The Lakers continue to show grit and fighting spirit — there’s really no other way to explain their 9-9 record at this stage of the season, their latest win coming against the Hawks without D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle. The team simply battles hard, does their best to execute the gameplan, and finds ways to either keep games close or pull ahead with timely runs (mostly by the hands of their destructive all-bench unit).
Tonight is another test, though. The Lakers are in New Orleans to play the Pelicans, starting a 4-game road trip and the first night of a back to back which lands them in the Windy City Wednesday. The Pelicans’ record is poor, but have been playing better lately after Jrue Holiday returned to action after managing family health issues. The Pelicans also have that Anthony Davis fellow. I hear he’s pretty good.
The Lakers are also likely to be short handed again. Randle did non-contact work in a recent practice, but missed Sunday’s game and implied he’ll be cautious in his return rather than be dealing with a “nagging” injury deeper into the season where there may be higher stakes to play for. Russell remains out, which has been manageable for stretches, but puts more pressure on Clarkson and Williams to play well, while hoping Calderon can be a net neutral on both ends.
All of this is doable, but I must stress again that this game cannot be judged by the team’s records. Since Holiday has returned, the Pelicans resemble the team many analysts pegged to compete for the 8th seed in the playoffs. Their differentials with him and Davis on the floor are a strong positive and Holiday’s two-way ability mean that Davis doesn’t have to carry such a huge load every night for them to get wins.
The Lakers, then, must not take this game lightly and again must focus on execution while bringing their top effort. Offensively they must continue to move the ball, looking to reverse and skip in order to get the defense into their rotations. The team has been running some “hammer” actions lately which do a good job of exploiting defenses loading up on the strong side, and they’d do well to try and continue that type of movement to get Calderon, Clarkson, Williams, and Young the types of open threes they can feast on.
The Lakers will also do well to push the tempo. Davis runs like a deer and with Holiday back they too can play faster, but the Pels also like to play two bigs often enough — their two most used lineups feature Davis and Omer Asik — that if the Lakers can get out in transition and stay disciplined in running their lanes to keep spacing, they can generate open looks against a not-yet-set defense.
Lastly, whenever you play a team with a great player it often comes down to making a choice: do you play the rest of the team tight and make the single great player beat you or do you send the house at the great player and make the other guys beat you?
Before Holiday came back, I would say the latter would be the better choice, but now I am not so sure. I am tempted to see what Thomas Robinson and Larry Nance can do to slow Davis and then do the best job possible to not let Holiday and crew get it going. When Walton was with the Warriors, this is the technique they deployed, though they had Draymond Green and the Lakers do not. Still, though, I might prefer to single cover Davis, help when needed, but really focus on making sharp rotations back to the other Pelicans to avoid them getting in a groove. We’ll see if Walton sees things similarly.
Where you can watch: 5pm start time on Spectrum Sportsnet.
LKK says
It’s amazing how much one good player can do to bolster a team’s capabilities. As Darius mentioned, since the return of Jrue Holliday, the Pels are much improved. In addition to his offensive chops, Jrue is a fine defender who can make life difficult for anyone he’s tasked with guarding. I expect this to be a close, hard fought game especially in light of the fact that the NOLA is at home and will be hungry for a win coming off two road losses.
_Craig W says
LKK That’s what makes the Lakers so amazing. We don’t have that ‘one good player’ and we rely on all the ‘less than great’ players to hold up their end every night. On the road younger players have more problems, so now it may be an advantage to have 3 more veteran players in our starting lineup – they can, hopefully, start off the game on a more balanced note.
LKK says
@Craig W…
Good points. If JR is unavailable and T Rob gets the start, Robinson’s ability to at least slow Anthony Davis will be key. Davis’ injury in the first meeting helped turn a close game into a rout. AD is a force.
david__h says
Seeing a lot of maximum effort from everyone including that
dang deng guy. couldn’t be more prouder of
what’s taking place this early in the season.
Wins are good.
Go lakers
Joel_ says
Young just hobbled off with what looks like an ankle injury.
LKK says
Uh oh Nick….early report is Achilles’ tendon strain… dayum!!
Joel_ says
Bloody hell
bluehill says
Ugh another gut check for this team. Going to find out how well the coaches and players can adapt to the unexpected.
30twhite40 says
Nick Young has a right Achilles’ tendon strain. He’s out for tonight’s game and will undergo an MRI tomorrow in Chicago.
Hope it is not serious. Nick Young was having a good year compared to last season.
Joel_ says
Stopping Omer Malone is proving to be a real challenge so far.
KevTheBold says
Three of our best players out,.. Walton really has his work cut out for him.
fern16 says
Damn, when the team is finally starting to get out of all these past seasins miseries the injury bug stikes agan and now Julius is injured again. This is some f…… sh..!!!!!
KevTheBold says
Joined the game late and I now see that Randle is playing, well that’s one bit of good news.
I just hope Nick isn’t seriously injured.
KevTheBold says
I know it shouldn’t, but I admit, it will frustrate me to get blown-out by this team.
_Craig W says
Having Nance, Huertes, and Black in at the same time means there are 3 non-shooters on the floor – very frustrating when the clock starts to run down as they simply will not take a shot, but will pass it off to each other consistently. Nance needs to understand he should be in ‘shoot first’ mode when playing with these two.
LKK says
The team looks shell shocked right now.
Joel_ says
MWP starts the second half for some reason.
KevTheBold says
Up by 22 in the 4th with minutes to play, why is Davis still on the court?
Is it that important to Gentry to bury us further?
He keeps this up he will lose Davis to another injury, and all for nothing.
Vasheed says
One of the things I took away from this game was how the addition of one guy Holiday took from the Pelicans from horrible up to a credible team.
The Lakers got off to an unexpected great start to the season. As tough as the schedule has been recently from Dec9 to the 16th it looks fairly friendly to the Lakers. Right on time for trades to start opening up on Dec 15th. I think this might lead to the Lakers looking for that piece that uplifts the team to be a viable contender for a playoff spot. Yet, the Lakers depth has been their strength this season before the multiple injuries. The wrong move could really disrupt the chemistry Walton has found in his rotations.
FredP says
Vasheed Holiday is more than just a guy. He plays both ends well and is a pass first point guard. With him and maybe the best individual talent in the NBA the Pelicans are a solid .500 team. If Russell can come back healthy, he could help make the Lakers a .500 team this year. The bottom seeds of the WC are pretty competitive this year.
Vasheed says
FredP Vasheed
I was pretty sure I wasn’t implicating Holiday to be Joe Smoe. The point is adding a quality piece can change outcomes significantly. I think with the Lakers season progressing as it has the F.O. might start to consider a move to improve the roster rather than just looking at development. Though the team’s chemistry is very important to consider.