I try to remain even keeled. The NBA season is long, you know? Best to not get too high or too low. There’s always another game to keep you grounded, to remind you of the grind that is an NBA regular season. But when the Lakers, with several players sick and fatigued, go into Utah to play the Jazz on the 2nd night of a back to back after just beating the Nuggets fairly convincingly, and put a beating on them 121-96? When they win in a way where they look head and shoulders above a team a lot of folks pegged as a real contender in the west before the season started? I can’t help but feel excited.
So, here I am. Sending off tweets and feeling the urge to clap back at some folks. Now that we’re in the morning after, I’m a bit less defiant but still feeling pretty damn good. I’ve been asking for the Lakers to be more attentive defensively and to play with an effort and urgency they’d lacked as they rattled off wins against a bunch of sub-.500 teams. Against the Jazz, they did that and more. The Lakers look like a team that’s for real. And it’s been a long time since we’ve been able to say that around these parts.
In terms of the action on the floor, there are a bunch of different things to highlight, but rather than rattle off a slew of stats or post clips of highlights, I’m going to keep this short and sweet and try to tie it in to the points I’ve already made.
The game started with the Jazz jumping out to an early lead. A missed lob attempt by JaVale led to a Bojan Bogdnavic 3. And then another. A Danny Green 3 got the Lakers on the board, but a dunk by Gobert kept the Jazz momentum going. A Joe Ingles 3 pushed the Jazz lead to 11-3 and it looked like the wheels could be coming off before the Lakers even backed out of the driveway. The Jazz had energy and a sense of determination that they were going to make a statement against a Lakers team that could fold early.
The opposite happened, though. And this is why I’m feeling as good as I am about this team right now. Despite having reasons to just chalk this up as one of those nights, the Lakers clearly were going to battle in this game and buy exerting some force and showing a level of will that really good teams have, the Lakers turned the tables on the Jazz and put them back on their heels. They outscored the Jazz 31-18 the rest of the period after that early Utah run. Then, in the 2nd quarter, they extended their lead by another 10 points to lead by 18 at the half.
The Lakers took a punch, gathered themselves, punched back, wobbled their opponent, and then smelled blood and went for the kill. The game never looked in doubt the rest of the way and AD was able to sit the entire 4th quarter while LeBron played some token minutes at the start of the period just to ensure no shenanigans happened. By the time where were a few minutes left in the game, LeBron had already given his shoes away to two kids in the stands and was celebrating and dancing after Kyle Kuzma got back to back blocks on a single defensive possession.
The details and highlights of this game matter less to me than the mentality this team showed in order to get this win. And while the individual talent of Bron, AD, and this group of seasoned role players will always carry them, it really is their mental makeup and approach that has me thinking positively in the short and long term. Excellent win, Lakers.
Now, for a few notes (which will actually just be highlights and no analysis because, man, there were a bunch)…
- Anthony Davis is a monster.
- Those Kuzma blocks really were something.
- Dwight? DWIGHT.
- When Rondo almost gets a triple double I’m going to give him his props.
- One of those games where LeBron really did make it look too easy.
That’s it for this one, ya’ll.