The first day of the NBA playoffs was limestone. The second? Yes, not so much. The no. 1 seed Milwaukee Bucks started the day by losing to the Orlando Magic, and the no. 1 seeded Los Angeles Lakers ended the day by losing to the No. 8 seeded Portland Trail Blazers. It is the first time since 2003 in which both no. 1-seed lost their openers, and in the case of the Lakers, it came down to a lack of depth. LeBron James scored 23 points, pulled in 17 rebounds and fired 15 assists, while Anthony Davis scored 28 points from his own leg, but the Lakers players shot 4-of-22 from 3-point range. They just can’t score enough to win if that happens.
The Portland players were not great either, but Damian Lillard’s 34 points were enough to lead them to a victory. Now, the Blazers will only need to win three games out of six to stun the Western Conference’s Node Seed. The Lakers will have to return to the drawing board if they want to prevent such humiliation. What happened last night was completely and utterly unacceptable.
1. It’s time to confirm the rotation
The Lakers were outscored by nine points in 13 minutes from JaVale McGee on the floor. They lost the game by seven points. That’s not a coincidence. The Lakers were outscored during McGee’s minutes in all seven of his appearances in the bubble. In Orlando, they are now outscored with 66 points in his 121 minutes on the floor. They outscored opponents by 26 points in the minutes they played without him.
This is not rocket science. The Lakers start each game down several points because they start the wrong lineup. They exacerbate the problem by sending the same lineup at the beginning of the third quarter. The starting lineup version that Avery Bradley outscored opponents with 12.6 points per 100 possessions in the regular season. The Kentavious Caldwell-Pope version was outscored with 1.2 points per 100 possessions. McGee-Caldwell-Pope-James-Davis-Danny Green is not working.
At the very least, McGee should be completely excluded from the rotation. Whether that means Markieff Morris plays more at center or hopes Dwight Howard can avoid fouls is another matter, but there is simply no evidence to suggest that JaVale can contribute to wins in the postseason. There’s a reason he was a benchwarmer for the Warriors. Caldwell-Pope’s situation is more complicated. They have to play him, and his figures, balance, have been better as a starter. But remembering the combinations is critical. Alex Caruso deserves a look as the fifth starter. The place of Kyle Kuzma in the first five should of course be.
This is no longer March. These games count. Frank Vogel can not afford to fry them by playing the wrong players. The Lakers are better than the Blazers. That much should be taken for granted. They just have to use the right setups to prove it.
2. LeBron was great … but in the wrong ways
It’s hard to argue with 23 points, 17 rebounds and 15 assists. Those numbers don’t even tell the whole story. LeBron was also great on defense. Almost every decision he made, in a vacuum, was the right one.
But the Lakers scored 93 points against a defense that has allowed an average of 123 points over their past six outings. Yes, shooting was the primary reason for that, and the Lakers will likely have more than five of their 32 long balls in Game 2. But role players have bad shooting nights. It happens. If that happens, superstars will have to pick up the scores themselves.
For all the great things LeBron did in Game 1, he did not do what we have seen him do in the playoffs time and time again: scoring. Despite signing incredible matchups in Carmelo Anthony and Gary Trent Jr., James was aiming to play an overall team basketball. What the Lakers need is a little closer to the 2018 LeBron.
In Game 1 of that postseason run against the Indiana Pacers, James scored 24 points en route to a triple-double … but the Cavaliers lost. He came out on top and scored 46 in Game 2, a win, averaging 34.6 points per game through the rest of the Eastern Conference playoffs. If no other Laker will make shots, LeBron will have to do something for the Lakers to win the title. It’s cliché, but he should be more like Michael Jordan and less like Magic Johnson. His roster demands it.
3. The Blazers got away with playing two centers
It might have happened by accident. Wenyen Gabriel started at power forward for the Blazers, but got into early fierce trouble. That the Blazers did something that few teams of 2020 would ever consider: they play their two centers together. It was a look where they experimented with a bit prior to the playoffs, but without much success. That was for good reason. Neither Hassan Whiteside nor Jusuf Nurkic are particularly strong shooters, and they can not defend the perimeter so well.
But they survived these minutes in Game 1 by crashing the boards and protecting the edge. The Lakers missed the open shots the Blazers made with their two-man lineup, and while it may not be sustainable, Portland may not have much of a choice but to return to those groups until Zach Collins is healthy enough. to return. This is a thin team. Their options for options are limited. The whole enterprise falls apart when the Lakers start making shots, but until they do? The Blazers may have found a way to shift some minutes away from the worst players on their bench and to better ones.
