By Fredo Cervantes
The Los Angeles Lakers will be playing in their first playoff game since being swept by the San Antonio Spurs in 2013. During the season, as we all remember, a month before the playoffs began in 2013, the late Kobe Bryant had his Achilles injury which kept him out of the playoffs for the first time since 2005. One fun fact is Dwight Howard was actually part of the 2013 Lakers team that made the playoffs before his departure to Houston.
There is still no opponent scheduled to play the Lakers on Tuesday as we look forward for the first round of the 2020 NBA Playoffs. We will find out who they will be facing this weekend after the NBA debuts its new Play In Tournament, which should be fun to watch as it will determine who will play the #1 seed in the Lakers.
LeBron James is in his 17th year in the NBA and is looking to earn his 4th NBA tittle and win a tittle with 3 different teams. We all know what to expect from LeBron James and Anthony Davis but can we count on Kyle Kuzma? It’s hard to say after only seeing a small sample piece of the new and improved Kyle Kuzma in the NBA Bubble. Earlier this week after Kuzma hit a game winner, LeBron told reporters after the game that Kuzma needs to play that same way and be clutch in order for the Lakers to win a championship. Now that LeBron said that, can Kuzma really handle the pressure given by LeBron James? I feel that he can step up to be that player LeBron wants him to be, but that can only happen with Kuzma in the starting line up.
Lakers Head Coach Frank Vogel said this week that he does not plan of having Kuzma in the starting line up moving forward. He mentioned that the only reason he was on the starting line up was due to KCP not being available that night. In order for Kuzma to really be the 3rd option on this team, he needs to be a starter playing 30-35 mins. Having him come off the bench would limit him especially with teams designing their defense on the second team of the Lakers around Kuzma.
When you have LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the court at the same time, both of those players are catching every defenders eyeballs and guess what? That allows Kuzma to blossom under LeBron and Davis. Kuzma will be having wide open jump shots, open lane to attack, especially by having LeBron and Davis standing on the three point line. On the defense side of the ball, Kuzma has really improved which can be an option for the Lakers to put on tough match ups through the playoffs. He had a really good stretch of game with great defense and having multiple steals per game during the NBA Bubble games.
This is Lakers Coach Frank Vogel’s call now as we wait and see who the Lakers will match up with in the first round of the 2020 NBA Playoffs.
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