Thoughts From A Lakers Loss
- Updated: October 29, 2015
The Los Angeles Lakers played, and lost, their first regular season game last night against the Minnesota Timberwolves, 112-111. Even though they lost the game, L.A. was ahead for the majority of the contest and could have easily won had Lou Williams’ floater fell in the closing seconds.
But it didn’t. And that’s fine.
No one expects the Lakers to win too many games this season, anyways, but their first game did offer us some insight on how they might look this season. Here are four things we may, or may not have learned from their first game:
Randle is Legit
Julius Randle warned us. Before preseason even started, Randle was quoted saying he would average a double-double, and in his first official game as a Laker, he did just that. Randle played thirty minutes on the night—the highest of any Laker—finishing the game with 15 points and 10 boards. Aside from that, though, he didn’t do much else. He had 2 assists, but he wasn’t able to record a single block or steal, which is expected; Randle has never earned praise for his defense, so the lack of stats on that side of the court make sense. Hopefully, though, as the season progresses, he will start to contribute on defense, and record an assist or two more a game. But for now, after last night, everyone should be satisfied with his first performance as he gave us no reason to doubt him this year; no reason to believe he can’t average a double-double and live up to his unique potential.
D’Angelo Will Struggle
If there is one player who is going to struggle this year from L.A.’s future ‘big three’ of Russell, Randle, and Clarkson, it’s going to be Russell. Russell has promising long-term potential, but through the preseason and his first NBA game, he has failed to live up to the hype of being the No.2 overall pick. Obviously, it’s impossible to say whether he will have a productive rookie season this early, but compared to Clarkson and Randle, his game doesn’t look nearly as NBA-ready. Clarkson is an underrated athlete with a solid season of rookie experience under his belt, and Randle has the confidence, build, and quickness to at the very least score cheap buckets and make an immediate impact on the boards. But Russell hasn’t sold us on how his skill set will fit in L.A. yet. He has provided glimpses of his savant passing, and L.A. has enough shooters on the roster for Russell to make an impact as a facilitator, but he is going to need to find other ways to be effective on the court outside of passing if he wants to earn consist playing time. He had 4 points and 3 assists last night against the Wolves, which clearly leaves a lot to be desired, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he has one of the tougher seasons among the rookies as he learns how to consistently defend and scores points while we wait for his passing potential to develop.
Kobe Really Doesn’t Care
I’m not talking about winning. Everyone knows Kobe’s competitive nature is borderline sadistic. What I mean is that Kobe really does not care what anyone says about his age or shooting percentages. After shooting a career worst from the field last year, Kobe came out last night against Minnesota and hoisted 13 three-pointers, connecting on only 3. There are fewer than five players in the entire league who can make an argument for shooting 13 three-pointers in one game, and Kobe is definitely not one of them.
Especially at 37 years old.
He started the game fine, though. He made a few tough fades like usual and connected on a couple of interior shots, but then in typical Kobe fashion, he shot too many long-distance shots and turned what was a respectable shooting percentage into an annoying one. He finished the game 8 for 24 (33%), and if this is any indication of how Kobe will play this year, the Lakers could be in for another painful season.
If Kobe really wants to win games and help the next generation of Lakers improve, then he is going to have to facilitate more and really work on improving his shot selection.
Roy Hibbert Should Fit
In his first game in purple and gold, Hibbert scored 12 points, grabbed 10 rebounds for the double-double, and swatted two blocks for a very Roy Hibbert-like performance. That’s exactly the type of outing the Lakers were hoping for when they signed Hibbert this offseason, but the most important part of that stat line is how he scored his points. Hibbert was 1 for 4 on the night from the field, meaning he scored 10 of his 12 points from the free throw line where he went a perfect 10 for 10.
This won’t happen often.
In fact, that many probably won’t happen more than twice over the course of the season. But, Hibbert has always been an above average center at shooting foul shots so it’s encouraging to see him find a way to contribute offensively. Realistically, though, his offensive contributions will come and go—like they always have over his career—but if can consistently block 2 to 3 shots a game and hover somewhere around 9 to 10 boards, he should have no trouble fitting in with the Lakers and earning another contract next offseason. Hitting 10 for 10 from the line, though; that part is icing.
Latest posts by Connor Fisher (see all)
- Thoughts From A Lakers Loss - October 29, 2015
Pardon Our Dust
Writers Wanted
