Lakers’ winning streak comes to an end at the hands of Julius Randle

The Los Angeles Lakers looked for their fourth-straight win on their homestand and overall against the New York Knicks, who find themselves fighting to stay in playoff position in the Eastern Conference. What started as a totally disastrous season with no hope in Lakers Nation has turned into playoff implications with talk of doing some serious damage in the postseason, depending on matchups.

In a very entertaining game with two evenly-balanced teams competing at a high level, the Los Angeles Lakers lose to the New York Knicks, 112-108. The Lake Show failed to get back to .500 and their four-game winning streak goes by the wayside.

This is not a glaring issue because the Lakers really can run the table the next week with a very favorable schedule. This team is for real, but they ran into a New York Knicks team with a hot Julius Randle (More on him in a bit!) and R.J. Barrett.

This doesn’t happen very often…please believe that!

The good of the Los Angeles Lakers loss:

D’Angelo Russell has officially left the planet because his game is out of this world!

Remember what happened on Friday night, when D’Angelo Russell just got hot in the fourth quarter against the Raptors? You know, 16 points, didn’t miss a shot, and had the Crypto.com Arena rocking!

After the first half of this game, D’Lo is officially committing NBA homicide by embarrassing any NBA player in front of him. He dropped 23 points in the first half on 9-10 shooting, including four shots from the land of the extra point. Let’s just enjoy the ride and visuals because no player on any level shoots like this for long.

• 14-15 shooting over 3 quarters…
• 9-10 from beyond the arc! 

Plus this guy is running the Lakers’ offense as smooth as butter. Not only did he cross the 20-point plateau in a zone-like efficiency, but he also dished out 5 assists as well. This is easily the best stretch of his career and the Los Angeles Lakers’ playoff discussion will be attached to this guy! Book it.

He finished with a very efficient 33 points, 8 assists and 5 rebounds. He hit half of the Lakers’ 3-point shots in the game shooting over 50 percent. He makes this writer’s job so much easier!

Anthony Davis is starting to find a style in being the Los Angeles Lakers’ foundational piece! 

In the Raptors game, the Los Angeles Lakers showed their extreme levels of depth allowing Darvin Ham to bring Antony Davis to the bench while his teammates exploited matchups without him. How many people would think the Lakers would dominate a game without him scoring in double figures?

Well, AD got above double figures, but he is getting very comfortable becoming a scoring cog on offense while being the main anchor on defense. Again, a D’Angelo Russell effect that is being overlooked.

Casual fans are going to complain over a 17-point, 16 rebounds, 4-assist, 2-steal night but he is playing the way the offense is being constructed. He is being double-teamed and he has no issues making plays by moving the ball.

AD needs to hit those free throws though.

The bench…again!

Depth is going to be something when (Or if!) LeBron James comes back. 43-25 in favor of the Lakers!

• Dennis Schroder: 14 points on 6-11 shooting!
• Rui Hachimura: 12 points and 3 rebounds.
• Austin Reaves: 13 points and 4 assists. This dude’s efficiency is off the charts!
• Wenyen Gabriel: 4 points and 2 rebounds in 11 minutes.   

The Lakers almost okey-doked this game from another opponent!

The Lake Show cut the Knicks’ lead from ten to two in two minutes late in the game. But missed free throws kept things from working. 10-17 from the line really hurt.

The bad of the Los Angeles Lakers loss:

Remember what Lake Show Life said about D’Angelo Russell in the first half? Julius Randle did it too!

The only difference between D’Lo and Julius Randle was that Randle had probably one of the worst games of his career 24 hours ago in the Knicks’ loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. He shot 5-24, lost his temper with his game, referees, teammates, coaching staff, you get the picture.

He dropped 25 points in the first half against the Lakers.

But this is Julius Randle in a nutshell. He can score with the best of them but unlike D’Angelo Russell, he can’t close games out with the basketball I.Q. of D’Lo.

He finished with 33 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists.

R.J. Barrett…

This is the game folks. 30 points and 6 rebounds do not happen very often, especially with Randle firing up inefficient shots. But, a broken clock is right two times a day, right?

Rebounding!

AD needs help folks! 46-37 is not going to get it, especially when one player has almost half of them. This is not AAU basketball.

Transition defense!

Film don’t lie!

The story of the Los Angeles Lakers loss: (Probably for the rest of the decade!):

The Los Angeles Lakers really have to practice patience and think about keeping young players!

The Lake Show Life staff has not ever gone into hiding when it comes to criticizing this franchise. But there is one section that has never…EVER…been criticized. The scouting department. The scouts, including the Buss brothers have done a great job of scouting young players that end up being drafted. Two them put on a show in the first half in D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle!

How about Josh Hart, who has played out of his mind since he’s been at the “Big Apple” and contributed to a Knicks 9-game winning streak lately?

What’s the point?

These are all Lakers’ draft picks scouted in college. Sure Russell has returned but Rob Pelinka has some work to do to find a balance between young up-and-coming players and aging superstars the Lakers has depended on for three years until the recent trade deadline.

Time to start looking to the future which starts this offseason with players off the payroll this summer. Not a knock on LeBron, but how long you want to ride him as the franchise player?