Lakers embrace ball movement as LeBron James celebrates birthday

LOS ANGELES -- Kyle Kuzma finished with 20 points in his team’s lopsided win over the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves last week at Staple Center.

Thing is, Kuzma could have easily went for 40. However, Kuzma didn’t turn into a volume shooter because he was feeling it that night.

Kuzma did not score a point in the second half and took just one shot, choosing instead to keep the basketball moving and look for his teammates to get better shots.

“I’m just trying to take what the defense gives me and I saw a lot of open men out there,” Kuzma said. “Obviously, I was hot in the first half, but I was the focal point of their defense in the second half, so I used that to my advantage and my teammates kept pouring it in.”

It not only shows the maturity of Kuzma, but the willingness of the Lakers to buy into a ball movement philosophy led by head coach Frank Vogel and team captain LeBron James of getting all of their talented teammates involved on offense.

“Kuz has really become a hell of a player,” Vogel said. “Playing in the role that he had last year, where there were games that he really wasn’t that involved in the offense and had to impact the game in other ways, I think in the long run is really, really going to help his game.

“So many young players, they come into this league in a different environment and they are asked to carry a big scoring load offensively. And when you’re doing that, sometimes you shortcut some of the other parts of your game. He’s really worked on his defense, his rebounding, cutting and running the floor -- all those types of things. … When he started scoring the ball, he didn’t force, that was the most impressive thing.”

The Lakers have 103 assists this season and average 26.8 assists a game, No. 7 in the NBA. James led the league with a career-high 10.2 assists last season. Through four games, James leads the Lakers with 26 assists.

“We want to move the ball,” James said. “We shouldn’t take many bad shots, if any at all because we have so much ball movement, player movement and we have so many guys that can make shots. And we have guys that can make the right play, make the right pass.”

At 2-2 on the year, overall the Lakers have done a good job of adhering to that pass-first philosophy. However, that was not the case in a 115-107 loss to the Portland Trailblazers on Monday to close out a four-game home stand.

The Trailblazers clogged the cutting and passing lanes as well as anyone the Lakers have played this season, forcing the L.A. to play more one-on-one than Vogel and James would like.

After consecutive games with more than 30 assists, the Lakers had only 20 against Portland on 41 field goals.

So, figuring out how to create more ball movement and player movement when defenses take away space is something the Lakers will have to work on as they open up a four-game road trip against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday.

“It starts with the group,” Vogel said about the Portland game. “We just weren’t moving the ball really well.”

James also turns 36 years old on Wednesday. He talked about what it means for him to play on his birthday this week. James is 3-4 in games played on Dec. 30 during his 18-year NBA career. He’s been inactive for two other games on his birthday.

James has averaged 33 points, 7.6 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game on his birthday.

“I’ve been very fortunate to play some games on my birthday,” James said. “This will be another opportunity to play the game that I love and also just celebrating another year of existence. Coming from where I come from, a lot of people don’t even make it past 21.

“So, for me to be rounding the base at 36 and playing the game I love to play, being with a great team and a great organization, with a great family and great friends and support system, it makes it a lot greater than the alternative. I’m just very blessed and very honored. And I’m happy to be doing what I love to do.”