The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Denver Nuggets at home 112-103 to improve to a 31-36 win-loss record, their best so far since the 2012-2013 season. It was sort of a revenge game for the Lake Show as the Nuggets defeated them in Denver just four days ago (in a game where post-game shenanigans happened).
Since the start of the new year up to the March 13th game, the Lakers have been on a tear, winning 20 of the 32 games they’ve played and are among the top 10 teams record-wise during that span. All this after netting a franchise record nine-game losing streak in December. At one point, Kyle Kuzma tweeted “we will figure it out, I promise” aaaand boy did these kids figure it out.
The Purple and Gold have shown steady improvement with each passing game, as evidenced by both eye test and stats. I wrote about that a while ago and you can read it here.
As the table below shows, the Lakers have been quietly winning games in the first three months of 2018 (all the noise is on the usual teams of late — Cavs, Warriors, Rockets, Sixers, etc.).
The Lakers have not only been winning more games than pundits have expected, they’ve also been doing it in an impressive manner. Nothing has come off as fluke-y or lucky.
If you’ve seen the kids play on TV, you’d see how they’ve started to become a cohesive unit. The ball movement has been fluid with players looking for the open man and not caring about individual stats. The Lakers have also shot lights out from three, after being putrid there to start the season. They’ve rebounded better, they’ve lowered their turnovers despite their blitzkrieg style of play (they’re first in the league in pace at 103.24). One aspect of the game where the team has been bad at is free throw shooting, and they’ve improved on that as well.
The Lakers’ offensive rating has seen a steep rise since the start of the season, netting 112.1 in March versus 97.2 in October. While that stat improvement is impressive on it’s own, Los Angeles has done so without sacrificing their defense, which has been solid since the start of the season. Currently, the Lakers are 12th in defensive rating (105.5)
After a discouraging start where bloggers and “analysts” have all given up on LA and its young core of Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, Julius Randle and company, this visible, steady improvement is certainly welcomed by a fanbase so used to winning, but have seen hard times the past few years.
Certainly the players deserve a lot of credit for the turnaround as they are the ones executing on the hardwood. I cannot stress enough, however, how much Coach Luke Walton and his staff deserve credit also. They’ve steered a bunch of young players (where only two are older than 25) into playing smart basketball offensively and defensively.
During the aforementioned nine-game losing streak, Lakers fans have called for Luke’s head, calling him incompetent and idiotic. Look where we’re at now. Admittedly, Luke made questionable decisions at the beginning of the season (not playing Randle enough, inflexible rotations). But he’s a young head coach in his second year, and if we’re going to give leeway for young players to improve as time goes by, young coaches should be afforded the same benefit. Luke has certainly improved, much like this incarnation of the Lakers organization as a whole.
At the heart of this winning run by the Lakers in 2018 is the beast known as Julius Randle. The improvement in his personal stats parallel that of the team’s.
Randle has dominated players on the offensive end, scoring at will on any defender — and he does so in different ways. He will barrel through smaller defenders like a bull amongst matadors and he’s too quick for bigger guys to guard. He’s also a pretty underrated passer, able to find the open man from the post when he’s double teamed. Randle’s supposed inability to finish going right (he’s a lefty) is moot at this point. On defense, his ability to switch on to guards is very valuable in the modern NBA.
Julius Randle is far from a perfect machine, to be clear. He doesn’t have a good mid-range shot, and is certainly no threat from three. I doubt he’s ever going to become a three-point shooter. At this point in his career, he can score whenever he wants from under the rim, but at some point, if he develops any semblance of a consistent mid-range shot, he’ll even be scarier.
His numbers all point to one direction: Julius Randle is a star in the making and the Lakers better do what it takes for them to keep him when he hits restricted free agency in the summer. The Godfather of Laker Bloggers Darius Soriano of Forum Blue and Gold explained how the Lakers can do this in the Summer of LeBron and PG13. Read it here.
A playoff appearance this year is very unlikely (though technically still possible at this point). The Lakers would need to win all or most of their remaining 15 games AND pray that three of the Clippers, Nuggets, Jazz or Spurs suffer monumental meltdowns and lose majority of theirs. If LA didn’t have a crappy November and December, maybe they would’ve made the cut. But now it’s a long-shot, but I don’t care anymore.
What matters to me is the Lakers finishing strong and maintaining this level of play they’re at now. They don’t have to win all 15 games, I’m good with them playing hard and playing smart and continuing their improvement. Next year it’s playoffs or bust time.
patrickkennan.com 