Run it Back! NBA Week in Review, LA Lakers - Week #22

[00:00:00] All right, week 22 of the 2023-24 NBA season is in the books which means it's time to

[00:00:08] run it back.

[00:00:09] This is Run It Back NBA Week in Review LA Lakers Edition.

[00:00:13] I'm Brandon Sparks, writer at thePeachBasket.net and your host, this is the show where we recap

[00:00:19] the week that was for the Los Angeles Lakers and then highlight their marquee matchups

[00:00:24] for the week to come.

[00:00:26] Let's start by looking at where the team lands on the Peach Baskets Objective Power Ranking

[00:00:29] this week. The Lakers overall went up to number 15 on our power rankings. They were 16 last week.

[00:00:35] They finished the week at 2 and 0, finally going on a mini winning streak, beating some easier

[00:00:40] teams on the schedule after having multiple tough weeks. The Lakers moved back up to the number 9

[00:00:45] seed, putting a game in a half between them and the 10 seed which is currently the Golden State Warriors.

[00:00:51] The Hawks game was just a complete blowout. There was no Trey Young. The Hawks were playing on the

[00:00:57] second night of a back-to-back after beating the Clippers and DeGente Murray just had a bad

[00:01:02] shooting night going 6 for 18 from the field and 1 for 9 from 3. On the other end,

[00:01:08] LeBron and Davis just put up quite the beautiful performance. Both Lakers went 10 for 14 from

[00:01:15] the field each along with LeBron finishing with 10 assists and Dilo also had a great game with

[00:01:21] 27 points. In fact, it's just every starter for the Lakers had a great game because all of them

[00:01:27] were at least plus 20 on the court. The 76ers game on the other hand, which was a big break.

[00:01:35] The Hawks game was on Monday and then the Sixers game was on Friday. I'm not sure why this giant

[00:01:40] break happened for the Lakers, especially considering both games were home games but yeah, that's just how

[00:01:47] the schedule was. The Sixers game was incredibly ugly however. LeBron only had nine points entering

[00:01:53] the fourth quarter and it seemed everyone just had a bad shooting night except for Davis.

[00:01:58] Ruby had a great first quarter and they just disappeared and Austin Reeves just couldn't get

[00:02:03] anything going until late in the game where he hit a couple of threes and on top of that,

[00:02:07] the Lakers had 21 turnovers which is quite insane. I believe the 76ers didn't even have more

[00:02:16] at like half of that. Somehow, the Lakers still squeaked out of wind thanks to the fact that

[00:02:23] the 76ers are just struggling massively without Joelle and Bede and new additions but he healed

[00:02:28] and Kyle Lowry's sorry are now not they're just not really performing how the team wanted them to.

[00:02:36] They had to have Mobamba start at center which is quite the contributing factor to why Davis had

[00:02:41] such a great game but yeah the 76ers are just really struggling without M-Bede and I believe their

[00:02:49] record is 12 and 24 or something like that without Joelle and Bede this season so they are just

[00:02:56] really falling after being I believe the number three seed before Joelle and Bede got hurt and now

[00:03:03] they are sitting in the plane in the east. Now let's move on to top performers, let's look at the

[00:03:10] best to do it in key categories for the Lakers this week. LeBron and Davis led the team in points

[00:03:16] with an average of 22 and a half each. DeLo led the team in three pointers made with five and he beat

[00:03:23] Nick Van Exel's single season record for three pointers made as a Laker. Now DeLo is sitting at

[00:03:29] number one with Nick Van Exel number two and then Kobe at number three. Anthony Davis had 10 few

[00:03:35] goals made on average which was the most on the team for the week. He also averaged

[00:03:40] 17 rebounds along with four offensive rebounds and 13 defensive rebounds. He is the main rebound

[00:03:47] around the team. It is still a struggle for the Lakers to rebound except for Davis and they

[00:03:53] hopefully will figure that out as the playoffs come near. LeBron James had eight assists on average

[00:03:59] this week. Davis averaged two and a half blocks and a surprise on top performers Skyler Mayes

[00:04:06] who barely plays had the most steals with two against the Hawks during the blowout. Got a lot of

[00:04:12] minutes during that time and the best game score average for the Lakers this week goes to AD at 24.7

[00:04:20] which is a switch up considering LeBron has earned that every week so far of this podcast.

