The Lakers went under the .500 mark again and Gilbert Arenas is not in surprise as he didn’t have many expectations from Frank Vogel even after the 2020 Championship.
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The Los Angeles Lakers suffer yet another embarrassing loss, this time at the hands of Jimmy Butler’s Miami Heat. The Lakers came out extremely flat on defense, looking lackluster since the starting whistle.
They let the Heat team, which was short of playmakers with both Kyle Lowry and Tyler Herro not in the game. But still with Jimmy Butler’s dominance, much like the 2020 Playoffs, Miami went full-throttle on the LA team from the very beginning.
The infamous third-quarter woes came early for the Purple and Gold team, as the Heat scored 39 points in the 1st quarter of the game. Not putting up much fight in the next two quarters either, Frank Vogel’s squad gave up 5 more points, and let Erik Spoelstra’s team take a 19-point lead to start the fourth.
The Lakers did come back with force in the fourth, but it was rather too late as their 19 point differential would just cut down to 6, giving Miami Heat a 113-107 victory.
This match had glimpses of the Finals two years back, where LeBron and AD-led Lakers struggled to sweep a shorthanded Heat team. Since that series, Gilbert Arenas had doubts about Frank Vogel’s coaching.
Gilbert Arenas breaks down Frank Vogel’s struggle
Pardon me. “Doubt” would bring down the significance of the breakdown from No Chill Gill for the Lakers management. On his podcast on fubo Sports Network, former Washington Wizards point guard discussed how he had a ‘C minus’ for coach Vogel for his lineups.
When asked, about the Lakers coach’s assessment with Anthony Davis missing games, Agent 0 said, “Well when they were at full strength at the beginning of the season what was he doing?”
He then talks about the Lakers dropping 2-games against the Heat in the 2020 Finals series, that they should have swept, and by huge point differentials like “20 or 10 at worst.” That precisely gave off Vogel’s shortcomings as a coach as per the 3-time All-Star.
He goes on to express his displeasure regarding Vogel’s straight line-ups and management which led to the Lakers’ struggle in that series.
“Your line-ups are horrible, you do not know what matches. It is like getting dressed in the dark.”
Arenas has a perfect analogy that a top-20 player in the league in Jimmy Butler and a top-50 player in Bam Adebayo (struggling with an injury) shouldn’t have had a chance against two top-10 or arguably top-5 players in the league.
It clears the Lakers’ struggle since that Championship run, which was never a personnel issue with the squad, but the management.
Their failure to be a winning team since their overhaul after last season’s early exit from the Playoffs proves Agent Zero’s point even further.
