Lakers stink up the joint in loss to Rockets without Anthony Davis

The Los Angeles Lakers played the second game of a back-to-back against one of the worst teams in the NBA, the Houston Rockets. The caveat about the Rockets is that they shocked the Boston Celtics recently, and this is the time of year when bad teams steal games from the contenders. The Lakers were still jockeying for position in the playoff seeding race, being tied for 8th in the loss column with two other teams.

After committing an NBA crime by beating down the New Orleans Pelicans in record fashion, it probably made sense to rest Anthony Davis against a team that is currently dead last in the Western Conference right?

Uh…right?

(In ESPN’s 30 for 30 voice!) What if I told you that the Los Angeles Lakers lost an important game with playoff implications to the Houston Rockets, one of the worst teams in the NBA for the last three years?

Really…

The Lakers are going to look back at this game and cringe if they find themselves out in the cold over a tiebreaker losing to the Houston Rockets 114-110. This team can’t even write the sentence “The Los Angeles Lakers have a .500 record.”

The staff of Lake Show Life could say that the Dallas game on Friday is a must-win game but after watching this debacle, does anyone even care?

The good of the Los Angeles Lakers loss (Hey we are trying here!): 

Austin Reaves has got heart man!!!

In a game where it looked like the Lakers wanted to do some cardio for the night, Austin Reaves just continues showing the NBA world what a professional basketball player does every game. He just gets a role and plays basketball efficiently and effectively. If it wasn’t for Reaves and D’Angelo Russell giving some offensive production, the Lakers would have been where New Orleans was 24 hours ago.

Austin had 13 points on 4-5 shooting while consistently making plays calmly and collectively…

In a league where players use more athleticism than I.Q., it is refreshing to watch a player of Reaves’ character just make the plays needed to help his team win as opposed to dancing with the ball for 24 seconds before jacking up a 3-point shot!

Austin finished with 24 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists. It’s a crying shame this dude is not in the starting lineup. Lakers fans better pray a starting position is not being offered by another team in the offseason. Even at the end of the game, he was playing hard stealing the ball and drawing a flagrant foul.

He’s leaving free throws on the table as of late. He missed a couple in this game and this turning into a trend. At one time, this dude was shooting over 90 percent!

D’Angelo Russell’s shot before halftime!

He hit a huge 3-pointer with .07 seconds before halftime to make it manageable for a run in the third quarter…somewhat. He matched Reaves’ 13 points to finish the half.

Well, the hot streak is over as D’Lo finished with 18 points and 7 assists. He shot only 5-17 though.

Wenyen Gabriel and Jarred Vanderbilt provided the only toughness down low the Lakers had!

These guys were balling and hard. Along with Reaves, these guys just did not quit.

• Jarred Vanderbilt: 13 points, 11 rebounds (4 offensive!), 5 assists and 2 steals.
• Wenyen Gabriel: 6 points, 15 rebounds (7 offensive!) and 2 steals.

Outside of a Dennis Schroder offensive rebound (Probably by accident!), these guys have the entire team total.

If any Lakers fan saw anything positive…

The comment section is down below. Good luck!

The bad of the Los Angeles Lakers loss:

Does anyone want to talk about the first quarter of last night’s game?

It would be a lot more fun to discuss because the first quarter of this one was the exact opposite. The Houston Rockets got any shot they wanted and made them. There was no rim protection with AD on the bench so the first half was loaded with Rockets points in the paint.

The Lake Show spotted Houston a 12-point lead after one quarter, 31-19. This highlight pretty much illustrates how bad the Lakers played in the first quarter on the defensive end. But you have to play defense to be considered bad. It wasn’t much better in the second quarter either. The staff of Lake Show Life recommends playing the first-half highlights of the Pelicans game and start singing lyrics of Bruce Springsteen’s song…Glory days.

The Los Angeles Lakers really have issues stopping Alpen Sengun!

No…seriously. He dropped 33 points on the Lakers earlier this season (Anthony Davis didn’t play in that game either!) and continued to dissect the defense of the Lake Show in this one. The Rockets ran their offense through Sengun much like the Denver Nuggets run theirs through Nikola Jokic.

He didn’t match that 30-point burger of last time but the offense was smooth as butter and the Lakers struggled to catch up.

Sengun finished with 13 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists.

Here’s why he didn’t have big scoring numbers…

Kevin Porter Jr. was destroying the Lakers!

The man hit 9-10 to start the game and most of them was layups due to Dennis Schroder playing doorman to the rim.

https://twitter.com/HoustonRockets/status/1636178692773691392

The staff of Lake Show Life could discuss the awful perimeter defense of the Los Angeles Lakers led by Dennis Schroder, but we all know by now Dennis has no consistency on defense. So, we will talk about how talented this guy is. The dominance is no accident. He’s dropped 50 in his career and the fact that he wasn’t firing up shots all over the court shows his maturity as of late.

Porter Jr. played great despite that stupid foul that held everyone up. He finished with 27 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and a steal.

Malik Beasley’s night will be summed up by long-time reader…Eroc!

The man summed it up in last night’s post-game comments…

"Bad – Nothing. Man it is really a “Tale of 2 Halves of a Season.”Malik? That guy is really a crap shoot. It’s good they don’t need him to be “on” to win. But, when he is, fuggedaboditt."

6-17 from the field…4-12 from beyond the arc. No defense. 16 points.

Dennis Schroder…

Is playing for stats to negotiate his next contract. His agent documented the 16 points.

The story of the Los Angeles Lakers loss:

Why waste time…film don’t lie!

The Lakers’ defense stunk up the gym like the Lionel Richie song…All night long!