[00:04:26] Let's move on to the week ahead. Week 23 for the Lakers is much more busy compared to the easy

[00:04:32] week they just had. They are playing four games compared to the two. They play the Pacers at crypto

[00:04:40] on Sunday and then the Lakers going along road trip to the east. They play the books and the

[00:04:45] Grizzlies on a back-to-back on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively and then the Pacers again on Friday

[00:04:50] in Indiana. The Lakers have been playing at home or at least close to home I believe they travel

[00:04:55] for the Sacramento game for quite a while now so a road trip to the east will be a good test for

[00:05:01] the team. Indiana is coming off a win over the Warriors but hopefully the Lakers can beat them both

[00:05:06] times this week like they did in the Inseas and tournament championship stopping Halliburton

[00:05:11] and the newly acquired Siacum will be a challenge however but with Dinwitty's playing great defense

[00:05:17] and Cam Reddish coming back the Lakers have a few assets to throw at Tyree's. Missing Vanderbilt

[00:05:23] is tough though as he would be great to defend Siacum and I believe Vanderbilt will probably be out

[00:05:29] for the rest of the season and might come back during the playoffs which is really tough for the

[00:05:35] Lakers because he brings a lot of defensive energy as I stated in the last podcast last week. Missing

[00:05:41] him is really hard for the Lakers more so than Gabe Benson or any other injuries that are happening

[00:05:48] right now with Christian Wood and so on so on. As for the Bucks game on Tuesday, Yannis has been out

[00:05:56] the past few games with a hamstring issue so if he stays out on Tuesday the Lakers have a good

[00:06:01] chance of getting another win over the Bucks. Deilo had to put on a shooting clinic I believe he tied his

[00:06:08] season high or maybe it was his career high against the Bucks the last time they played but that

[00:06:14] was without LeBron and Davis playing so Deilo won't have to have a scorching hot night to beat

[00:06:21] the Bucks this time. I predict the Lakers going three and one this week losing to the Pacers at

[00:06:26] Indiana they will want to win their home stint with a win especially after such an ugly win against

[00:06:31] the Sixers. The Lakers specifically the Bucks game could go either way but without Yannis it should be

[00:06:38] a win as long as we can stop Damien Lillard. The Grizzlies could be a surprise loss as it is the

[00:06:44] second night of a back to back but considering how injury riddled the Grizzlies are and just how

[00:06:51] not good they are, the Lakers should squeak out of win. But after that Indiana will get their revenge

[00:06:57] by winning a home against the Lakers team. They'll be tired after playing four games in the week

[00:07:03] and though I think Indiana will squeak out of win there. Let's move on to full court press. I'll

[00:07:10] end with a quick look at Lakers news. We call this full court press. I just type in Los Angeles

[00:07:16] Lakers and see if anything interesting and worth talking about comes up on page one.

[00:07:21] Today this article popped up and this has been a heated debate on social media which is

[00:07:27] Kobe Bryant's dad sparks heated debate after putting late NBA stars championship ring up for auction

[00:07:35] and this was written by the Asman-Nakulman for parade. Kobe Bryant's dad Joe Verain is coming

[00:07:43] under fire after putting the copy of the championship ring. There's a lot of people who believe that it's

[00:07:51] the actual ring that Kobe wore but actually Kobe ordered a replica that he could present to his

[00:07:58] dad and now his dad is trying to sell the ring. A lot of people are coming after his dad for this

[00:08:10] as he just died recently four years ago and now they're selling his memorabilia. There's no way that

[00:08:19] they are strapped for money so bad that they're selling something so valuable but the parents of

[00:08:29] Kobe and Kobe himself have had a strained relationship for quite a while now ever since Kobe married

[00:08:37] Vanessa. They've always been against the marriage and it's strained their relationship ever since

[00:08:46] that happened in 2000 which is the same year as the ring that is being sold as the 2000 championship

[00:08:53] ring. They announced Kobe and Vanessa announced that they were going to tie the knot at Vanessa's

[00:08:59] 18th birthday party in 2000 and ever since then their relationship has been completely strained. I

[00:09:05] don't believe they even showed up for his final game when he scored 60 against the Utah Jazz which

[00:09:12] I'm sure every every Laker fan can remember so yeah Vanessa got most of what Kobe left behind after

[00:09:21] his death so the parents of Kobe have just not had any money I guess to work with since they've

[00:09:28] been have any let down to them but it is really sad that they have to sell the ring and

[00:09:37] my opinions that they should keep it since it's such memorabilia for son but that's just my opinion

[00:09:45] I'm not sure what the relationship was entirely with his parents and Kobe but yeah and just a quick

[00:09:53] side tangent since we're talking about Kobe I'm sure everyone has fought about or remembers

[00:10:02] when Kobe died and what they were doing at that time I was I was at work

[00:10:08] out of photography studio and I was just reading on twitter and there was just some news and everything

[00:10:14] was trending like Kobe Kobe died Kobe Kobe what and at first I didn't believe it and as news

[00:10:23] it was TMZ who first announced it which is why I didn't believe it at first because TMZ is not

[00:10:29] known for reporting something like a helicopter crash that had Kobe Bryant in it but as the news

[00:10:36] kept rolling out and we found out that it actually Kobe was in it with Gianna I remember walking

[00:10:43] outside for my lunch break I called my parents and I mentioned that Kobe died and they were like what

[00:10:51] and as soon as they said what for some reason like it hit me and I started crying he was my he was

[00:10:57] one of my idols so it was really tough on me at the time and took me a while to get over it but

[00:11:05] yeah that was a really hard week anyways that's it for week 22 of the Lakers 2023 24 MGA season

[00:11:14] join us next week after week 23 when we once again run it back