next month

Welcome back to the Lakers newsletter, where we got plenty of rest while the team played pickleball.

A rare four-day stretch without a game may have done wonders for the Lakers’ small nagging injuries, but it interrupted the team’s rhythm going into Sunday’s game against the Utah Jazz. It showed in the clunky win in which the Lakers missed 28 three-point tries and let an 11-point fourth-quarter lead dwindle to one.

Despite being quite literally one of the worst shooting teams in the league, the Lakers are still 12-4. Players credited the team’s resiliency and chemistry as reasons the Lakers are still winning, but how long can this team survive on pure vibes?

Don’t stop believing

Luka Doncic’s shot trickled over the front of the rim, bounced high above the basket and swished through the net. When the three-pointer finally fell, Doncic raised both arms in equal parts disbelief and relief.

He’s the NBA’s leading scorer, but Doncic is shooting a career-worst 31.1% from three on a career-high 11 three-point attempts per game. Austin Reaves, also enjoying a career season offensively, is shooting the same poor percentage from three-point range.

Almost every Lakers rotation player is shooting below his career average from three-point range through 16 games this season. Shooting 33.3% from three, the Lakers are 26th out of 30 teams. Their 10.9 makes a game are the fewest in the league.

“We’ve got to shoot the ball better,” coach JJ Redick said after the Lakers survived a comeback attempt against the Jazz on Sunday. “But it’s got to be a belief in each other and a belief in ourselves to knock down shots.”

Nearing the 20-game mark of the season, the Lakers are not fretting about their frigid outside shooting. Redick recalled how the Lakers shot 34.8% from three in the first two months of last season. Then after shooting 46.7% in a two-point loss to the Detroit Pistons on Dec. 23, the Lakers made 37.7% of their threes for the rest of the regular season.

Part of the shift came after the trade that brought Doncic. He shot 37.9% from three while with the Lakers last season, and the team’s overall three-point attempts increased from 33.8 per game to 40.4 in the final two months of the season.

The Lakers are taking 32.4 three-pointers per game this season. Redick anticipated that the number would rise, but with the current shooting struggles, he wanted to focus more on simply maximizing what his players do well.

“We’re going to do the things that put our guys in a position to create advantages and generate good offense,” Redick said before Sunday’s game. “However that looks as it morphs and evolves throughout the year, that’s just going to be what it is, the philosophy behind it. And if it ends up being we shoot 40 threes a game, great.”

Redick celebrated the team’s otherwise effective offense that is second in true shooting percentage (61.5%) and first in points per shot (1.42). The other glaring issue is turnover percentage, where the Lakers rank 28th.

“If we were out there not creating great looks or we were not playing [the right way] and we were playing selfish basketball [it would be different],” said LeBron James, who has made two of seven shots from three in his two games since returning from sciatica. “That’s not our M.O. So you look at over half of the threes that we missed tonight, a lot of them were wide open, but a lot of them were just finding the right player. The ball has so much energy in it that we’re not worried about that.”

Of their 38 three-point attempts against the Jazz, 25 came with the closest defender six or more feet away. The Lakers made just six of those open shots, with Doncic, Reaves and Marcus Smart going four for 17.

“We’re definitely gonna shoot better,” Smart said. “We work too hard not to.”

What’s up with the NBA Cup?

Even Deandre Ayton didn’t know what was going on with the NBA Cup. The Lakers center absorbed a turnover late in a blowout against the New Orleans Pelicans on Nov. 14 instead of taking an easy shot. When he heard his teammates screaming at him to shoot, he admitted later he didn’t realize the potential importance of those two points.

Ayton instead intertwined his middle and ring fingers and held his right hand up toward the bench. The ‘W’ is all that mattered.

Entering the final week of NBA Cup group play, the Lakers need just one more W to clinch their spot in the quarterfinals. The winner of Tuesday’s game between the Lakers and Clippers at Crypto.com Arena officially claims West Group B.

The Lakers and Clippers are 2-0 in group play with two games remaining. The group also includes the Memphis Grizzlies, the Dallas Mavericks and the already eliminated New Orleans Pelicans. The Lakers finish group play with the Dallas Mavericks on Friday in a game that, even if the Lakers clinch the top spot Tuesday, could still matter.

