DETROIT — hard to characterize the game against reeling detroit pistons Team says they have to win los angeles lakers For 11 days, I wore a look of relief following road sway multiple time zones away from the building.
It’s hard to believe that the boat stopped capsizing after a disastrous 0-5 start.
The Lakers appear to be in some sort of tear, but they’re only ahead of Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Houston in the West.
that they lebron james and Anthony Davis. It feels like the season is still far away, but some wonder if the pit they dug was too deep to get out.
James looked tired on the road, but he wasn’t completely exhausted. 35 points performance in a game where his biggest play was an assist Austin Reeves With a corner triple to effectively end the matter in the last minute.
It doesn’t sound like a recipe for long-term success if it takes a phenomenal performance from a man who turns 38 in a few weeks to keep the Lakers alive. Davis has contributed some of his best consistent dominant play in years, at least since the pre-bubble season.
even with him One point display Against Cleveland — he played just eight minutes due to illness — his last 11 games are ridiculous: 31 points, 13.1 rebounds, 2.7 blocks, 66.7% shooting success rate.
There seems to be a formula, at least until the Lakers move key personnel, or if they do. Efficiently get to the line).
Defend, or at least try to, in hopes that Davis can protect the rim, stay out of foul trouble, and stay healthy.
And finally, preventing lulls can be the biggest key. Head his coach Durbingham has earned the respect and trust of his players.
A three-game losing streak that ended in Detroit saved the road trip and perhaps showed a slight strength of mental toughness.Crushing Lost overtime in Philadelphia Following a ferocious rally and coming back in the final minutes, it’s possible the hangover had an effect.
It wasn’t, and Ham should be credited for keeping things fair.
“Sure, it was a heartbreaking loss, as much as we lost it. But we have to get back on our feet. You know, that was the big part of the movie this morning.” “They scored the goal while we were doing that run. And we just kept coming, and keeping coming, and coming. That has to be how we approach the rest of the season.”
Russell Westbrook He didn’t play Sunday’s fourth quarter, but that wasn’t because he had a disastrous night. It wasn’t the night of his career, but he scored his 11 points with his 9 assists and shot 5 of 9 in 21 minutes.
Hamm said after the game that he liked the unit and stuck with it. Reeves was the only reserve to play more than Westbrook.
Westbrook was minus 12, but that could be a deceptive statistic on the surface. That mostly happened when Bojan Bogdanovic ran out of control and scored 25 of the Pistons’ 41 innings in the third quarter.
However, Hamm seems to be fair and honest with Westbrook for such things to happen, and it won’t cause much trouble down the road. But it still breathes life into the players — it’s a delicate balance.
It would definitely be difficult to argue that Hamm was moving with the group if Westbrook was performing poorly. Or it can be taken as a signal that he is unwilling to run with a veteran of star pedigree through his struggles.
Ham brought up an instance from a previous game where Dennis Schroeder was supposed to check in but signaled the coaches to keep the current group on the floor. It was mentioned at the meeting, and of course Hamm had no clue he had to call it back two nights later.
“You can’t just look at the stats all the time. Look at the rhythm of the five guys playing on the court,” Hamm said. “And it felt like there was a really good rhythmic group out there.”
About Schroeder he said: ”
The coolness of the last point shows where the Lakers are. Hamm could certainly commend the team for making a road trip that exceeded expectations, but he is fully aware that the team is still in serious deficit and has a lot of work to do.
When you start 2-10, every win is valuable, but none is breathtakingly big. Even with the Lakers dominating the trade board, there is no room for error.
It’s easy to say the Lakers should do something smart — take the NFL’s reverse cues los angeles ramsgambled it all to win one Super Bowl, but now it looks scary — and holds the first-round pick years away.
But they knew the drill, as they helped bring them out of the NBA abyss when they signed James four years ago. As long as he’s good, he’ll need all your resources in the name of competing.
He’s no longer at the top of the hill, but when it comes to performance, not just his age, but without qualifying, he can sometimes call a night with few people to compare.
Certainly those nights don’t come as often as they used to. But when they do, and even when they don’t, he stays at the top of the basketball conversation.
Not that he owes anything, especially since some of the league’s best players have ended their careers with less than impressive teams. It means that it is difficult to retreat.
The West isn’t completely open, but there’s enough sunshine to give people who’ve never seen rain in Southern California a little hope.
just a little.
