Life has been kicking my ass lately. Financially. I just got saddled with an incredibly expensive car repair that I had no other choice but to proceed with. I've been doing a great job of building my savings account back up these past few months, but I had to severely cut into it to tend to this urgent matter. It felt like I had been climbing up this vast financial mountain, and life just decided to push me down a few meters with a light boot to the head. I'm still hanging onto the mountain though - I haven't fallen off. But I need to tread back on the path that I just went up to get where I was before.
I had one thing that I was looking forward to in this muddy pile of life though. My mom treated me and my dad to Laker game tickets against the San Antonio Spurs! I honestly didn't think I'd attend a Laker game this year given how expensive they typically are...and adding LeBron James to your team takes the already expensive ticket price exponentially higher! On a rainy Wednesday night, we set out for the Staples Center in downtown LA to see if the Lakers could take one against the Spurs( who've already beaten LA twice this year).
I had a good feeling about this game though. We had a choice between this and the game against the Miami Heat on December 10th. I picked this one because I didn't think this iteration of the Spurs would beat us a third time in a row in our own god damn building.
It was my first time seeing LeBron James in person. It's always jarring seeing these humungous athletes walk among us right in front of our very eyes. I know everyone says this - but you forget how tall these guys are. Tyson Chandler looked like a Herculean God in his seven-foot glory. Even a smaller guy like Josh Hart looked like an inflated version of a human compared to the normal sized people standing courtside during warmups.
When you're watching on TV, you forget they're real people who've lived lives and experienced the world's ups and downs. From the distance of your screen, they just feel like characters in a movie. I hope I get the pleasure of sitting in the prestigious Laker courtside seats someday, but for now, the seats we had weren't too shabby! Honestly, they're the closest I've ever sat at a Laker game. We were on the ground floor! It seemed like we were getting a deal for what we paid for these seats.
My dad and I got our 16-ounce beers and sat down for pregame warmups and intros. They played the standard hype-up video on the gigantic cloth that drapes the jumbotron. I feel like every team does this nowadays. Do you know if any arenas do anything unique for their pregame ceremonies? I remember the Sacramento Kings had a dope 3-D projection on their floor several years back. I'd love to see the Lakers run something like that.
The captains shook hands, players fastened their shorts, and we were underway in the penultimate Lakers vs. Spurs game of the season.
The first quarter was one of the lower scoring ones played by the Lakeshow all year. It was partly due to their bad shooting/slower pace, but I gotta give credit to the Laker defense! They held the Spurs to only 23 first-quarter points (which was a much different story than that no-defense fest in the first Spurs game of the year). They were all active out there despite losing Brandon Ingram to an ankle sprain merely five minutes into the game. He landed awkwardly on LaMarcus Aldridge's ankle and had to get taken to the locker room. It didn't look good at all. I didn't expect him to come back into this on. Just prayed that he wasn't going to be out for extended time.
The offense never really picked up as the score sat at 50-45 heading into the second half. LA held the lead, but this game was up for grabs for anyone who stepped up and played aggressively. Much to my dismay...that person was looking like the Spurs Rudy Gay.
That man started TORCHING us out there. I was like really?? You're going to let Rudy Gay do you dirty? This man is a bonafide scrub who shoots his teams out of ballgames and we're letting him find a rhythm against us?? I was heated. So was my dad and every other Laker fan hollering in the building. Oh yea. The refs in this game were HORRIFIC too. It straight up felt like the Replacement Refs from the NFL a few years ago. Me and pops speculated that they must've called out the JV team of NBA officials to get some big game exposure(this was broadcasted on ESPN).
The men in stripes just weren't consistent with their foul calls all game. Josh Hart was getting hammered out there on charges to the rim and they wouldn't yield A THING for him at the line. There was also one play where they changed their minds and reversed the call...then they did a 180 reversing it AGAIN. Never in all my sports years have I seen such indecision from the refs - and it was the wrong call. I'm sure the Spurs got a couple bad calls too, I just wasn't paying attention to their well-being.
While Rudy Gay continued to torch us, LA's collective eyes darted among one another scrambling to find out who was going to step up and stop the bleeding. That man ended up being the guy we all came to see. The big man LeBron James picked us up after a horrific third quarter and brought the boys home with daring playmaking and several crunch time baskets to ice the game! I honestly hate recording concerts/sporting events with my phone because I'd rather experience them in the moment, but I made a concession for Scorum by recording the last two crunch-time buckets. These were the ones that put the game away for good!
The Deep Three
The Drive
Takeaways
LeBron man. The Lakers toppled the Spurs 121-113 and have now won four in a row. They're starting to figure out how to win games they would've lost earlier in the season. But they're leaning on LeBron a little too much if you ask me. His big 42 points were the difference maker tonight - but I don't want this to become a trend and see us turn into another Cleveland-like situation.
Who is going to be that second star offensively for the Lakers? The idea coming into the season was Brandon Ingram, but I don't think he's ready yet. This ankle injury may prove to be a setback too. But I did notice that the offense had a little more flow to it with Ingram out of the game. Kuzma was more free to fire away(22 pts, 9 rebs, 5 assists), and Lonzo Ball had a nice do-everything game himself (14 pts, 4 rebs, 9 assists, 2 teals, 3/6 from 3). Is it going to be Kyle Kuzma? He's crafty on the offensive side of the ball, but I'm not certain he can bring that scoring every night in his current stage of development.
Questions like this make me wonder what our team will look like after December 15th. On that day, guys that we signed in the off-season will be eligible to trade. Guys like Rondo, KCP, Lance, JaVale, and Michael Beasley will all be eligible to put into trade packages. Will they sacrifice some of their free agents and young core to make a run at a star like Anthony Davis? I think if you're talking about a guy of Davis' caliber, you pull the trigger on him with any of these younger players REGARDLESS.
I've been high on AD since him and his unibrow strutted across the podium to shake the commissioner's hand on draft day. I know our front office is diligently working to craft trade packages for a second star. I just hope they don't blow it on somebody god-awful and expensive like John Wall...
Out of all the games I could've chosen to go to, I'm glad it ended up being one where the Lakers came back thanks to a LeBron James-led rally. 42 big points with 20 in the fourth quarter. Life has been getting me down, but LeBron and my team lifted my spirits tonight no doubt. I guess that's what sports are here to do.
Thanks for reading ~ Have you ever gotten the chance to see LeBron live? Let me know in the comments!
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