I'm so old... (studio audience: HOW OLD ARE YOU?) I'm so old I remember watching this game on TV as a kid: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/197203190LAL.html Lakers 162 GSW 99 At the time, it was the biggest slaughter in NBA history, IIRC. It's not like that team - one of the greatest in history, with a 33-game winning streak that still stands - was pouring it on. But about 4 minutes into the 3rd Q it was Garbage Time, and everyone played...and couldn't miss shots. I remember old Leroy Ellis hitting an olde-timey hook shot, the kind you'd see a Globetrotter shoot, and it banked in. Chick was laffing his a** off.
Just wanna say that I, like a lot of you, watched the GSW loss to PHO a couple days ago. Good game. Curry had a terrible night or GSW would've snapped the PHO streak. Anyway, if the Lakers were in a 10 game series with either team, they'd go either 0-10 or 1-9. Watching PHO and GSW? They're on some other PLANET compared to where the Lakers play. Both PHO (who killed us in the playoffs last year and look way better this year) and GSW play good to great D on every possession, they move the ball on offense like well-oiled machinery, they hit 3s like muthas, they box out, they make FTs, they're smart, etc: all the things the Lakers are NOT this year. We have some pug-fugly games to suffer through, I'm afraid. It's only...Dec 3rd? My gawd.
health and continuity, mostly. they're also a bit younger in the rotation. and i strongly disagree with the notion that they kicked our a** in the playoffs last year. AD doesn't go down, and we beat them. and that's with lebron at less than 100%. they caught a huge break. it's december. we'll see how everyone looks in june. chris paul is very old and has a lot of trouble making it through seasons. steph curry also has trouble maintaining top form all the way through the playoffs.
GSW/PHO are both on fire right now, two of the top teams in the West right now. As for us, well we've been playing some ugly basketball but hoping to build off that strong second half vs the Kings.
All good points. And I think the abysmally short off-season the Lakers had last year is an underrated fact. It was almost criminal for Silver to make the players bounce back so soon. I base this on a lifetime of reading about what the into-June NBA season does to the players' bodies. They NEED all that rest before camp begins again. I also strongly suspect the short recuperation time was a significant contributor to both AD's injury and Lebron's. But now, it's a different team, with zero chemistry, that doesn't play D, that stands around while Lebron dribbles, that doesn't switch off, box out, or seemingly know their assignments. Could it get better? Yes. But maybe not soon enough. Steph kills everyone in the playoffs. But you're right: Chris Paul, as smooth as he his, is prone to injury (Steph's ankles are his Achilles Heel, to imitate Yogi Berra.) Just think: Klay is coming back. And so is Wiseman. But in the end: to the Q: how are PHO and GSW different from us?: 1. Chemistry (both teams have a core that's been intact and playing together for awhile now); 2. They both play serious D. This Laker team has played decent D for a 12 minute stretch here and there, but you need 48, not 12. We lack chemistry, we may be too old, we reach a lot, we're gettin' killed on the boards.
totally agree we lost our defensive identity, and i'm also dubious we regain it. that said, i think steph has had some lackluster playoff performances because he's been physically limited. to his credit, he plays hard on both ends all the time. but his stature and the effort it requires wear him down. i think wiseman is just not as useful a basketball player as looney (who's also injury-prone). i'd invite them to play wiseman, tbh. he doesn't get team basketball yet. klay coming back is huge, though, even if he's just glorified duncan robinson. dude is just a smart player who can really shoot it. phx is precarious, imo. like all cp teams, they're heavily dependent on him. they could lose to anyone if he misses as much as one playoff game, imo. they can 40 straight regular season games and i won't change my mind on it. so, yeah, gs is a real threat. after them, despite it being quiet over there, lac scares me more than denver or utah. if kawhi just shows up late in the season, they can easily adapt, and he's the scariest playoff player in the nba right now. btw, same for both lebron and AD, imo. teams are and should be afraid of us if those two are healthy. but we need to figure out the team d, and i think that means some personnel changes. maybe ariza getting back, maybe swapping out some of the sgs for defenders...i don't know...time is ticking away...
Man, abeer3, I couldn't have said it any better. I hope you're right about PHO. (But personally, I'd find it very depressing if anyone beat our 33 game winning streak.) I wonder how the 2 devastating injuries are going to harm Klay's stellar D, which was probably underrated. Wiseman hasn't had enough NBA time for me to judge how good he can be on that team. Your points about Lebron and AD are spot-on: they're both horrifyingly great, but the other guys have to learn how to gel with them. They have not. Is Russ coming along? I think so... The Clips game is about 90 mins away as I write. I want a Laker win, obviously. If they lose, I want it tight: no going up by 20 and losing the lead, no going down 25 and coming back, only to fall short. If they get blown out - which is a possibility, let's face it - it's yet another Reality Sandwich we have to eat. Finally - and I swear I don't enjoy being negative - but AD is injury-prone, and even if you're built like a Marvel superhero like Lebron, Father Time always wins. He has a TON of mileage on that amazing body. If either one goes down, fuhgeddaboudit. (Hope both superstars stay healthy, the D gets markedly better every week, and the team learns how to run better set plays.) Can't wait to see how Ariza impacts the overall play of the team.
Exactly. They both have continuity and we have the biggest roster overhaul of the history probably. It couldn't go right, at least for the first months. This team can only be judged after April. So it's unfair to compare it with teams that have the same core for years. I f hate Lebron for this.
watched the end of the mavs/nets game, and man, that was brutal. the non-luka mavs simply can't make shots, and it's killing them. bkn's stars got patty mills an open three to take a one point lead with 2 minutes left, and then on two successive possessions, luka and then brunson created wide open threes for mavs role players in the corners. clank. clank. that has to be incredibly frustrating. anyway...we need to be replenishing our assets because there's no way luka makes it through this contract without a trade demand, imo. we need him to AD it.
Im loving Dallas roster, they did a great job surrounding Luka with talent Can't wait to see my namesake in PG
even better, the media is blaming luka for dallas's problems. um...watch the games, bros. he's the only reason they aren't 2-19 or something.
They are good. We are not. Thats the main difference. Except for that... they are cohesive, they play hard, they shoot well, they rebound, they don't turn it over, they are well-oiled, they aren't 37 on average and they have consistent rotations.
And in other news ..... All 330 lbs of Zion Williamson likely to be shut down from basketball activities https://www.yahoo.com/sports/zion-williamson-likely-shut-down-205108474.html
