We really don't know how to win close games and capitalize. We're not going to make it... we're showing some flashes, but it's going to be too late.
Barnes being defended by Beverley then finishing over him and Westbrook is all you need to know You guard and/or switch on SF with midgets . You are going to get scored on ...... A LOT
Same old end game issues. -Lebron playing big minutes, increased fatigue. He'll settle when tired or no lanes. -Westbrook is a mad hatter: after he hit those big 3's, same old story with him out of control and just made reckless drives with reckless passes. Same old defensive strategy put a big man on him and same old story when the game slows down his greatest asset of pushing the pace and using his athleticism to create for himself and others is flipped to a significant disadvantage -Ham was dumb as usual IMO but he got caught with a conundrum - Schroeder was getting picked on by Huerter/Fox, Bryant is becoming unplayable due to his lack of D. He went with Beverly for defense. But Schroeder as still a legit threat off the dribble and his crunch time shooting has been good. Without that extra threat, lebron was unable to find cutters (the passes in the 4th quarters were great but Kings adjusted and the Lakers didn't have enough offense) -Ham took out Gabriel on a defensive possession and did not put in Bryant for offensive possessions? I'm not impressed with his lineup decisions despite understanding what he was trying to do. If he's willing to experiment: play guys like christie and brown or JTA together with Lebron - get some size on defense -without big offensive contributions from Schroeder and Bryant: team can't cope without having AD, Reaves, Walker. That's a lot of offensive firepower Lakers have lost to injury
i know he's not a star, but we miss reaves a lot in the clutch, imo. and i think we'd be better off with walker getting bevs's minutes, too. just not options right now.
You know I'm not a fan of PatBev, but now he's going to get the blame for not being able to stop Barnes, which is laughable. How is he supposed to stop those guys who are taller, heavier, with longer arms? He's giving up 7 inches and close to 50lbs to Barnes, what does Ham want him to do? This is just sad what we're trying to do on defense right now.
I'll take 16 games of Porter over 70 games of Patricia (rough projections based on current games played). At least Porter is not a despicable NBA player. Also addition by subtraction by preventing Ham from playing Bev and by giving proper roles/minutes to the other guards. What's Bev giving us? He can't defend Barnes (obvious to everyone but Rob and his roster build). He can't defend Fox, we put Christie on him. If Bev and DS are here to be the point of attack point guards and pick up all 94 feet, then why is the rook on Fox?
Before he got hurt: those walker scoring bursts were key to several games. Just a lot of talent not available
So what's going to be the recourse for the officials costing us game after game after game this year? Silver, comp us an additional 1st rounder and we'll let it slide.
I asked this question in the game chat and everyone said they don’t call those bumps. It was a damn foul and would have resulted in a tie game and no foul by Christie on the other side.
I didn't think it was a foul in real time or the replay. The fact that they admit to this but lied about when Troy got hit on his 3 and they stuck with the refs in their "findings" is ridiculous. If this one was called, you also don't have to worry about Nunn not getting back on D and taking himself out of the play because he was complaining to the ref.
I've been following the NBA for over 50 years. Joker is right, basically. I mean, even the great teams have off nights and get beaten by some team playing .340 ball, but in CLOSE games? Jokic says something here that's uncomfortable for Laker fans in '22-'23 to hear. Still: it's frustrating AF, innit?