The three group winners advance to the quarterfinals, and the top second-place team from each conference earns a wild card. The two teams with the best group play record in each conference will host the quarterfinal games. The No. 1 seed goes to the team with the best overall record, and if the records are even, then point differential will be the first tiebreaker for seeding.

Oklahoma City is also 2-0 halfway through group play and has a league-best plus-63 point differential, putting the Thunder in position to earn the No. 1 seed in the West quarterfinals.

The Lakers have a plus-19 point differential in group games and are in position to be the second-seeded team in the West, possibly playing against the West Group C winner.

The third group in the West is one of the most competitive in the league as Portland and Denver entered this week tied with 2-1 records. Portland has the first-priority head-to-head tiebreaker against the Nuggets, but Denver has a plus-26 point differential that positions it well as a potential wild-card team.

Top-seeded teams will host the quarterfinal games on Dec. 9 and 10. The losing teams in each conference’s quarterfinals will play each other in a regular season game on one of four dates: Dec. 11, 12, 14 or 15. The semifinals are in Las Vegas on Dec. 13, and the final will be on Dec. 16.

On tap

Records and stats updated entering Monday’s games

Nov. 25 vs. Clippers (5-12), 8 p.m., NBA Cup group play

Kawhi Leonard returned to the lineup on Sunday against the Cleveland Cavaliers, scoring 20 points, but he couldn’t rescue the Clippers, who have just two wins in November,

Nov. 28 vs. Mavericks (5-13), 7 p.m., NBA Cup group play

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Anthony Davis is injured. After missing his return to L.A. last year because of an abdominal strain, the former Lakers’ star has been sidelined for almost a month with a calf injury, potentially delaying his much-anticipated first game in L.A. since the infamous trade.

Nov. 30 vs. Pelicans (2-15), 6:30 p.m.

The Pelicans took a big swing to draft Derik Queen in the first round last April and the former Maryland star is starting to show some signs of promise. Queen averaged 23.3 points and 8.3 rebounds in three games against Atlanta, Dallas and Denver. He added 11 assists in a 118-115 loss to the Mavericks that eliminated New Orleans from NBA Cup contention.

Dec. 1 vs. Suns (11-6), 7 p.m.

Losing Kevin Durant to free agency made it seem like Devin Booker and Phoenix would be in rebuild mode, but they’re in the thick of the West. Booker leads the team with 26.9 points and 7.1 assists per game.

Best thing I ate this week

Thit nuong

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

While the Lakers played pickleball, I was soaking up my extended home time with loved ones. One of my easy crowd pleasers is thit nuong, which is Vietnamese grilled pork. Slices of pork shoulder are marinated with garlic, shallots, lemongrass, soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar and oyster sauce, threaded onto skewers and grilled. (I, however, don’t have a grill so I bake mine on a rack in the oven.) They’re a great finger food eaten off the skewer or as a meal with rice or, in this case, rice noodles. And it’s not Vietnamese if there aren’t pickled carrots and daikon.

My dad once told me my thit nuong was better than my mom’s. It is my greatest culinary accomplishment.

In case you missed it

‘Legend’: Claire Rothman, Forum president during Lakers’ ‘Showtime’ dynasty, dies at 97

Luka Doncic helps Lakers hold off Jazz for fourth win in a row

LeBron James’ return has Marcus Smart becoming Lakers’ ‘Swiss Army knife’

Dodgers boss Andrew Friedman part of team to advise Lakers in ownership transition

Lakers fire executives Joey and Jesse Buss and members of scouting staff

Hernández: LeBron James’ ‘very unselfish’ play shows he can fit in. Will it continue?

‘The dude’s a machine’: Three takeaways from LeBron James’ return to the Lakers

Until next time…

As always, pass along your thoughts to me at [email protected], and please consider subscribing if you like our work!

Welcome back to the Lakers newsletter, where I need a recovery ice bath after all that travel.

The Lakers went 3-2 during an uneven trip that ended on a high note with back-to-back wins in New Orleans and Milwaukee. But after getting thrashed by Oklahoma City in Game 3 of the five-game trip, Marcus Smart said the team was starting to show its fatigue on the road. After packing, repacking and already reaching the next level of hotel loyalty status less than a month into the season, I can relate.

But, similiar to my favorite colleague Brad Turner picking up the travel slack, the Lakers also have reinforcements.

LeBron James is back. Now what?

Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic established themselves as one of the league’s most dynamic duos while powering the shorthanded Lakers to a 10-4 record. With LeBron James officially back on the Lakers’ practice court, he could make this three a real party.

“I’m a ball player,” James said Monday after his first full practice with the team this year. “… There’s not one team, not one club in the world that I cannot fit in and play for. I can do everything on the floor. So whatever this team needs me to do, I can do it when I’m back to myself.”

Despite the encouraging start that has the team fourth in the West, the Lakers are not modern basketball’s statistical darling. They play slowly (19th in pace), take the fourth-fewest three-pointers in the league while making the second-worst percentage and have the third-most turnovers per game. James, who still stopped short of saying he is pain-free from right sciatica, is unlikely to be an immediate solution to any of those problems.

But he is still the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.

“It’s LeBron,” Reaves said. “Just his presence and his ability is going to lift the team.”

The team joked during the film session that it got a new player Monday. James introduced himself to his teammates. Reaves and Doncic have become the favorite “bromance” of some niche NBA social media circles, and the Lakers’ chemistry was one of the key talking points from its early season success. Players joke on the bench, trash talk each other in Instagram comments and Doncic’s post-practice half-court shooting competition has expanded to include at least three other teammates.

James observed all the good vibes from afar. He sent congratulatory texts after wins and encouraging texts after losses, but returning Monday felt like “a kid going to a new school again.” He knows fitting with the team will have to come organically.

“He has the ability to lift everybody’s day,” Reaves said. “All these guys grew up loving him. So it’s good to get his voice back in the room and obviously the IQ speaks for itself, as well.”

When asked of what he saw from the team while sidelined, James rattled off a long list of observations. He loved the ball movement. He noted Deandre Ayton’s ability to anchor the back line and commended the 7-foot center as “one of the best screen setters” in the league. James shouted out the 25 critical minutes from Maxi Kleber in the win over Milwaukee, the contributions of Jake LaRavia, Rui Hachimura and Marcus Smart and the way younger players such as Nick Smith Jr. and Bronny James chipped in when the team was shorthanded against Portland on the second night of a back-to-back.

And he loved the dominance from Doncic and Reaves.

Doncic is leading the league in scoring with 34.4 points per game. He’s getting blitzed almost every time he crosses midcourt and still orchestrating an offense that is second in field-goal percentage (50.4).

Reaves is having a career year: 28.3 points, 8.2 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.4 steals are all career-bests. Of course with James out, Reaves’ usage rate is also at an all-time high.

When asked how he expects coverages to change for him with James back, Reaves shrugged. It’ll at least make his life easier, he said, to have who he calls “the greatest player to ever touch a basketball” back on the court.

“I don’t expect it to be perfect,” coach JJ Redick said. “But I also don’t expect it to be like, ‘Oh, these guys have never seen each other and met each other and don’t know each other’s name.’ They know what each of them bring.”

Last year, the Doncic-James-Reaves trio had an offensive rating of 117.8 points per 100 possessions. This year, the Lakers have a 121.6 offensive rating when Doncic and Reaves are on the floor together, the team’s highest mark for any two-man combination of starters.

Redick expects James’ presence will shake things up. He will command roughly 35 minutes when he is healthy, which will naturally disrupt the rotation and rhythm of his teammates. This will take some trial and error.

“There are some little formula of things you got to add,” Redick said. “If you put too much cinnamon in there, cookie’s not that good.”

Just let the Lakers cook.

The rookie will remember his first

Adou Thiero dunks over Milwaukee’s Andre Jackson Jr.

(Morry Gash / Associated Press)

Adou Thiero fought to get back on the court and make his NBA debut. It was only right that his teammates would fight for him to commemorate the moment.

After the second-round pick scored four points in his first NBA action Saturday, including an emphatic two-handed dunk in the final minute of the win, Jarred Vanderbilt made sure to grab the game ball. He clutched it tightly as referee Pat Fraher tried to take it back. LaRavia and Doncic soon joined for backup, explaining they wanted to keep it for Thiero.

Eventually, it was Giannis Antetokounmpo who took the ball back from a Bucks staffer and handed it to Doncic, who wanted to deliver the meaningful memento to the Lakers’ rookie.

“I think he can be a great player,” Doncic told reporters. “He’s physical. He can jump out of the gym. And, you know, he’s a fighter.”

