Thanks to the Milwaukee Bucks beating the Sacramento Kings, the Utah Jazz beating the Los Angeles Clippers and the Minnesota Timberwolves dropping one to the Atlanta Hawks, the Lakers were able to gain a full game on some key teams in this playoff chase by besting the New Orleans Pelicans.
With only 21 games to go, though, the Lakers do have some serious ground to make up, and it’s fair to wonder whether they have enough time to pull this off.
Can You Dig It?
Good news: The Lakers won a basketball game!
Bad news: They’re still three games back from the eighth seed in the Western Conference.
Winning is always a good thing, but the Lakers still have a long and windy road ahead of them before they clinch their first playoff berth in six years. To their credit, the energy in the locker room is a lot better than it was just a few days ago, but they’re running out of time to fix all their issues.
On this week’s episode of “Can You Dig It?”, Grant and Christian break down what the Lakers need to do to sneak into the playoffs. They also talk about when fans should expect Lonzo Ball back ahead of his re-evaluation on Thursday.
Listen to their full conversation below and, for more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.
Locked on Lakers
To start today’s episode I look back on one of the lesser-talked-about possessions late in last night’s win: LeBron found himself isolated at the top of the key against Jrue Holiday and was able to hold his own. Yes, Brandon Ingram’s finish at the rim and James’ own late one-legged three will get all the attention, but if you’re looking for important moments of the season, James showing the lateral movement to stay in front of Holiday was a huge development.
Segment two was a discussion about Ingram and Kyle Kuzma continuing this trend of rising to the occasion, and what it might mean if the Lakers are able to squeeze into the playoffs. They’ve been really, really good in some of the biggest games of the season. The Lakers need this trend to continue.
Finally, I looked at the starting lineup change last night and how, while Rajon Rondo had a good statistical game, his impact wasn’t nearly what various Lakers thought it was last night. The process that went into it wasn’t all that great either.
Still, the Lakers got a big win and some help from around the league. They have to keep doing that. The full discussion can be listened to below, and make sure to subscribe on iTunes, where you can also leave questions in the form of a five-star review to guarantee your topic makes the show.