One guy seemed to make all the difference. The Lakers put out their best defensive effort of the season during their 101-86 road victory over the Sacramento Kings on Saturday night. They almost let Sacramento come back on them after they had a 10+ point lead, but they executed down the stretch(and lucked out on some key Sacramento misses) just enough to bring their record back to an even .500, 6-6.
Tyson Chandler was great once again for the Lakeshow on the glass and defending the interior. Chandler ended up getting the majority of crunch time minutes over JaVale, which set the tone for their best defensive night of the season. They only surrendered 86 points to a surprisingly potent Kings squad spearheaded by the surging play of De'Aaron Fox. It was their first time holding an opponent to under 100 points this season. In the offensive explosion of a climate we are living in from "freedom of movement" rule changes, that's a pretty noteworthy accomplishment. LeBron even looked engaged on defense for once! Check out the game recap below.
Game Recap
First Quarter
Lonzo Ball was questionable to play this game but he managed to get himself in the starting lineup. The energy in the building was off the charts because the Kings historically hate the Lakers and there were tons of rowdy opposing Laker fans in the building. LA struck first but De'Aaron Fox quickly countered with a bucket of his own. It was a little more invigorating than your usual first bucket of a ballgame. Fox was coming into this game looking to put on a show.
Both teams were neck and neck for the first 6-8 points, then the Lakers started pounding it to McGee down low for easy buckets. LA coped an 12-8 advantage before Sacramento had to call a timeout to regroup. Tyson Chandler came into the game after that TO and immediately made his presence known with a couple possessions kept alive via tip-out rebound and a steal on Willie Cauley Stein. LeBron stepped up a couple possessions later and nailed a deeeep iso three to put the Lakers up seven, 17-10 with about six minutes to go. Chandler brought a couple positives in the quarter, but he did surrender two turnovers (one off an offensive foul and another on a 3-second violation), so he wasn't perfect.
With about three minute left several bench players came in. JaVale and Ingram were the only two starters on the floor. Ingram can be a catalyst for the second unit with his savvy ball-handling, but he wasn't running the show because Rondo elected to take control. Ingram opted to iso a couple times and it resulted in a point about half the time. The Lakers were doing an excellent job of rebounding though. You'd think McGee got some pointers from Chandler in the last few days. They ended the quarter up by six, 26-20.
Second Quarter
The bench was was still in to start the second quarter, and we were treated to a Lance Stephenson shake-n-bake alley-oop to McGee. Lance's sloppy ass was all over the place, copping steals while simultaneously being a turnover threat play-by-play. The bench boys were moving the ball pretty well though. Rondo assisted Josh Hart for a layup in transition and KCP drained a wide-open three. Lakers ballooned the lead to eleven, 33-22, before Sacramento had to call another timeout.
Luke kept the bench guys in after that timeout, even rolling out a unit of all bench players when Chandler came back in. LA's shooting went kind of cold, but they were still rebounding strongly while the Kings continued to turn it over like crazy. The Lakers got a little cocky after some great defensive possessions and proceeded to make a couple mental errors to give up two easy dunks. Luke Walton wasn't happy with that so he called a timeout to chew his guys out. Lakers still up 38-26.
The starters came back in with under six minutes to go, but Tyson Chandler remained on the floor. Their defense was lagging and they were letting the Kings back into the game. No ball movement just ill-advised iso shots from Brandon Ingram. A De'Aaron Fox three whittled the once double-digit lead down to six, 39-32. LA's momentum was all gone. Fox nailed another three to cut that lead down to three. LeBron basically said, "I've had enough of this" and muscled his way to the hoop for an and-1 to put them back up by six. Sacramento was ferocious, led by the stellar shooting of De'Aaron Fox. Lonzo Ball tried being aggressive but he ended up chucking two straight air balls.
De'Aaron Fox looked at the Laker bench and said, "You don't have anybody that can guard me!" after nailing yet another three-pointer. LeBron responded in kind with another three of his own from way downtown to push it to 50-44 Lakers ahead. That was the last score of the quarter in a game that was briefly all-Lakers, but the marksmanship of Fox was undeniable. This game felt like it was going to be an interesting back-and-forth affair.
Third Quarter
LA came out focused to start the third, with JaVale intercepting a Kings alley-oop for a Kuzma three at the other end. The Lakers were grabbing some strong offensive rebounds but they didn't convert any of their shots. Sacramento capitalized and cut the nine-point lead to four, but then LeBron kicked his defense up a notch copping a few steals leading into transition points. He was noticeably more aggressive on D. Haven't seen a lot of that this year!
The effort was there, but Sacramento were still playing sharp and got the lead down to one, 55-54. Kyle Kuzma threw an alley-oop to Chandler to finally get some Laker points back on the board, but Fox came right back with a drive to whittle it down to one. The pace of this game was off the charts. Before we knew it Lonzo Ball was throwing a half-court alley-oop to LeBron for the slam! Lakers were barely up five, 61-56 with under six minutes to play in the third.