Redick and the coaching staff were mindful that the situation could have been difficult for Thiero. He didn’t get a preseason or a training camp. The rookie was coming off an injury and playing in the first half while making his NBA debut.

But Thiero made a good first impression.

He scrambled for an offensive rebound that led to a three-pointer from Kleber in the first quarter. He played a quick two-minute stint in the first half then returned in mop-up duty during the fourth quarter, scoring his first points on two made free throws that had the Lakers on their feet celebrating.

Then his two-handed dunk in transition sent the Lakers’ bench into pandemonium.

“Coming down and seeing everybody flexing all over the bench,” Thiero said, “it was just a good feeling for everybody to be happy for me.”

When Thiero returned to the locker room, it felt like a release. He told teammates he had waited seven months for that.

He suffered a hyperextended knee while playing for Arkansas on Feb. 22 and missed eight games. The Razorbacks’ leading scorer and rebounder returned in the NCAA regional semifinal but played just six minutes off the bench as Arkansas lost to Texas Tech. He got surgery after the college season and said at Lakers media day he was still working through some swelling in his knee.

“You could tell how hard he works,” Reaves said. “The time that he’s in the gym. He’s had some unfortunate injuries here and there, but really good kid, wants to do the right things, always on time. Just good character.”

On tap

By reader request, we’ll include a brief lookahead section previewing the upcoming week’s games. This one is easy: The Lakers host Utah on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in their only game this week.

The Jazz (5-8) lost center Walker Kessler to a season-ending shoulder surgery, but are led by forward Lauri Markkanen’s 30.6 points and 6.2 rebounds. The Finnish forward scored 47 points in the Jazz’s double-overtime win over the Chicago Bulls on Sunday in which guard Keyonte George hit the game-winning three with two seconds left. The third-year guard is averaging career-highs in points (22.2) and assists (seven).

Favorite thing I ate this week

The Cuban burrito from Cafe Kacao in Oklahoma City.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

I have beef with Oklahoma City. Out of loyalty to my hometown, I will carry this vendetta until at least the NBA expands back to Seattle. But I allow myself to praise precisely one thing in that city and it’s the Cuban burrito at Cafe Kacao. It’s packed with vaca frita (shredded beef with sauteed onions), plantains, black beans and rice. The sweet and savory drizzle of plantain sauce and garlic sauce is the perfect topping.

In case you missed it

LeBron James knows there will be a ‘feel-out’ process when he returns to Lakers

Lakers takeaways: What we learned from the team’s five-game road trip

Luka Doncic scores 41 as Lakers rout Milwaukee Bucks to cap 3-2 trip

With LeBron nearing a return, Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic lead Lakers past Pelicans

Lakers can’t keep up with Oklahoma City and are routed

Until next time…

As always, pass along your thoughts to me at [email protected], and please consider subscribing if you like our work!

Welcome back to this week’s Lakers newsletter, where we are bundling up during the Southeast’s deep freeze.

Snow flurries dusted the ground outside Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday, but the Lakers were heating up. They knocked off the Charlotte Hornets for their sixth win over the last seven games and, after a clunker in Atlanta, vibes are, once again, high.

Austin Reaves returned in the game against the Hornets to help the Lakers inch closer to full health, but after weeks of an ever-changing rotation, we’re going to start on a player known for his consistency.

Prime Rui Hachimura

No one had this comparison on their bingo card this year. Rui Hachimura and M.J. himself? In one key area, at least, it holds for JJ Redick.

“[I] feel like he’s not going to miss a midrange shot right now,” Redick said before the Atlanta game. “It’s like prime Michael Jordan, prime Kawhi Leonard.”

Redick may have jinxed Hachimura, who went three-for-nine against the Hawks when everyone struggled, but the Japanese forward is quietly putting together a career year. He’s averaging 16.3 points per game on 58.6% shooting. His field-goal percentage is the team’s highest for any non-center. With the biggest stars in and out of the lineup because of injuries, Hachimura is one of just three Lakers players to appear in each of the first 11 games.

“One thing we know about Rui is he’s gonna be consistent,” guard Marcus Smart said. “He’s gonna get to his spots. He’s gonna make plays for us, and he’s gonna come in clutch for us.”

