The Lakers are coming of their first days of consecutive rest in over a month. After playing in Cleveland on Saturday, they are in Charlotte to play the Hornets today, Tuesday, the 5th game of a 7 game road trip which will have them on the road for two weeks. So, even with the extra day off, there really is not any rest for the weary in the NBA — something the Lakers are well aware of, I might add.
This goes for the travel and for who they will face on the floor. To be clear, the Hornets are not looked at as a “power” by any means. They are only 2 games over .500 at 15-13 on the year. However, that mark is good for 4th in the East and they easily could be 3rd if they hadn’t lost 4 in a row before getting a win against the Hawks on Saturday. So, yeah, the Hornets are good. They have good depth, an excellent coach, and, maybe most important, know who they are and how they want to beat you.
Charlotte plays a disciplined game on both sides of the ball and makes opponents beat them rather than making the kinds of mistakes where the Hornets beat themselves.
Consider the Hornets rank 6th in defensive efficiency, 1st in defensive rebound rate, 28th in offensive rebound rate, and 3rd in turnover percentage on offense. This team makes you score on your first possession against a set defense and then makes you play out full possessions on the other end by rarely giving the ball away. We talk about Memphis as “grit and grind”, but Charlotte has a little bit of that in their blood too.
What does this mean for tonight? Well, the Lakers are going to need to play one of their most disciplined games of the year to hang tough. They cannot get reckless and turn the ball over. They cannot force the action offensively by trying to attack in isolation. They must be selective in how they crash the offensive glass because the Hornets will rebound the ball and do have the ability to push the ball back at them as guys like Randle or Mozgov trail behind the action.
On an individual match up level, I am most interested in three battles. The first is in D’Angelo Russell vs. Kemba Walker. The latter is having an all-star caliber season, averaging 22 and 5 while shooting 41.4% from deep with a PER of 22.6. Kemba can work as the ball handler in the P&R as well as in isolation, offering shiftiness and shot creation ability for himself and teammates. So, Russell will have his hands full on defense, but may be able to get his own offense going on the other end, using his size advantage to get into the post or to put Kemba “in jail” coming off the P&R to create shots in the mid-range area.
The other match up I will be watching closely is Julius Randle against Marvin Williams. In recent seasons Williams has remade himself into a stretch PF who defends well in space and hits the 3 ball on the other end. He takes 5 threes a night and connects at a 35.3% rate — which is totally reasonable for one of your “big” men. Randle, then, will need to defend out to the three point line with consistency while also still recovering to the paint to rebound and help the helper when Mozgov gets involved in the P&R. On the other end, Randle should be able to score well from the post and in the open court — if he shows the proper patience (which can be said almost every game, honestly).
Lastly, the battle of back up PG’s interests me a great deal tonight. Lou Williams has had a great offensive season but he remains uneven defensively. He has too many lapses off the ball and can be indifferent in transition when marking his man or slowing the ball. That last part can mean trouble when Ramon Sessions comes into the game and is looking to get downhill. Lou is the more impactful player to be sure, but Sessions has long been a thorn in the Lakers’ side and if that holds true tonight it can have a major impact on the Lakers’ chances.
Finally, this is a homecoming of sorts for Brandon Ingram. Ingram’s hometown of Kinston is a 4 hour drive from Charlotte so it’s not like this is Ingram’s backyard by any stretch. But he is in his home state, got to watch his former Duke Blue Devils play on Monday night, and is likely to have some family at the game. Coming off a near triple-double against the Cavs, I am hopeful Ingram can give those who come to watch him a nice showing.
Where you can watch: 4:00pm start time on Spectrum Sportsnet
Joel_ says
Not much defense going on here so far. Lou and Clarkson have come in firing!
KevTheBold says
Clarkson is shooting lights out tonight,..
Randle seems to have his mind on his son’s upcoming birth.
KevTheBold says
Lakers are living by the 3,.. let’s hope they don’t die by the 3.
Mid Wilshire says
When’s the last time the Lakers scored 73 points in a half?
So far, the 2nd unit has 38 points (!) with Clarkson going 6-9 (5-7 from three) for 17 points with 2 assists and a block. Meanwhile, Nick Young has 16, Deng (who is playing very well again) has 11, Nance has 10, and Lou has 9.
Now…can they maintain their focus in the 2nd half? Let’s hope so. Right now, they lead by 14.
