LeBron James came alive on Saturday to lead the Los Angeles Lakers in a win against the stout Utah Jazz defense. The Lake Show meet the Charlotte Hornets next and will be in a good position to collect another victory.

Bouncing back from a dud

The 95-86 win versus the Jazz saw a good bounce back game from James. The 34-year-old future Hall-of-Famer had a game-high 32 points and flirted with a triple-double by also registering 10 assists and seven rebounds. Anthony Davis wasn’t as impressive (21 points on 7-for-17 shooting), but his defensive presence had him swatting five shots.

The two had good success over the Hornets last season. LeBron had a triple-double in the meeting last December 2018 (24 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists), while Davis, in his lone game versus Charlotte that season, posted monster numbers of 39 points, 19 rebounds, and eight assists.

The other Lakers look questionable

A win is a win, but the Lakers’ supporting cast ought to show up next time. The team won’t do well in the long run if James and Davis are scoring more than half of the team’s points – they scored 53 of the 95 vs. Utah.

The other three starters – JaVale McGee, Avery Bradley, and Danny Green – combined for just 18 points, with McGee getting hampered with foul trouble early in the game. The bench wasn’t any better outside of Troy Daniels (15 points, four threes), who mostly played because the team had to dig deep in the bench.

Back to reality for the Hornets

The Charlotte Hornets were riding high from its 126-125 season-opening win over the Chicago Bulls, where rookie PJ Washington scored a team-high 27 and fired seven threes to record the most made threes by a debuting player, but then they met Karl Anthony-Towns on Saturday and went back to reality.

No one couldn’t stop Towns, as the Hornets defense yielded 39 points to the big man, en route to a 121-99 loss. Washington, though able to record a double-double (10 points and 10 rebounds), was mostly uneventful for the contest. Second-year guard Dwayne Bacon, who had 22 in the opener, was also silenced and only had eight points.

It’s a free-for-all offense, and not in a good way

With Kemba Walker gone, the Hornets are obviously missing a consistent go-to scorer. Two of the other guards who will take his place – Bacon and De’Vonte Graham – are unproven players that are still raw for the most part. Both are skilled enough to be threats but as seen in their hot-and-cold performances in the two games, it’s not a good sign that they are the ones being relied upon to score.

The Hornets signed Terry Rozier to a big contract in the off-season to replace Walker (three-years, $58 million) and he’s virtually non-existent so far – 9 PPG on 37%-shooting.

PREDICTION:

LeBron James came alive on Saturday to lead the Los Angeles Lakers in a win against the stout Utah Jazz defense. The Lake Show meet the Charlotte Hornets next and will be in a good position to collect another victory.

Bouncing back from a dud

The 95-86 win versus the Jazz saw a good bounce back game from James. The 34-year-old future Hall-of-Famer had a game-high 32 points and flirted with a triple-double by also registering 10 assists and seven rebounds. Anthony Davis wasn’t as impressive (21 points on 7-for-17 shooting), but his defensive presence had him swatting five shots.

The two had good success over the Hornets last season. LeBron had a triple-double in the meeting last December 2018 (24 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists), while Davis, in his lone game versus Charlotte that season, posted monster numbers of 39 points, 19 rebounds, and eight assists.

The other Lakers look questionable

A win is a win, but the Lakers’ supporting cast ought to show up next time. The team won’t do well in the long run if James and Davis are scoring more than half of the team’s points – they scored 53 of the 95 vs. Utah.

The other three starters – JaVale McGee, Avery Bradley, and Danny Green – combined for just 18 points, with McGee getting hampered with foul trouble early in the game. The bench wasn’t any better outside of Troy Daniels (15 points, four threes), who mostly played because the team had to dig deep in the bench.

Back to reality for the Hornets

The Charlotte Hornets were riding high from its 126-125 season-opening win over the Chicago Bulls, where rookie PJ Washington scored a team-high 27 and fired seven threes to record the most made threes by a debuting player, but then they met Karl Anthony-Towns on Saturday and went back to reality.

No one couldn’t stop Towns, as the Hornets defense yielded 39 points to the big man, en route to a 121-99 loss. Washington, though able to record a double-double (10 points and 10 rebounds), was mostly uneventful for the contest. Second-year guard Dwayne Bacon, who had 22 in the opener, was also silenced and only had eight points.

It’s a free-for-all offense, and not in a good way

With Kemba Walker gone, the Hornets are obviously missing a consistent go-to scorer. Two of the other guards who will take his place – Bacon and De’Vonte Graham – are unproven players that are still raw for the most part. Both are skilled enough to be threats but as seen in their hot-and-cold performances in the two games, it’s not a good sign that they are the ones being relied upon to score.

The Hornets signed Terry Rozier to a big contract in the off-season to replace Walker (three-years, $58 million) and he’s virtually non-existent so far – 9 PPG on 37%-shooting.

PREDICTION:

The Lakers should be able to win this game. They will be definitely booed out of the arena if they lose to the Hornets.