Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

I think "how do we stop Jokic and/or Murray" is the wrong way to think about how to beat Denver. Jokic has no weaknesses in his game offensively, you can't stop him. There are a handful of guys in the league that can even bother him. Their two-man game is nearly impossible to deal with because Jokic can kill you from every spot on the court and Murray is great at making the tough shots even if you defend them perfectly. The fit with those two, KCP, MPJ and Gordon is perfect offensively.

I think the only way to beat Denver is to spread them out, force Jokic to defend in space and ultimately outscore them. The last team that was able to do it was the Warriors, which makes sense (I know they didn't have Murray). They went with Draymond at the 5, ran their off-ball stuff with Draymond orchestrating at the top of the arc, spammed the Curry/Draymond high ball screen with shooting everywhere and put Jokic in the blender every single possession. Unfortunately, we don't have the guard play or the shooting to replicate that. You're not beating Denver with a good defense and mediocre offense, we saw that in the playoffs with us, the Wolves and the Heat. I think you have to tire Jokic out on the other end and essentially outscore them.

 

i will say, it is encouraging to have beaten boston without lebron and AD, the knicks, and then lose a close one to the defending champs with so many guys out. this team has proven they can take on the best teams in the league. it's just a matter of consistency really

 

Balance and big showing from the starting group


Needed it because I don't think we had the legs for the second half otherwise.


also the worst first half defense I've seen two teams ever play.


Good
-DLO was a flamethrower. That 2nd Q run was wild. Team fed off of it, because Bron and Rui went on runs of their own after.
- all 5 starters gave us at least 20
- 45% from 3
- Minutes and rotations made much more sense.... even got Mays minutes

Bad
- defense
- lost the battle on the glass
- AD's foul trouble
- couldn't put them away

Not too much to complain about. Won a rare back to back.

 

That Dyson Daniel kid is one hell of a prospect: he had some eye-popping defensive possessions.

 

Glad both teams decided - or were prodded by their coaches - to play some defense in the 2nd half.

This is one of those games that don't tell me much new about our team. Yea, no Laker team with Elgin or Magic or Kobe of Kareem or Jerry West scored 87 points in a half. That's cool. We saw our guys could score like muthuhs, but we also gave up 74 in the same half.

Hey man! I missed the Laker game. Had to work. Did you see it?
Yea. I saw it.
So?
Well, Pelicans had 74 at the half.
Damn! I knew that BTB after a tough loss to Denver would wipe us out. I knew damned Nawlins would kill us!
Man, Lakers put up 87 in the same half.
What the actual EFF?
Yea, at one point D-Lo scored 14 in about 70 seconds.
Man...Did we win?
Yea.
Well alright then!

Not sure what to say. Game was kinda cray. We beat a team that's ahead of us in the West standings, and we were on a BTB. That's at least something.

And someone jammed a knee into AD's hip again and it looked like it had him hobbling after the game. Hope he doesn't miss our next dogfight: with the Mighty Pistons.

 

Once we are 100% healthy, we match up quite nicely with Denver.

 

The new Kobe!!!! Gonna be better than MJ!!!

 

Bueno:
The assists
Ball movement
No problem with Dinwiddie fitting in(loved that he didn’t try to do too much)
AD’s 1 vs 3 block is my favorite play of the season so far
Big Game’s thoughts( Bill asked him why the team has started winning and Worthy stated that roles became defined, especially in the starting lineup)

Malo: our inability to stop the majority of their lobs

 

I was worried that their guards when they kept it close were breaking down the defense and setting up the lob.
This is where you're going to need Cam and Vando back at some point

 

Imagine if the coaching staff could get this group to play solid team defense.
They would actually be scary.

 

Very encouraging BTB game going on the road in elevation and just keeping up the offensive juggernaut. Just hope they remember how to play defense after the break.

Man I miss Cam. I'm already prepared to hear that Vando is out for the season.

Congrats, Rui! Career high in points.

Damn! They start playing like this and now we have to go without games until the 22nd.

 

the team from early in the season loses this game 100 times out of 100. agree with jones that ham deserves a large chunk of blame here--enough that it's very difficult to give him any credit for getting out of his own way.

 

You know what would be even scarier? A competent coaching staff (HC mostly).

 

What went Wrong: we lost and the defense was lax. Gave up 67 in the first half.

Rui, T-Prince, D-Lo, and Max were weak from 3.

Kinda pissed the Old Man played in the ASG when he had known ankle ishes.

Right: AD: 27/15 with 3 blocks.

 

The Good
-AD: did his part
-Max is back

The Bad
-The help sucked. DLO, Rui, and Austin did not do enough. Those are decent enough lines IF we're at 100%, we're not and without Bron someone has to step up. No one did.
-Ham. Coach didn't have them ready. Coverage against Steph early aided in his explosion and puts the game to bed by halftime.
- watching Podz and TJD really contribute as rookies while we trot our JHS as our white flag. Fun times.

 

Ham use of TO remain frustrating. Game was lost on that end of the first half of run. Mainly due Kerr playing that scrub big and having him dive to the basket. No adjustment and guys like Max kept giving him open lanes when Hayes rotated out.

Change the coverage

Still the striking thing is not Lebron but when you don't have one of Vando or Cam available Lakers defensive schemes seem to fall apart.

Dinwiddie is a great signing but losing Schroeder POA defense is a problem still when Cam/Vando can't go

 

Our entire perimeter defense hinging on the availability of a vet min player (props to him because he's been really good at it) is a horrifying miscalculation by the front office.

 

Max goes from good on defense at times to being absolutely horrific on defense at times - I think they were really counting on him stepping up (I've stated this was a reasonable decision based on what I was seeing) but he's just not as good as I thought he could become. His lateral quickness isn't as good as his verticality which is a big problem from on D plus he does bonehead stuff off the ball a lot