The Whiteboard: At least the Lakers are getting good Kyle Kuzma

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All season long, the Los Angeles Lakers wanted Kyle Kuzma to step into that vacant third spotlight alongside their star duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Go figure that now, with the offense struggling so heavily in the NBA bubble, he’s finally filling that role.

Before Monday night’s much-needed breakthrough against the Denver Nuggets, the Lakers were dead-last in offensive rating among all 22 teams in the Orlando bubble. Even 124 points on 54.3 percent shooting as a team — largely against the Nuggets’ second unit down the stretch — only managed to bump Los Angeles up from 22nd to 21st in O-rating since the seeding games began.

LeBron James (22.8 points and 7.3 assists per game on .447/.333/.629 shooting splits) has not been his usually dominant self. Aside from a game or two, neither has Anthony Davis (21.6 points per game on .422/.292/.853 shooting). Danny Green has been objectively terrible, tallying just 7.3 points a night on 7-of-25 shooting from downtown (28 percent).

The Lakers’ lone saving grace and model of consistency in Orlando? That’s right: The dude who looked like Billie Eilish for most of the season.

In seven games, Kuzma has put up 15.4 points per game on 46.3 percent shooting from the floor, including a team-best 44.4 percent from 3 on 5.1 attempts per game. He’s a plus-1.9, easily the best mark among a starting five that’s otherwise been stuck in the negatives, and according to NBA.com, the offense has completely tanked without him.

When Kuzma has been on the floor in Orlando, the Lakers boast an offensive rating of 112.3 — best on the team and far better than their overall O-rating of 103.0. When he sits, that number plummets to 87.0 — a whopping difference of 25.3 points per 100 possessions and easily the biggest on/off differential on L.A.’s roster.

So yeah, it was kind of fitting Frank Vogel drew up that beautiful inbounds set for Kuzma to hit the game-winning 3 on Monday night.

Sure, the Lakers’ defense — their greatest strength all season — is still better when Kuzma is not on the court. L.A.’s defensive rating improves by 5.3 points per 100 possessions whenever he rests, but for such a miserable offensive team thus far in Orlando, the Lakers have had to take what they can get.

What they’re getting from Kuz is oxygen for an offense that’s routinely suffocated. He’s the only player shooting better than 35 percent from 3-point range in the bubble. He’s the only non-center among the team’s regular rotation players shooting better than 45 percent from the floor. And aside from that 11-point, 3-for-14 shooting performance against the Indiana Pacers, he’s the only Laker who’s been a consistent producer in Orlando.

That’s both concerning and reassuring, depending on one’s approach.

On the one hand, it’s somewhat telling that in this chaotic offense, which has been miserable in a half-court setting, Kyle Kuzma has finally found his groove. The offense had been largely devoid of flow or chemistry until Monday night, so after struggling all season to the tune of 12.5 points per game on .432/.297/.738 shooting splits, it’s less than ideal that this is the environment where Kuz has suddenly felt so comfortable.

However, there’s simply too much talent on this roster for the Lakers to continue to struggle like this. LeBron and AD won’t be this inefficient and rusty when the games start to matter for a team that already had the 1-seed in the bag. Danny Green has too much championship experience to continue to stink this badly. And when the Lakers eventually flip the switch, hopefully the confidence and comfort level Kuzma has never lacked but finally reinforced with results during these seeding games will transfer over, making a bona fide title contender even more dangerous.

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