Despite the successful start, Hachimura was caught off guard when told of his accomplishments. He had no idea that he had shot better than 50% from the field in every game before the Atlanta dud. The Lakers forward’s eyebrows shot up when he heard that Redick put him and his midrange shots in the same sentence as His Airness.

Because to Hachimura, what he’s doing is just second nature to him.

“Those kinds of shots,” Hachimura said, “that’s why I got here at this point.”

Shooting 52.4% from three, Hachimura has also developed into a certified laser from distance, Redick said. He was shooting 40.2% from three during his Lakers career prior to this season.

Hachimura, who is in the final year of his contract, credited assistant coach Beau Levesque for helping him improve his offensive game, focusing on quicker decision making and smarter shot selection.

While his offensive prowess has been on display all season, he also backed it up Monday with some of the best defense Redick has watched him play. The Lakers held Charlotte — which scored 40 points in the first quarter — to 15 points in the third thanks in large part to Hachimura’s activity. The defensive stats aren’t impressive: one defensive rebound, one steal, no blocks.

But his teammates know Hachimura’s value.

“Nobody talks about him, but he deserves a lot of credit in our wins,” guard Luka Doncic said. “He’s been amazing for us, and the way he plays like every game just helps us a lot, especially to win games.”

10-game statistical check-in

The Lakers led the league in shooting percentage through their first 10 games and, until Sunday’s clunker in Atlanta, were a top-five ranked offense. The source of their offensive power is an unexpected shot.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

Entering Sunday’s games, the Lakers led the league with 11.3 attempts from 10-to-14 feet per game. The midrange shot has become the modern NBA’s statistically inefficient black sheep, but it’s been the key to keeping the Lakers afloat during the early season injuries.

The Lakers shot 55.8% from 10-to-14 feet, the league leaders from that distance entering Sunday’s games. When expanded to shooting zones, the Lakers take the second-highest percentage of non-layup two-pointers in the league, trailing only the Sacramento Kings. They also converted them at a scorching 55.9% clip. On two-point shots outside of the restricted area, no other team even cracked 50%.

Of course, this is all small-sample-size theater. Redick doesn’t think this will be the Lakers’ longterm shot profile because the team won’t look like this for long. The Lakers have been without Doncic, Reaves and LeBron James for part of or (in the case of James) all of the season.

Once the Lakers are “whole,” Redick suspects that the team will return to something closer to last year’s final version that ranked ninth in three-point attempts in games after the Doncic trade. Whether the higher quality shots will actually fall would be the next important step: The corner three is the only area from which the Lakers are shooting worse than league average.

Best thing I ate this week

The Swahili Plate with grilled lamb bites from Serengeti Kitchen in Charlotte, N.C. is served with coconut rice and pinto beans, collards and cabbage and sweet fried plantains.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

I can find Tanzania on the map, but that’s the extent of my knowledge about the East African country. I was wholly unfamiliar with Tanzania’s game, and if my first taste from Serengeti Kitchen in Charlotte is any indication, they definitely got food game in that country.

The Swahili plate comes with coconut rice under coconut pinto beans with collard and cabbage and sweet fried plantains. I got the grilled lamb bites and proceeded to text all my friends about my favorite discovery Downtown Charlotte.

In case you missed it

Luka Doncic underlines his 38-point night with monster dunk in Lakers’ win

Lenny Wilkens, Hall of Famer who coached the most games in NBA history, dies at 88

Injuries finally catch up to Lakers as win streak ends in blowout loss to open trip

Bronny James shows his improvement for shorthanded Lakers

How the Lakers use Japanese slideshow presentations to build chemistry

Ex-NBA player accused of selling LeBron James injury secrets pleads not guilty

Lakers takeaways: Luka Doncic’s defense (yes, defense) helps hold off Spurs

Until next time…

As always, pass along your thoughts to me at [email protected], and please consider subscribing if you like our work!

Welcome back to the Lakers newsletter, where we’re likely standing at an airport as you read this.

The NBA schedule is in full swing. The chaos JJ Redick mentioned at the beginning of the season has arrived. The Lakers played a game with seven standard contract players. Austin Reaves went on a heater for the ages, scoring 51 points in a game, 41 in the next, then hitting the game-winner in the one after that. Nick Smith Jr. threw up in the hallway at Moda Center then dropped 25 on the Portland Trail Blazers.

But through it all, the Lakers are crediting their 6-2 start to something that can’t be measured in the box score.

