Lakers vs. Jazz – 8/3/20 – Hightlights Insight

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

LeBron and Anthony Davis showed up tonight. As a result of this win, the Lakers clinched the #1 seed in the Western Conference for the first time since the 2009-2010 season(Kobe/Gasol era). Whoever ends up being the #8 seed should just give up now. LeBron was quoted as saying, “It’s a huge accomplishment for our franchise.” It’s especially meaningful doing this in Kobe’s memory, but it will be even more meaningful if they take the title this season. It’s a shame that this achievement doesn’t come with homecourt advantage, but in a situation like this, there is no homecourt advantage for anyone. With the time off that’s already occurred, the Lakers need to keep working on weaknesses, so it is unlikely that they will rest anyone, whereas in a normal situation where you clinch the top seed the team ends up resting players and focuses on getting bench players meaningful minutes. A glaring issue in perimeter shooting remains, and the flow of offense needs to continue to open up spacing to give shooters opportunities to score from the outside. With those chances though, players need the confidence to knock those timely shots down. When the Lakers face off with the Clippers in an inevitable match-up, they will need those outside shots hitting on all cylinders. The AD-LeBron-Kuzma-Waiters-Caruso line-up caused a 2 way mix with guys creating, getting out to run, and the floor getting spread. The defensive tenacity with this line-up creates transition points. The Lakers outscored the Jazz by 10 points within the span of a few minutes. AD clinched this game with the 4-point play towards the end after the Lakers had tried to coast.

1 Comment

Comments are closed.