Kyle Kuzma was being switched onto Fox a notable number of times. Sacramento was clearly trying to exploit Kuzma's suspect defense with their best offensive player - and it was totally working for them. Rondo and LeBron hit a pair of three's to put the Lakers back up by nearly ten. The energy was there for them on both ends of the floor. The Lakers were up by ten, 70-60 and we only had 1:16 left in the third. LeBron took a seat for the final minute, which left Brandon Ingram with the keys to the Lakers whip. He was having an awful shooting night from the field(4/15 FG), but he drained a buzzer-beater midrange J to put the Lakers up 11 headed to the fourth quarter 76-65.
Fourth Quarter
Luke Walton ran with a lineup composed of mostly bench players sans JaVale to start the fourth. Rondo, Hart, Lance, KCP and McGee. The unit had a hard time creating buckets until Lance Stephenson began working his magic with a corner three. Born Ready! Lakers held a lead of fifteen with under ten to play, 83-68. Shortly after that, LA went on a 9-0 run and extended the lead to 20, 88-68. And they were doing it with their bench guys! LA was leading the Kings in bench points 35-17.
The Kings found some momentum though so Luke put LeBron, Ingram and Kuzma back in the contest. Things weren't going LA's way. Rondo bricked two free throws and LeBron was giving up stupid fouls. Sacramento cut the once-20-point lead to twelve and LA had to call time to strategize. 88-76 Lakers. Things didn't get much better out of the timeout as the Lakers turned it over for a Marvin Bagley transition dunk. Brandon Ingram quieted the Kings crowd with a drive to put the Lakers back up twelve. Four minutes to play.
But the Kings just wouldn't go away. They came out aggressive as hell as Marvin Bagley actually made some free throws to cut the lead to 11(he was previously 8/18 on the year from the stripe). It felt like Sacramento could go on a serious run here, but the Laker's marquee player rose to the occasion with his back against the wall. Sacramento's resurgence inspired a very pretty Kuzma backdoor cut assisted by LeBron which stifled the Sac momentum right as they were on the come-up. That bucket effectively put this game to bed. The Kings gave them a late scare, but Sacramento missed too many shots down the stretch and the Lakers just executed when they had to. LA emerged victorious 101-86.
Takeaways
In terms of the center position, the Lakers went from being a team stranded in the desert with no water to a team hiking through the desert on top of a camel carrying several gallons at its sides. The minor addition of Tyson Chandler seems to have plugged a serious hole at the 5-spot on the defensive side of the ball, and it's bleeding out into other facets of their defense as a whole. His tip-away rebounding kept possessions alive and in the hands of the Lakers, whereas surrendering a rebound might've yielded an unneeded Kings run. A center rotation of JaVale and Chandler is proving to be surprisingly potent.
People harped on Tyson's lack of effort in Phoenix in the leadup to his first game with the Lakeshow, but the effort is clearly there for him on his new squad. I think he's just motivated that he has something to play for.
LA's bench unit played admirably tonight as they outscored the Kings backups 39-32, but I was most impressed with the way the bench mob upheld the lead in the second half. The Kings had chances to go on a run but LA's reserves always came away with timely shots and great energy. Their defensive synergy wasn't looking half-bad either. It was when LeBron and the starters came back in when they started surrendering easy points. Hats off to work done by the bench tonight.
Free throws are still a glaring problem for the Lakeshow though. LA shot 7/17 from the line while Sacramento converted 16/20. This a problem dating back to last year when they were the worst ranked free throw shooting team in the league, losing a handful of games in the last minute thanks to missed free throws. Every brick at the line sends me into a fit of exasperation. THOSE ARE FREEBIES! MAKE YOUR DAMN FREE THROWS! Maybe the Lakers need to find a better shooting coach to help out the team, I don't know. Even LeBron is missing a ton of them. I know he's not a knockdown free throw shooter, but if he stepped up to become one I think the others would follow his lead.
One topic that has the Lakers subsection of Twitter abuzz is Luke's decision to not play Lonzo Ball in crunch time. Fans of the Big Baller cite Lonzo's superior defense and need to establish chemistry with the team as the reason he should be getting crunch time reps. He missed almost half the season last year with an injury and is only 12 games into this new one, so given the expectations that come with having LeBron on your team he needs every opportunity to learn and grow in game-time situations.
I agree with this sentiment that Lonzo needs exposure, but Lonzo played badly tonight so I'm cool with Luke rolling with Rondo instead. Lonzo had a couple of nice defensive sequences throughout the game, but he was cold as hell from the floor. He shot 2/10 on the night and threw up a couple of cringe-worthy back-to-back airballs. He made some pretty passes which created easy buckets too.
That said, I think Rondo did just fine tonight in his crunch time minutes. He commanded the second unit when they were maintaining the lead late and also held the fort down when LeBron checked back in during the fourth. Lonzo's defense is superior to Rondo, but I didn't think Lonzo was having a good enough game to warrant him playing down the stretch. There have been a couple other nights where I've gotten mad at Luke for not rolling with Lonzo, but tonight I believe he's justified. All that matters is we got the W. Check out highlights of the game below!
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