Run it Back! NBA Week in Review, LA Lakers Edition - Week #20

[00:00:00] Week 20 of the 2023 2024 NBA season is over, which means it's time to run it back. This

[00:00:06] is Run it Back NBA Week in Review LA Lakers Edition. I'm Brandon Sparks, writer at ThePeachBasket.net.

[00:00:13] This is the show where we recap the week that was for the LA Lakers and then highlight their

[00:00:19] marquee matchups for the week to come. Let's take a look at the power rankings. Let's

[00:00:26] start by taking a look at where the team lands on the PeachBasket's objective power rankings this

[00:00:32] week. The Lakers overall are still at number 17 on our power ranking so no change from last week.

[00:00:40] They finished the week at 2-1 after an incredible win against the Bucks, which we will talk about in

[00:00:46] a second. The Lakers moved up to the number 9 seed in the Western Conference only a game and a half

[00:00:52] behind the Mavericks for 8-2 and a half games behind the Suns. I attended the Thunder game this

[00:00:59] week and what a great overall team effort from everyone. Janjula really stepped up as a top score

[00:01:05] of the game. He had some incredible threes in the third which really just sealed the deal

[00:01:10] for the Thunder and it was quite the blowout. Prince and Dinyway played some great defense as

[00:01:15] well even though it may not show up on the Bucks score. And of course we'll talk about Tynwy's

[00:01:19] defense again in a minute. And Davis was once again a monster in the paint, three blocks,

[00:01:27] stopped a chat from scoring in the paint, Shay didn't have like as usual amazing night.

[00:01:33] Josh Gidey was the only one who was scoring so great win against the Thunder. The King's

[00:01:39] game was a really tough loss. Davis once again got dominated in the match up against the bonus.

[00:01:45] So we had another triple double with 20 boards and after that Suns game where we were out

[00:01:52] rebounded by Nerkich and the offensive rebounds were so awful for the Lakers.

[00:01:59] Have the Suns were just offensive rebounding left and right. It's becoming clear how they

[00:02:04] are rebounding problem is. Davis is the only one who is putting a lot of effort in rebounding

[00:02:11] and it's starting to show. Fox also finished with 44 points alongside amongst 26 points.

[00:02:19] So they were just the scoring duo that they usually are but Fox went a little overboard with 44.

[00:02:26] LeBron left the game early due to an ankle injury which kept him out of a Bucks game that

[00:02:31] became an expected loss we expected to lose that game after losing LeBron and

[00:02:36] the Bucks had been on a hot streak for a while so it wasn't looking good but I mean DeAngelo

[00:02:44] Russell. He decided to prove how incredible he truly is against the Bucks. He finished with

[00:02:50] 44 points scored the second highest in his career and a season high. Davis got injured too

[00:02:58] in the shoulder after a really physical layup. Yannis's elbow dug into Davis's shoulder

[00:03:06] and that really hurt him and he was just not getting up and down the court the same way.

[00:03:13] So DeLoe really had to step up even more in the fourth and step up he did. He had eight points

[00:03:19] in the final minute and 13 seconds of the game. We won the game by one point alongside a block from

[00:03:27] Dindwoody on the game winning shot by Damien Lillard which was incredible. I think he's really buying into

[00:03:35] the defensive mindset that we clearly need considering Gabe Vincent has been out and

[00:03:44] DeAngelo has been carrying a lot on the offensive end along with Austin Reeves just not being a

[00:03:48] great defender. Dindwoody has become that defensive minded guard which we really appreciate

[00:03:55] and DeLoe is clearly proving to the haters and people who wanted to trade him how valuable he is

[00:04:02] especially after this quote from him. With my craft with my talent on the floor I've always felt

[00:04:10] like I was capable of doing things getting hot makes it a little more exciting throughout the game.

[00:04:14] Off the floor you all obviously know what I've been through. Public humiliation has done nothing

[00:04:21] but molded me into the killer that y'all see today and I never let confidence, I never fear

[00:04:26] confrontation, I want all the smoke. What a banger quote. Now let's look at the top performers

[00:04:33] the best to do it in the key categories for the Lakers this week. LeBron led the team in points with

[00:04:39] an average of 25.3. DeLoe led the team in three pointers made with four and a half tying his

[00:04:45] career high of nine threes made in the bucks game. LeBron had 9.7 field goals made on average which was

[00:04:53] the most in the team for the week and the Davis average 11.8 rebounds along with two offensive

[00:05:00] rebounds in 9.8 defensive. The game against the bonus really proved my thoughts from last week on

[00:05:06] the poor right rebounding for the Lakers and this should definitely become a topic of discussion

[00:05:11] in the locker room because we are allowing players like Nerc Kitchen's to bonus to get 20 boards

[00:05:17] while only Davis is getting rebounds. LeBron James had tennis assists on average this week

[00:05:25] which is crazy. Davis averaged 2.5 blocks which is now just a regular stat for him to have

[00:05:31] and it's quite a shame he is not in the discussion more for a defensive player of the year.

