Welcome to another edition of Lakers Saturday superlatives! Happy New Year, readers. The Lakers are currently on a four-game winning streak after their Christmas day loss to the Clippers. During this time, they have defeated Portland, Dallas, Phoenix, and New Orleans. Let’s take a look at what happened this week.
Performance of the week
I was going to put LeBron James’s New Year triple-double here, but I couldn’t. Anthony Davis drops 46 points and 13 rebounds against his former team and that’s the performance of the week right there. He had almost more points than the players that he was traded for. Davis outrebounded them! Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, and Josh Hart had 50 points and 9 rebounds combined. The Brow was 100% worth what the Lakers gave up. Even LeBron had to take a jab at those who said the Lakers sent out too much for the Chicago native.
Play of the week
Anthony Davis throws DOWN the oop on Aron Baynes.pic.twitter.com/YWb2rG1F2c
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) January 2, 2020
It had to be this play. I was lucky enough to see this in-person. Davis dunked this all over Aron Baynes. Sure Davis is a big man but it’s always impressive to see a dunk over a pretty imposing player like Baynes. It was a simple give and go that led to Danny Green setting up Davis for the dunk. I was going to put the lob over Brandon Ingram here but I just miss him too much to do that to him.
Another play I almost picked was yet another lob from Green to Davis. The length of Davis is something to behold.
ANTHONY DAVIS HOW?! pic.twitter.com/MEqDZqUxFe
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) January 4, 2020
Stat of the week
The Lakers led by as many as 36 points tonight and only won by 10.
They're the 653th team over the last 20 seasons to lead a game by at least 36 points; their 10-point margin of victory is the smallest of any of them. The average margin of victory of those teams is 33.0 points.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) January 2, 2020
The Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns to ring in 2020. What is important is that they secured the win, but oh boy, did they almost blow it. The Lakers were destroying the Suns, even pummel-droming them twice! A pummel-drome is like a palindrome but it’s a score. Meaning: at one point the Lakers were winning by a score of 52-25 then by 63-36. It all fell apart in the second half. Their fourth-quarter display was so bad that they only mustered eight points after nine minutes played. The Suns were able to cut it to single digits and the Lakers only won by ten points. This happened yet again, against the Pelicans on January third. Yes, they are winning, but the bench needs to step up.
Rosetta Stone of the week
During an inbounds play, a heckler was bugging Dallas Maverick star, Luka Doncic. But it wasn’t just any fan, it was Kobe Bryant. Before an inbounds play, Kobe got Doncic’s attention and dapped him up. Doncic was asked about it in the locker room and he spoke about how Kobe got his attention by speaking Slovenian. Kobe knows a myriad of languages. He spent eight years in Italy and is fluent in that language as well as Spanish. His former teammate, Sasha Vujacic, is Slovenian and must’ve taught him some phrases during their time together.
The question was, what did Kobe say?
My guess is he was trying to recruit Doncic to the Lakers. This is next level tampering. Magic Johnson got caught and fined because he can’ keep his mouth shut. Kobe, on the other hand, is out here recruiting in different languages. He’s taking it international.
Caruso of the week
Luka and Giannis have the early lead in All-Star voting … pic.twitter.com/dPUxgZ7aQO
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) January 2, 2020
Early voting has started for the NBA all-star game since December 25. There are some obvious choices here, including Lakers who have been all-stars before: Davis, LeBron, and Dwight Howard. But let’s take a look at number eight in guards in the West. Our bald eagle, the meme-guy, Alex Caruso!
There may be many NBA fans and writers that are absolutely appalled that the likes of Caruso and Tacko Fall (11 minutes this season) having this many votes. But here is the thing: why be mad? All-Star appearances are cool but the thing that really matters is All-NBA votes. This event is so tailored to fans, so let the fans have what they want.
The fans.
Want.
Caruso.
But also talking about all-star votes lets me bring up this beautiful gem. I love you for this Alex.
me watching the lead get blown but still being on my lakers exceptionalism bullshit pic.twitter.com/8gaujE6MAe
— Lakers Outsiders (@LakersOutsiders) January 4, 2020
Fit of the week
Denim jackets and black pants are all the rage now. Kyle Kuzma rocking all Amiri with the Jimmy Hendrix jacket to go along with the suede boots. It may be a hot take but I really like the outfit. I may be biased because I like Hendrix but the jacket is dope. The shoes could be different but what do I know? I’m poor.
Now that we’re talking Kuzma, let’s talk about his hair for a second. He looks like:
- Sang from Rush Hour
- pre-sobriety Eminem
- Bobby Zimmeruski from an Extremely Goofy Movie
Let’s hope he switches it up soon.
Kicks of the week
Shout out to first time kicks of the week winner, JaVale McGee! I typically gravitate towards Jordan’s or player model shoes but I really like the Hyperdunk X’s (I am 90% sure these are what they are) that McGee against the Suns. The colors are very reminiscent of the Local Hoops logo or the Sean Wotherspoon Air Max’s. It was nice of McGee to throw a little color out there and I cannot wait to see what else players have to bring out in the new year.
