After Sunday’s matinee, the two largest margins of victories for the Lakers this season have come against the weary Phoenix Suns.
In a game that saw the Suns lead by double-digits after the first quarter, Los Angeles dominate nearly every minute after, and rookie Moe Wagner score his first professional points, almost all of the Lakers’ faithful left STAPLES Center happy heading into their work week.
ADVANCED BOX SCORE RECAP:
Game MVP: Kyle Kuzma: 23 Points | 8 Rebounds | 3 Assists | 23.1 Control% | 73% TS% | +11.6 AuPM | +7.4 Points Added | 6.3 Box Creation
3 OBSERVATIONS:
LeBron James Catches His Breath
Despite his T-800 outer shell, LeBron James is still set to turn 34 at the end of December. An important, and necessary reminder for he and his team need to recognize.
As seen in their +2.1 point differential, the Lakers have not had many emphatic wins this season. Which, when built around a player who is currently giving Father Time the most hellacious fight in recent memory, need to find a way to allot him more chances to catch his breath.
Despite the tightness and somehow always stressful, nature of their contests this season, head coach Luke Walton has done a solid job in monitoring James’ minutes.
Tallying only 30 minutes of action against the Suns, and a career low 34.3 minutes a game on the season, the current plan to keep James as fresh as humanly, or in his case mechanically, possible is right on track.
Michael Beasley Gets Buckets
Michael Beasley is not a complicated player to understand. He does what he likes to do and is good at, getting buckets.
Finding himself out of the Lakers’ rotation early on due to personal reasons, Beasley has reappeared in the rotation, and posted his best performance thus far against the Suns.
Against Phoenix, Beasley netted 14 points (74.2 true-shooting percentage) in only 13 minutes off the bench. While the signing of the eccentric former lottery pick was met with some ire, Beasley if nothing else, has proven to be a more than capable player when given the chance.
As seen in B-Ball Index’s Player Grades, Beasley was a very talented scorer last season with New York. Yet this was not a blip. Going back multiple seasons back in the site’s database indicates this has been a quiet, but impressive trend.
Where as for this team, Beasley’s talents can possibly serve as an interesting tuning fork for the current bench unit.
Often running Brandon Ingram at point guard to start 2nd and 4th quarters, the team often does not provide adequate spacing for his paint heavy repertoire. However as seen against Phoenix, the Lakers’ bench looked, and hummed much more concisely with Beasley in the front court.
Attacking an opposing big out of a Horns set, burying a three, and swinging multiple passes to corner men, Beasley in just a few minutes showed the Lakers what he could offer if given the chance.
Beasley is ultimately not a problem solver, but he is a viable option who has unique and useful talents.
Kyle Kuzma: The Sequel
Last week this author questioned if it was time to be concerned about Kyle Kuzma’s impact. Since prompting that dubious question, Kuzma has provided real and useful contributions to the Lakers.
Primarily upping his rebounding, playmaking, and most impressively his defense, Kuzma has made a concerted effort to find ways to contribute to winning that does not primarily revolve around scoring.
While he still is struggling to find his stroke, there are reasons to be optimistic of a turnaround.
On Kuzma’s 122 attempts from three thus far, 113 of them have been classified as “open” or “wide open” according to Second Spectrum. Although he has been horrendous in terms of converting these attempts (21.6 percent on open chances) the amount of space he has been allowed playing off of James is a good sign.
One would imagine based on his production last season and shot quality thus far, eventually the there will be simple regression to the mean (6/15 from three in his last two games). This, coupled with his recent contributions elsewhere, could be an encouraging sign of development.
2 QUESTIONS:
Is It Time To Move Josh Hart To The Starting Lineup?
Simply put, Josh Hart has been awesome this season.
Currently shooting an absurd 43 percent on above-the-break threes this season (90th percentile among wings) Hart has been one of the sole reliable options from behind the arc on the Lakers. His defense has also picked up of late, doing a much better job trailing wings and offering up solid contests. This was directly seen in his minutes matched up with Devin Booker.
Many have asked if Hart’s strong production should warrant a move to the starting lineup, which in reality based on play alone should be the case on most teams.
However, despite porous starts and lackadaisical moments from the current starters, the group has risen their net rating nearly every game and more importantly — continue to win.
While Hart definitely has deserved more minutes, and eventually a starting nod, now is probably not the time to do it.
Is Offense or Defense the Lakers’ Biggest Strength?
The Lakers are a Rubick’s Cube wrapped in a page of Perplexors.
It has only been 23 games into the season, and the team has already showed two drastic different play styles. The blistering fast, high-scoring team in October is gone. In it’s place, a stifling defense that grinds out wins.
Here are the confounding early results:
October: 8th offRTG | 23rd defRTG
November: 24th offRTG | 2nd defRTG
Again, a larger sample will resolve most of the early confusion. Yet, in the time being, the Lakers continue to be one of the most polarizing and perplexing teams in the NBA, with no one clear strength other than having the ultimate cheat code that is LeBron James.
1 PREDICTION:
The Lakers will be a top four team in the Western Conference come Christmas. An unfathomable statement given where the team was last season, and where it was to start the year, yet it is looking more and more likely to be possible.
Currently slotted fifth in the standings, the purple and gold are only a game out of the fourth spot and two out of first place as of this article.
If nothing else, this is also a reminder how bonkers the Western Conference currently is. Which, in the Lakers case, could be their opportunity to take advantage and strike.
*Statistics and images courtesy of: NBA.com and Cleaning the Glass.
(Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
