lakers to avoid a franchise record for defensive futility. 

This road trip is basically the season for the Los Angeles Lakers. There’s no sugarcoating this. They have four winnable games against Orlando, the Miami Heat, and the Atlanta Hawks before finishing up with the Charlotte Hornets. They have to finish above .500.

The Lakers really welcomed Paolo Banchero to the NBA in this one. After scoring three points early in the game, his picture was being put up in Post Offices and milk cartons as he totally disappeared production-wise.

The Los Angeles Lakers broke their losing streak by defeating the Orlando Magic, 129-110. No rest for the weary as they play the second of a back-to-back against the Miami Heat tomorrow. Yes, the Lake Show needs that one too!

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

Patrick Beverley came out shooting like a thrift-store Stephen Curry! 

Yes, these are jokes based on the fact that he is one of the worst shooters in the NBA that qualify. But he really was the reason the Magic got into trouble. It was easy to see that the Orlando coaching staff’s strategy was to let Pat-Bev shoot the ball and pack the lane for the rebound with their size. Beverley missed his first two, but got hot after his first 3 hit the side of the backboard before going in.

Pat-Bev had 11 points at halftime (4-8 shooting, with three shots from beyond!) in 16 minutes. There were times this season he couldn’t score 11 points in a week.

He finished with 14 points. Don’t be fooled folks, the Magic scheme fell apart after he started hitting shots. They adjusted too quickly and the game really was over then.

There needs to be a stronger dialogue about Thomas Bryant playing upwards of 30 minutes even when AD comes back!

Back in the championship season in 2020, the Lakers overpowered the opposition with size using Javale McGee, Dwight Howard, Kyle Kuzma along with Anthony Davis and LeBron James as rotation pieces. The previous three are gone, but Thomas Bryant is here now. This dude plays hard and punished people down low. Plus, he knows how to play LeBron’s pick-and-roll play to perfection.

Bryant finished with 21 points (8-10 shooting!) and 10 rebounds (4 offensive!). He basically brought the physicality that Mo Bamba and Bol Bol could not match. This was huge too.

Russell Westbrook changed the pace of the game and the offense opened up!

The Lakers got the majority of their baskets within the realm of the offense much like when they had their small winning streak. This had a lot to to with Russ coming into the game and getting his rhythm early knocking down shots and distributing to his teammates.

More on him later!

The Los Angeles Lakers got back to moving the ball around on offense! 

Some readers as of late have forgotten that this a Los Angeles Lakers website as opposed to a “Let’s watch LeBron James score 30 every night and cry for help in a trade!” website. The offense ground to a halt on Christmas Day after stagnant performances previously. The ball was moving, the players shot in rhythm and LeBron took advantage of the lanes to drive to gash the defense.

Basketball is really simple sometimes ain’t it?

The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

When was the last time the Lakers had a solid win? Desperate can’t be choosy with Miami up tomorrow! There is none.

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

Well low and behold…the Los Angeles Lakers figured out the LeBron James /NBA dynamic!

For the last few games, the staff of Lake Show Life has been all over LeBron James and his play that collects numbers in the box scores and not the win column. We were even called…”Amateurs” by a reader in the comment section.

Bossman: 

"Is this becoming amateur hour?I know sometimes writers make up their own agenda. That’s why I like to watch each game myself and not depend on those with agendas to inform me.Get back to way you wrote from a couple of years ago. You can clearly see you’re losing some readership and/or commenters. Maybe Jason Reed has laid down the law and demanded you go negative when it’s not warranted. I’ve read your stuff. Unless if you’ve decided to just go 180 for no apparent reason. This ain’t you. Or maybe it is. But you have done better than that."

Let’s see what we have here. The Los Angeles Lakers came into this game losers of four straight and eight out of their last eleven. LeBron had a seven-game streak of 30 points or more. Here’s the difference between this game and the horrible team play of late.

EVERYONE CONTRIBUTED!

• Troy Brown Jr.: 15 points, (6-7 shooting!)
• Russell Westbrook: Obtains a triple-double with 15 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists. There has been four triple-double performances in Lakers history and he now owns three of them!
• The aforementioned Patrick Beverley contributed!
• Thomas Bryant basically dominated the Orlando front line with a double-double
• Lonnie Walker scored in double figures with 10 points.
• Austin Reaves just missed double figures with 8 points.
• All told, the Los Angeles Lakers had 32 assists on 49 field goals!

How did LeBron James finish? LESS than 30 points with 28 in a Lakers blowout…

For the last four games, LeBron James has been scoring at a record pace for his age and that is commendable. But the object in basketball is to win the last time anyone checked the rulebook.

This site laid out a blueprint on how NBA teams will WELCOME LeBron’s big scoring nights to shut down everyone else to avoid what happened in this game to Orlando. Finally when the offense got back to good habits, there are multiple players scoring in double figures and it overwhelms the defense.

Plus, LeBron cuts down on the hard work he has to do. What a concept!

To the LeBron stans out there reading this. What do you prefer?

• Lakers wins when LeBron drops less than 30 points in a team win?
• Or, LeBron dropping close to 40 in Lakers blowouts three times a week?

If it’s the latter, there’s always the Lebronwire website. We talk basketball with schemes.

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