Nowhere To Go But Up

The Lakers' 2017-18 season got off to a less than spectacular start against the Clippers on Thursday night.  In a word, the Lakers were SLOPPY.  They were as sloppy as any team with a bunch of new players playing significant roles could be.

The starting 5 of Nance, Jr., Deng, Lopez, Ingram and Ball was an experiment (due to the KCP suspension) that went horribly wrong.  The defensive match-ups were dreadful in almost every position.  Blake Griffin had his way with whoever defended him at the forward position due to Nance's lack of strength and Deng's lack of youth.  We have confirmation that Brandon Ingram is true and true a small forward because looked lost at the 2 on both offense and defense.  The Laker guards had trouble fighting through high screens which led to wide open jump shots or clear driving lanes to the basket.  Lonzo was tentative in his first NBA game (which was to be expected) and it affected his timing resulting in very little offensive opportunities for both himself and his teammates.

The one bright spot of the starting 5 was Brook Lopez who played solid methodical offense.  This was dimmed a bit as he was a non-factor on the defensive side of the court.  He didn't rebound well for a big man and did little to intimidate opponents from posting up or dribble penetrating their way to the basket.  The image below summed up our defensive woes for the night.

Off the bench, Jordan Clarkson looked comfortable and played a game worthy of Sixth Man of the Year accolades.  But he was the only bright spot off the bench.  Because of Nance's promotion to the starting line-up, the bench lacked significant energy and hustle.  Julius Randle doesn't seem as effective as a reserve and Kyle Kuzma didn't have playmakers alongside him to help open up scoring opportunities for himself and was relegated to picking up loose balls and scoring on broken offensive sets.  Andrew Bogut tried his best to be the bruiser of the team but Lonzo knows first hand who was the more physical team of the night.  Patrick Beverley welcomed the #2 pick of the draft with his usual brand of in-your-face defense while yelling "first team" (First All Defensive Team) at the young Lakers every opportunity he had throughout the night.

I did however like the fact that Lonzo did not back down from Beverley's antics which will only expedite his learning curve as he strives to be one of the best point guards in the league.

Hats off to the Clippers who showed they can continue to be a threat without CP3.  Whether or not they are a true contender remains to be seen.  Blake looks comfortable being the main man of the team and DJ seems to be a man on a mission to have the largest FT% improvement (from the previous year) in history as he shot 4 for 4 from the stripe, oh he also pulled down 24 rebounds.

The NBA season just started and the Lakers still have plenty of games to hit their stride.