Mid Wilshire says
One other note: so far the Lakers have 21 assists vs. only 4 TOs…in the first half. This is almost unheard of. But…we still have a 2nd half to play.
Joel_ says
Well that escalated quickly.
KevTheBold says
Here they go,…the regular 3rd quarter lack of focus,..and the threes are not falling.
30twhite40 says
Looks like Nance Jr hurt his knee.
Joel_ says
Good response by the Lakers.
KevTheBold says
Hope Nance is not seriously hurt and won’t be out long,..
30twhite40 says
X-rays were negative on Larry Nance Jr.’s left knee. He will have an MRI exam tomorrow in Miami. From Mike Bresnahan
KevTheBold says
30twhite40
Thanks for that !
Joel_ says
Inability to grab a defensive rebound has killed the Lakers tonight.
KevTheBold says
I don’t understand why Walton keeps pulling Russell out.
KevTheBold says
No way the Lakers should have lost this game!
30twhite40 says
Lakers blew this game and should have won. Unable to get a key rebound and stop and most of the 50-50 balls went the Hornets way. Stat of the night, Hornets with 10 turnover and Lakers had zero points of the turnovers. Lakers still learning how to close out a game. Tough lose tonight. Bad third quarter doomed the Lakers.
Hope Nance Jr will be ok.
Mid Wilshire says
This is the kind of game that exposes the Lakers’ youth. It will probably be another year or two before they learn to win games that they should win. After leading by 14 at half, they got outscored by 18 in the 2nd half and only scored 40 in the entire 2nd half of the game. A more experienced team, say, the Spurs would never have let this happen.
But…on the positive side, the Lakers once again had an excellent Assist to Turnover ratio: 29 assists, 12 TOs. This is very encouraging…and important. Of course, their defense was extremely poor and they were unable to contain either Kemba Walker or Nicolas Batum, both of whom scored easily and had double / doubles with 10 assists each.
But more good news. Jordan Clarkson appears to be coming out of his funk. Tonight JC had 25 points on 9-13 shooting (7-9 from 3) with 5 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 block — very possibly one of the better all-around games by a Laker guard this season.
Lou Williams had 16, Nick Young 24, Russell 15, and Luol Deng had 11 and 7 (although he did very little in the 2nd half).
I still say that the culprit is the Lakers’ team defense. Once they start to figure things out on that end, they’ll start to win games like this.
I’m half-expecting — and hoping — that their defense will improve markedly in the 2nd half of the year. If and when it does, games like this will be theirs for the taking.
DieTryin says
Agree on the need to focus more on defense esp Russell & Clarkson. But JR played excellent defense esp after Nance got hurt. Hope it is nothing serious! Randle set a personal high in blocks tonight with 5. If Luke can get the team to take real pride notwithstanding current athleticism of some they will improve here. Bottom line they are still learning to win. At some point you dig in and don’t let big leads get away. And kudos to Ckarkson rediscovering his shooting touch. 7 treys!
jetjaz says
i am sick of randle. Inconsistent, doddles on the floor, no urgency to loose balls, unable to jump 1 ft to rim, no touch, anyone on that bench has to be better
LordMo says
Well not much to say other than some defense would have been nice.
LordMo says
The only thing that is worse than our defense are the broadcasts on Spectrum Sportsnet. It has that Cable Community access vibe to it.
Wow…just too sad to watch and even tougher to listen too. What has happened to this great sports organization.
LonShapiro says
By far, the most disappointing game of the year. They blew multiple leads, so there periods where they played good defense and moved the ball. It was obvious they wouldn’t repeat their first half performance, but they reverted to bad iso habits at the end of the game and didn’t work hard enough on the boards. This was the same as the season opener, with the teams reversed.
Mid Wilshire says
Here’s the latest on Larrry Nance courtesy of NBA.com:
EL SEGUNDO – Los Angeles Lakers forward Larry Nance, Jr., who suffered an injury to his left knee in last night’s game in Charlotte, had an MRI exam today in Miami. Results showed a bone bruise, which will keep Nance, Jr. out indefinitely, but further results were inconclusive due to swelling in the knee. He will be re-examined by team physician Dr. David McAllister of UCLA Health on Sunday in Los Angeles, and an update will be given at that time.
LordMo says
We are going to miss his defense and hustle.