CHICAGO - My Easter Sunday went better than expected.
I had a hearty breakfast with my wife and son. Heard mass at noon, feasted on lechon kawali for lunch before finishing the day off with a pizza dinner while watching the women's NCAA championship game that went down the wire in favor of powerhouse Stanford, 54-53.
I wish I can say the same for the stumbling, fumbling Los Angeles Lakers.
Star-less without LeBron James, Anthony Davis and recent addition Andre Drummond, the defending champs spent Easter Sunday laying an egg at Staples Center and looking so laughably amateurish against their in-city rivals.
Clippers 104. Lakers 86.
Amazing couldn't begin to describe Kawhi Leonard and Paul George . They combined for 35 points, 17 rebounds and 11 assists to help the Clips handle their business quickly by storming to a 53-38 halftime lead and a 77-55 spread entering the fourth quarter.
Marcus Morris Sr. reinforced the long-held notion that he is the better of the Morris twins, hitting 9-of-13 from the field for 22 points while his brother, Markieff, pitched in a tepid nine points on 4-of-10 shooting for the Lakers.
Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, meanwhile, continued to remarkably underperform the $40 million contract extensions they each received in the off-season. They combined for a lousy 14 points and missed 14 of 19 shots including eight clunkers out of 10 tries from 3.
Lakers GM Rob Pelinka finished seventh in the 2020 Executive of the Year race. These two signings should effectively put him on the bottom 20 for the 2021 ballot.
I get it. Without LeBron and A.D, there is reasonable expectation for the scoring to drop. But 32 of 80 from the field (40 percent) and 7-of-23 from long distance (30.4 percent) is junior varsity stuff. So is being outrebounded 50-36 and losing the assists battle at 23-16.
At 31-19 the Lakers dropped to 5th place in the Western conference standings. Three more defeats put them in seventh place, which means they are in position to lose an outright playoff berth and must emerge among the top two teams in the five-team play-in tournament to qualify for the postseason.
I don't intend to incite panic but things are not looking good for coach Frank Vogel's troops. Their next five games are all on the road against the Raptors, Heat, Nets, Knicks and Hornets.
Laid-back as the California weather, Lakers fans are unfazed in the face of calamity. They insist that everything is gonna be fine once LeBron and AD are nursed back to health.
That notion is false and fallacious.
Even if both All-Stars are medically cleared to play, they still need to get into playing shape and develop the chemistry required to meld and function well with their teammates on both sides of the ball.
And that is not a given especially under time constraints as the playoffs are set to begin this May 23.
WHAT A HOLIDAY FOR JRUE. The four-year $160 million contract extension that Jrue Holiday agreed on with the Milwaukee Bucks today doesn't necessarily mean he is suddenly on the same level as Steph Curry who is making $43 million this season.
A player's worth is often measured by how valuable he is to his team. And for the Bucks, breaking the bank at $40 million a year is worth keeping the 6-foot-7, 205-pound UCLA gem.
Why so much?
Well, the 30-year old point guard is having a whale of a season averaging 17 points, 4.6 rebound and 5.4 assists per while shooting a career-best 50.9 percent from the field and a steady 39 percent from 3.
Locking up Jrue long term makes Giannis Antetokounmpo happy, which is exactly what you want from a superstar who just signed a five-year 228.2 million deal last December.
WHEN IT RAINS IT SNOWS. The inimitable Snow Badua, inarguably the biggest and brightest star in our country's sports reporting scene, tested positive for COVID-19. recently.
Although I am saddened over this development, I am not surprised.
How can a man of the people do the good he does in making the sports world a better place while socially-distancing for six feet?
I spoke with my dear friend last night and I am encouraged by the knowledge that he is asymptomatic and doing fairly well. It looks like the coronavirus picked the wrong foe to pick a fight with.
Be well. bossing Snow. See you at the SPIN.ph POV jam session tomorrow.
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