The NBA cup is nearing its conclusion and has revealed a lot about teams this season. The OKC Thunder are still unstoppable, the Knicks are trying to right the wrongs of last season, and the LA Lakers are learning to live without the talents of LeBron James and instead leaning on the future of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. But that didn’t save the Purple and Gold from getting eliminated in the NBA Cup quarterfinals.
Advertisement
LA was stomped by the Spurs yesterday 132-119, and looked entirely lost defensively. San Antonio managed to do it without Wemby and instead were led by Stephon Castle, who dropped 30 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Is this a bad sign for the Lakers in the future? Kendrick Perkins thinks so. The former star turned analyst gave his thoughts on the tourney on the latest edition of NBA on ESPN.
Perk heavily praised the Spurs for managing, particularly Castle, for showing up in a big game. But he turned that acclaim to petty insults at LA for being outmatched on the defensive side of the ball. In fact, the one-time champ even claimed that the Purple and Gold have been fully exposed.
“The Lakers got exposed defensively last night. That’s what they did. They exposed the Lakers defensively by attacking them. The Lakers can’t stop cars at a crosswalk in a school zone. That’s how horrible they are on the defensive side of things,” stated Perk.
KP doesn’t just see this as a problem for the loss. He thinks it’s a fault that they need to fix immediately. “The word is out. We saw it last night. It was highlighted, especially on the stage when you talk about the in-season tournament and everyone’s watching.”
While Perk always tends to call things like he sees them, losing by 13 to a team without their superstar center piece is a bad look, especially if they hope to be competitive in the postseason next year (assuming they make it). Fortunately, it’s not faults that the Lakers staff are unaware of.
J.J. Redick spoke about the team’s defensive woes in the post-game conference. “We consistently got exposed on the same things,” said J.J. “The things that help you win on the margins, we’re just not very good at right now.” LeBron felt similarly. The King discussed the need for improving on-ball defense, and more importantly, why falling behind so much so early was a death sentence.
“We were playing uphill for too long. We had some good moments, but for the majority we were playing uphill,” stated James, who had 19 points and looked a little bit more like his old self.
The Lakers aren’t shying away from the truth staring them in the face. They know the flaws, they’ve heard the criticism, and they understand exactly what’s holding them back. The NBA Cup exit didn’t just highlight their defensive shortcomings; it amplified how far they still have to go if they want to contend in a West that’s only getting tougher.
But there are still future foundations to build on. Between Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, and LeBron playing his Clint Eastwood Unforgiven role, they’ve got time to figure it out. Now it’s a matter of whether LA uses this early embarrassment as fuel, or lets it become the story of their season.
