It’s hard for the Lakers to be too jaded about any of this anyway when two of their prominent current players are Kyle Kuzma and Alex Caruso, whose 2017 Lakers debuts were part of the organization’s remodel.
After James half-jokingly welcomed the two of them when the Lakers mathematically qualified for the playoffs earlier this season, Kuzma and Caruso are rightfully a bit wide-eyed about being a step from the championship series.
Kuzma recalls a conversation last season with then-teammate Tyson Chandler, who shared: “I've played in the league 18 years, and I’ve only been to the (NBA) Finals once.”
Kuzma says now: “It’s always stuck with me. Live in the moment.”
The Lakers, by the way, just denied Chandler—a reserve on Houston’s roster—another conference finals this season. Instead, here is Kuzma—whom Chandler admired from the beginning for having a thirst for knowledge ranging from how to play winning defense to what kind of vitamins to take.
That intangible determination that Kuzma and Caruso have displayed as young professionals is one reason Lakers management so coveted them and kept them around. One should not forget how Caruso passed up attending his sister’s wedding because he didn’t want to disrupt what the Lakers had going on the NBA’s COVID-controlled campus. We have seen with other eliminated teams how much of a negative that can be in the equation.
Neither Caruso nor Kuzma has looked scared of the moment in the playoffs, combining with veterans Rajon Rondo and Markieff Morris to own games off the bench.
We discussed last week how playoff experience is useful but playoff confidence is powerful. The way Caruso, 26, and Kuzma, 25, are playing is about confidence, not experience.
“I’m not shying away from showing my competitiveness and playing how I know how to play,” Caruso said. “There were spurts of it earlier in the year.”
Said Kuzma: “I’m just out there, being confident, playing my role, doing whatever it takes to win.”
Caruso described his improvement in the playoffs as “playing rather than thinking about what I should be doing,” which is exactly the inverse of what most would expect from a playoff newbie.
That does not mean, however, that Caruso fails to appreciate the elevated seriousness of playoff basketball he has experienced, with the feeling set to ratchet up another level next in the Western Conference Finals.
“Six minutes in the playoffs is more than six minutes in a regular-season game, just from intensity and schemes and having to play every possession like it’s the last one, like it’s the end of the world,” Caruso said, referencing the additional playing time he has gotten.
It’s all relative, of course. There was a time in life when Kuzma and Caruso were treating the NBA Summer League championship game as their all-in moment at the poker table—and they emerged victorious from that, too.
Consider the context for those Las Vegas days and nights in 2017: Brandon Ingram got hurt in the first game and never played again that summer. Josh Hart didn’t play in the last six games. Lonzo Ball was hurt and missed the title game.
Yet Kuzma scored 30 points to be named championship game MVP. Caruso added 15 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. The victory gave the Lakers’ organization some real success on the court to celebrate at a time when it really needed it.
Three years later, Kuzma and Caruso are close to reminding the Lakers’ organization what real success on the court is.
The Link LonkSeptember 18, 2020 at 07:36AM
https://www.nba.com/lakers/the-point-back-in-the-conference-finals-lakers-are-feeling-fresh-this-time
The Point: Back in the Conference Finals, Lakers Are Feeling Fresh This Time | Los Angeles Lakers - Lakers.com
https://news.google.com/search?q=fresh&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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