I screamed...literally haven't seen the Lakers win a christmas game in years...in fact, I've gotten somewhat used to the Lakers losing both opening night and Xmas day games. This year, they won both. In spite of that horrible loss to the Pistons...i had this game marked as a scheduled loss even before I knew AD/DLO would be out...so to WIN this game in the fashion we did and as SHORT handed as we were...it's remarkable, and it's a huge win. Now we get a few days off before we begin our 4-game homestand against the Kings, Cavs, Blazers and Hawks. Looking to sweep the Kings, beat the Blazers once more, and get revenge on both the Cavs and Hawks. We've had A LOT of road games (17), in fact we've had THE most road games in the entire western conference (!!!!) and we're tied for 2nd in the entire league in the number of road games played to date (Indiana is #1 at 18 games, and we're tied with Orlando at 17). To be 8-9 on the road at this point is pretty impressive, basically we've been .500 there and so longn as we can take care of home court...we can be a 50 win team at that pace and likely secure a top 6 seed (and with how the west is this year...50 wins probably gets you a top 4 seed actually and secures HCA in the 1st round...) Only thing I'm hoping is that AD's ankle injury is not serious and hes' not out for any extended amoutn of time. Honestly I was surprised he was out the rest of this game, because it's not like he stepped on anybody. He just rolled it. BTW - can we please get Austin the damn ball with the game on the line next time? So happy to see us be FORCED to go to him instead of LeBron who woulda likely taken a tough contested 3 (that's what the opposing team will settle for versus getting beaten on the drive). Austin getting past a VERY good defender in Wiggins to lay it in with his RIGHT is one of the most difficult layups you can get with the clock winding down.
He was absolutely sensational all game. Nice to see him get a lot of love on a national broadcast as well. His standout play was praised throughout. The rebounding particularly blew me away. 10 boards!