‘Play Laker basketball’

There seems to be an advanced statistic for everything now. As a math person, I wholeheartedly embrace the nerdification of sports. But the thing Redick preaches most to his team is something that can’t be quantified.

Just “playing hard.”

It sounds simple, but, in fact, there is a way to do it wrong.

“That’s what we call ‘fake hustle,’” guard Marcus Smart said. “It’s all for the cameras. It’s all just to look good so you don’t get in trouble in the film room. But when you’re playing hard, you can feel it. You can feel the way you’re playing, you can feel the way the energy. Your body can feel it. Your mind can feel it. And you’d be surprised how the game turns out because of that.”

The Lakers’ early season commitment to simply playing hard has helped them weather injury storms and roster uncertainty. They’ve gone 3-1 in games without Luka Doncic. One of those victories was without Doncic and Austin Reaves, and all have been on the road. LeBron James hasn’t even played a minute this season.

“There’s certain things that we are doing right now that we did not do until mid-to-late January of last year,” Redick said before the Lakers’ game against Memphis.

Naturally, only hours after praising his team’s consistent competitiveness, Redick was frustrated with the effort in the second quarter against the Grizzlies. He called his players “zombies” as they let Memphis score 19 unanswered points in the second quarter.

So, no, things aren’t perfect yet.

But in a long season, with pieces that are still finding their way together, any early glimpse at some of those intangible, championship team qualities are meaningful. Redick lauded his team’s confidence, belief and connectivity in the win over Portland without Doncic or Reaves. Getting any or all of their stars back will change the complexion of what this team will ultimately achieve in April, May or — they hope — June, but the Lakers don’t want to it to affect what they do any given night.

“I think it all started in training camp, really just going as hard as we can, JJ not giving the crap who’s out there,” center Deandre Ayton said. “He wants to play Laker basketball.”

After the Lakers beat the Grizzlies, Smart gave the team a B+ in how hard it’s playing. But after Monday’s win in Portland in which Smith scored 25 points off the bench, Smart upgraded the rating to a B++.

So there’s still room to grow on this report card.

A new boss in town

New Lakers majority owner Mark Walter.

(Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

The Lakers officially have a new majority owner.

Mark Walter’s acquisition of the Lakers was unanimously approved by the NBA board of governors last Thursday. It was a monumental week for the billionaire. One day after the sale went final, Walter hoisted the Commissioner’s Trophy for the second time in as many years with the Dodgers, who won the World Series in epic Game 7 fashion. Then on Sunday, Walter was sitting courtside at Crypto.com Arena in a royal blue Dodgers jacket to watch the Lakers defeat the Heat. An arena employee shook Walter’s hand, presumably thanking him for bringing L.A. another championship and already dreaming about the next one that could come for the purple and gold.

Redick said he spoke briefly with Walter after the news and came away impressed with Walter’s enthusiasm to learn about a new league.

“Baseball is an individual sport masquerading as a team sport. It’s a different thing,” Redick said. “Daryl Morey said it best on a podcast a couple years ago. He said the NBA now is the equivalent of the Giants when Barry Bonds was in his prime, basically getting to bat every single time and not only that, getting to pick who pitches to him every single time. That’s what the NBA is. … The impact of star players, a guy like Luka, a guy like LeBron, a guy like AR, it’s just different than any other sport.”

Favorite thing I ate this week

Miso pork katsu sando from Tokyo Sando food cart in Portland.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

As my Uber driver dropped me off at my hotel in Portland, we drove by a collection of food trucks around the corner. He recommended that I make a stop for lunch. Little did he know, I had already scoped out the entire area, and I had my target locked.

The miso pork katsu sando from Tokyo Sando felt like culinary perfection after a chaotic back-to-back turnaround.

In case you missed it

No Big 3, no problem: Nick Smith Jr. helps lead Lakers to fourth consecutive win

Jake LaRavia won’t be unknown to Lakers fans much longer with games like this

Luka Doncic drops triple-double to power Lakers to victory over Heat

Luka Doncic returns and Lakers get a road win at Memphis

NBA approves Buss family sale of Lakers to Dodgers majority owner Mark Walter

Austin Reaves hits game-winner as Lakers hang on to defeat Timberwolves

Until next time…

As always, pass along your thoughts to me at [email protected], and please consider subscribing if you like our work!