[00:05:35] I respect how insane the team rules have been and have been on the defensive end

[00:05:42] and it's clear Rudy Gaubert is the clear favorite but I feel like there should be more talk

[00:05:48] about how great Davis has been even though the Lakers defense overall their defensive

[00:05:53] efficiency hasn't been some of the best in the league. LeBron let the team in steals with 1.7

[00:06:01] and the best game score average for the Lakers this week you can guess it goes to LeBron James

[00:06:07] who had 24.7. Now let's go into the week ahead week 21 it's very rough the team

[00:06:17] can't seem to catch much for break as the last two weeks have been really hard already

[00:06:22] on Sunday they play the number one seed timber wolves who luckily they don't have Carlyan

[00:06:28] plenty of towns which gives the Lakers a better chance but Davis and LeBron are both questionable

[00:06:32] for the game so it'll be dependent on Dilo again if they don't end up playing considering how

[00:06:39] important every game is now though hopefully one of them will pull through I expect most likely

[00:06:45] the Brawnda play but time will tell the Lakers play against the sacrament of Kings again on Wednesday

[00:06:53] and if Davis is good to go hopefully he will finally get a win against the bonus in the career

[00:06:58] I believe he is 0 and 9 against the bonus in his career which is a crazy stat

[00:07:03] and if we cannot get the confidence to beat the Kings if we can't prove to ourselves

[00:07:09] that we can beat the Kings then we're just probably going to lose to them in the play in tournament

[00:07:14] on Saturday another matchup against Golden State. Carlyan is hurt at the moment he's currently

[00:07:21] unlikely to play on Wednesday this week and on the next game after that I believe

[00:07:27] is on Saturday so if Carlyan is not 100% or if he doesn't come back at all the Lakers got to take

[00:07:35] advantage of the situation and get a win against them. We are battling them for seating right now

[00:07:40] and getting a win would push us significantly ahead of them in the Western Conference currently we are

[00:07:44] one game ahead of them they are the 10 seed after last week we were the 10 seed so it's really a

[00:07:52] battle just who's going to be the 9 and 10 seed at the current moment which is not something we

[00:07:59] we enjoy doing. I see the Lakers going two in one this week I believe Davis can finally stand

[00:08:05] up to the bonus and get a win against them for once the Timberwolves game is the loss

[00:08:12] as LeBron and Davis are questionable and if they do play they will not perform their best

[00:08:17] watching the bucks game after Davis got injured was really hard to watch and I almost wanted Jackson

[00:08:22] Hayes in the game more than Davis because of how hurt he was playing. The Warriors game I believe

[00:08:27] will be a win as LeBron seems to have their number he seems to be able to coach better than

[00:08:33] Tarvan Ham most of the time so I think I think he can coach us through a Warriors win yet again

[00:08:42] even though the last game went to double overtime and we barely squeaked a win I still believe we

[00:08:46] can get a win especially if Curry is not 100% let's end it with full court press I'll end with

[00:08:55] a quick look at Lakers news we call this full court press I just typed in Los Angeles Lakers and

[00:09:00] see if anything interesting and worth talking about comes up on page one today there's two articles

[00:09:05] that caught my eye there is Ruiha Jermura admits the difficulty of finding consistency with shuffling

[00:09:13] rotations by Ron Guterman for the Lakers Nation and it just talks about how Ruiha has just

[00:09:21] been struggling with all the different situations that have been going on with the rosters and the

[00:09:28] rotations that Darvan Ham must come up with Ruiha has 21 starts in 50 games but he also has

[00:09:35] 13 games where he's had less than 20 minutes even when he's starting there was a time where

[00:09:41] Ruiha Jermura started but Torian Prince off the bench was getting more minutes even though Rui

[00:09:46] Rui is playing more we can talk forever about Darvan Ham just being in love with Torian Prince

[00:09:53] Torian Prince is good sometimes we need him to be a lot more consistent and that's why he's coming

[00:09:59] off the bench and Rui is starting especially since Rui's defense is a lot better alongside those

[00:10:08] minute restrictions that he's been on where he has less than 20 minutes sometimes he's missed 14

[00:10:14] games and the injuries to players like Jared Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent and Christian Wood the

[00:10:21] rotations are just constantly different and it's it's it makes it a struggle for the entire team

[00:10:28] to find consistency but Rui is the one who spoke out about it I pulled a quote he spoke about how

[00:10:34] the injuries and players returning has constantly shuffled the team's rotation and he says it's hard

[00:10:41] it's for sure hard and like you said that part but also Vander is going to come back and Gabe Vincent

[00:10:46] is going to come back soon Christian Wood it's going to come back soon it's going to be a tough

[00:10:50] rotation wise even me you know you've got to figure it out so he he knows that the consistency

[00:10:59] is not there for the entire team and all the injuries are really hurting everyone on the team

[00:11:09] and the second article I picked out was just a fun one if you have been on social media the last

[00:11:15] couple days you can see that La Barron at the Bucks game was sitting next to Genevus and Linda

[00:11:23] Rambus and he was just having a talk with him and you can clearly see him mouth of the words

[00:11:34] happy international women stay to both of them and they all kind of hogging a little bit

[00:11:38] this article is La Barron James was having a great time on the sideline during Likers Bucks by Liam

[00:11:44] Nick one I hope I said that right for the big lead

[00:11:48] and you can just see La Barron just talking to Genevus and Linda Rambus and they're all kind of

[00:11:54] hugging him a little bit and just cracking jokes with both of them and you can see and clearly

[00:12:00] mouth the words that people have figured out happy international women's day and they're also

[00:12:06] surprised by him saying that and I think that's just a hilarious thing to see La Barron doing

[00:12:12] while such an important game is going on in the background and that's it week 20 of the Likers 2023

[00:12:20] 2024 NBA season is in the books join us next week after week 21 when we once again run it back