Best effort? Yes. Best player. That award goes to KCP. Without KCP's hot shooting, it would have been a second blowout in a row.
Horrible horrible horrible horrible substitutions and game management tonight. Oh, and did I say he was horrible?
Clarkson played exceptionally well. Randle played well albeit with a few bad turnovers. Ingram played well in the second half. Kuz played well too.
115 points (with 5 players in double digits) is more than enough to win a game. Our defense was clearly the culprit here. I think Nance/Randle played well enough on Blake (21 shot attempts to hit 26 points and forced him into 3 turnovers) and DeAndre (forced 5 turnovers and limited him to 9 boards when he's averaging 14)...but it was our guard play that left them out to dry, with both Lou and Austin killing us at the rim. The only thing I'm upset about with Nance is that if he knew he was beat late in that game, he should give up a hard foul on Lou...even if it means fouling out. Again Kuz's offense couldn't save us in this game...when our D was clearly the let down. That is clearly on Luke and our coaching staff to correct before December completely dismantles whatever low hopes we have at the moment of making noise later in the season. Oh, and getting outscored 16 to 28 at the free throw line doesn't help matters either....or is that Luke's fault too?
Our offense completely stalled at the end too though. We scored 12 points the last 8 mins. We really could have used some scoring down the stretch and Nance didn’t provide it, but Kuzma could have, he was on fire. I think JC should have come back as well, Ball should have gone back out. Nance at the 5 killed us again. If I remember right, Randle at the 4 and Nance at the 5 was bad last season too, Randle has been a much better small ball 5 this season.
The fact that something ISN'T Puke's fault doesn't mean other things aren't either. It's the vaunted "but what about..." defence. He is a terrible subs manager, has installed precisely 0 offensive sets, and putting players, that do things properly, on the floor is his f***ING job. He fails at it time and again, no matter how much you want to divert the blame. Players are the ones playing. They are always to blame. But then, what do you need a coach for?
In the 4th the 2nd unit went up by 8 but gave it all back when Lou and DeAndre came back into the game at the 8 minute mark. Luke countered by bringing back BI, Nance and KCP for Kuz, Brew and Hart. Unfortunately it didn't stop the bleeding. I just think we lost this game due to the refs putting us in foul trouble, us getting outscored by 12 at the free throw line, getting 16 turnovers, of which many were unforced, and our defensive switches really stinking up the joint. We scored 115 (left 8 points at the line), so we should have won this game easily IMHO once Blake went out. I do agree with alot of what you said Weez, but looking at the free throw discrepancy, that's the ball game right there and that has nothing to do with Luke really. The refs f***ed us and we didn't help matters when we missed 8 at the line ourselves. @ZenMaster I agree that Luke needs to get these guys playing better D again, but like I said above, this game could have been had at the free throw line and that really isn't on Luke at all. There was plenty of offense we left at the line and that cost us the game. Luke's rotations have been head scratchers for sure, but tonight had alot to do with the refs putting us deep into foul trouble. Luke gets some blame, but its not entirely on him with the type of youth, inexperience and lack of talent this roster has.
Well .... LukeWaltonsAndLaVarBallsDad..... what's the common denominator? Your 3rd turned out OK though.
This was just another shining example of Luke not seeing what everyone else sees. Obvious to everyone Clarkson was clearly the better guard tonight, over Ball, especially when you had a hard time scoring in the final 8 minutes. I couldn't believe after Clarkson came in and played great in the 4th, scored the go ahead buckets, and had all the momentum on the Lakers side, Luke pulled him out. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
We somehow find a way to lose... I think Luke gets fired midway next season... These legacy hirings stink
1) He can't do this 2) He can't put the right lineup to finish games 1+2 automatically = can't be a competent coach
He seems to have no feel to the game kind of guy, he insists on playing his rotations probably copying PJax who had super mega stars in his teams. Midseason firing next year, that's my prediction
True or not.. Dont you think it's more important to let Ball get the experience and development instead of Clarkson? Call me crazy but i really dgaf about making the playoffs. I want guys developing who ARE part of the future. Nance was in over Kuz for defensive purposes and we were leading after all. Obviously i still wanna win..but you catch my drift.
I think Luke sees a lot of himself in Nance. Smart player with limited basketball talent. The favoritism is quite obvious at this point. Both Kuzma and Randle are better players and deserve more minutes over Nance.
Kuzma will get his and is coming along just peachy my friend. I did have a smirk when @revgen said Larry was probably the best effort guy instead of overall player lolz.
I defended Luke all season, but this loss is on him. Bad rotations, not riding the hot hand, no defense when it mattered and not preparing our guys for Lou, who played for us and was actually coached by Luke. It's unacceptable.