The Lakers came just short of making history.
It’d have been understandable if the Los Angeles Lakers came out flat on Friday night. Not only did they lose a tough battle with the Denver Nuggets less than 24 hours earlier, but the Lakers were surely somewhat spent emotionally as well after enduring months of trade rumors without a single move being made at Thursday’s trade deadline. Los Angeles is playing without Max Christie in addition to Jarred Vanderbilt, Cam Reddish and Gabe Vincent against the New Orleans Pelicans, too.
Instead of coming out flat against Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram and company, Los Angeles absolutely exploded out of the gate. Behind red-hot three-point shooting and D’Angelo Russell leading five Lakers in double-figures with 21 points, the purple-and-gold dropped a season-high 87 points on New Orleans at Crypto.com Arena—just barely missing the franchise record for points in a half set by Magic Johnson and the ‘Showtime’ Lakers in 1987.
Needless to say, basketball fans and followers had their minds blown by Los Angeles’ offensive outburst.
There’s no doubting the Lakers could’ve used a dynamic perimeter creator at the trade deadline. Los Angeles has no one who can put reliable pressure on the rim beyond LeBron James, while Austin Reaves and Russell haven’t exactly been bastions of consistency this season.
What do the Lakers really need to level back up in the Western Conference now that the deadline has passed, though? To up their volume and accuracy from three, just like they did while nearly running New Orleans out of Crypto.com Arena in Friday’s first half.
Don’t lose sight of what helped drive Los Angeles’ long-range onslaught and superlative overall offensive performance on Friday night. Disruptive as Christie, Reddish and especially Vanderbilt can be defensively, neither demands respect from opponents spotting up away from the ball or even running pick-and-roll with the Lakers’ ball-handlers. Their absence really opened up the floor for Darvin Ham’s team, making it easy for Los Angeles to dissect the Pelicans’ defense. The problem is that the Lakers also played far below their peak standard on the other side of the ball, surrendering 51.7% shooting to New Orleans in a 139-122 victory.
Odds are still against Los Angeles re-emerging as top-tier contenders in 2023-24. If they can somehow find a way to stay hot from deep over the season’s remainder while locking down on defense, though, that dispiriting assumption will definitely need revisiting ahead of the playoffs.
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