Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

Lakers win their 4th straight game, 120-115, in San Antonio. I thought SA played really well. The game was a thriller but we played good D in crunch and hit some big shots.

What went Right:
Good team play, all-around. No glaring weaknesses. Lakers looked spirited.

AD, AKA "The Unabrow" AKA "Cyclops": 40/12 on 14 of 26 shooting and 10 of 12 FTs. A couple of big spot-up 3s in the 4th. That big red eye may have spooked Wemby, who got 50 his last game but "only" had 28/14 and tried 13 3s, only made 4. Seriously: Redick had smalls on Wemby a lot. You front Wemby, then in case he gets it, you try to switch off to contest at the rim. He's so tall that when he dribbles, the ball has a long way to go from his hand, down to the court and back up to his hand. Chance for a steal? I mean, you front him and sometimes it works. Tonight I thought we defended this wunderkind really well. But he's gonna get a lot of 50 point games before he's through. Are we sure he's not really 8 feet tall? He looks it. And at times handles the ball like a guard: total FREAK! Amazing.

D-Lo did not look horrific, which, ya know, we'll all take. 2/3 from deep, 13 points with 6 dimes in 30 mins. Only 1 TO: when he thought he'd make a cool pass to #23 and #23 had no idea what D-Lo was tryna do, glared at him like a Father who smells weed on his teenaged son's breath. But he's a cool dad, ya know? We talked about this, son: not during the game. Wait till AFTER! So: play on!

Knecht and AR together were 7 for 13 from deep.
Gabe Vincent hit one of two 3s. My gawd! He actually hit one! He and D-Lo each had 3 steals and Max had his best game of the season, I thought. He played smart and in rhythm. Good to see. Hope he can keep it up.

All I ask of Reddish is good defense, and we got it.

Lebron James had a Jason Kidd-like triple double (15/16/12), his 4th in a row. He looked off. 7 turnovers. He has the right to look off; dude's almost 40. FOR-teeee! At times he looked like how a mortal 39 year old would look in the NBA. Glad that drive to the hoop went in with 25 secs left to put us up by 3. Good D on the Spurs' possession to try to tie it: Castle's 23 footer was well-contested.

What went Wrong: Ehhh...Koloko still needs to put on 25 pounds of muscle? Can he do it before the road trip starting on Jan 25? (@GSW, @Charlotte, @Philly, @Wiz, @Knicks, @Clips on Feb 4th) My guess is he might not even be around then.

Spurs: we used to call them "Sham Anphonio" back in the early days of the Internet, when they had Manu/Parker/Duncan and...Popovich. Get well, Pop. He was always a worthy adversary for us. And he's a good guy. My gawd I feel olde.

 

This Spurs game made me think positively again. After that last road trip, I just figured the start to the season was a lie and that road trip was what was going to really happen to us. This Spurs game gives me hope that we can play good enough to win a number of games on the road. 8-4 projects to 55 wins for the season. That would be a huge improvement for the season. It was nice to see us shoot over 40% 3 pt shots on the road. Knecht has me believing. If he keeps getting better, we are going to have a quandary at the guard spots. Reddish, AR, DLO and Knecht. If we could trade Reddish and DLO for a 3&D playmaker, who was really solid on defense, combined with AR and Knecht would give us a great rotation.

 

Nice win of course but honestly, my main thought most of the night was that someone probably needs to force AD to wear goggles.

 

Good thing NO is also short handed

 

Start Knecht again. (I hope) Bring Rui off the bench at least until he shows he's close to 100%. Might light a bit of a fire under his butt too seeing he has some competition for the minutes. But UNLIKE Ham last year, when he is healthy enough give him back his starting position. Ham for long periods had him losing his position to injury, even when he was ready to play. These are great minutes for our PRIZE rookie and it's great that he is getting them starting so early in the year.

 

G J. Alvarado OUT
G J. Hawkins OUT
F H. Jones OUT
G C. McCollum OUT
F T. Murphy OUT
G D. Murray OUT
F Z. Williamson OUT

It's their expecting starting 5
PG B. Boston
SG B. Ingram
SF Javonte Green
PF J. Robinson-Earl
C Yves Missi

 

finally finished watching the game. my thoughts:

AD's having such a good year. so nice to see some threes go down, as it opens stuff up for him and everyone else. his passing has also been really good now that we, you know, move guys around him when he has the ball. two straight games where he found lebron for a clutch bucket cutting off an AD post possession. why on earth had we not done this before? i begged for it for years. better late than never.

lebron finished strong with that layup and 2 fts, but i thought he played a pretty bad game on both ends, tbh. yeah, nice to have a triple double be a bad game for you, but that's how i felt watching it. he didn't have it last night.

luckily, the three whipping boys all had pretty strong games. max's first half was outstanding and kind of near the peak of what i hope for from him. second half was uneven but still better than his other outings this year. maybe the benching helped relieve some pressure to perform? gabe also made a couple shots along with this standard physical play on both ends, and dlo made some plays at critical junctures as well.

the spurs at home with paul, vassell, and wemby is not an easy out, so i'd call it a good road win, tbh.

now--do we s*** the bed at NO to erase that? that would be very post-2020 lebron/AD lakers. don't like having reddish out against a team relying primarily on brandon ingram for offense.

 

hahaha, not sure if serious

 

BTB on the road wins. Gives me a warm glow down my spine. Lakers win 104-99 in Nawlins.

5 straight. Dalton Knecht continues to emerge. No Reddish or Rui, but Pels decimated by injuries too. Still: BTB road wins against NBA teams. No complaints.

Unabrow with 31-14. Unreal. I mean, what more can you say?

Lebron James: 0 for 5 from 3, then, very late, nervous time: hits a 28 footer with 1:51 left to put us up one. Hits ANOTHER one - from 26 feet - with 37 secs to put us up 4. Box score: James sucked from downtown: 2 for 7. Yea, but you need to watch this game. Dude earned his rest tomorrow.

That's all that went right.

What went wrong: one of those games where AR couldn't throw a pea in the ocean. 3 for 15. We won't see many like that one from him.

Still, man, I'm diggin' it: 9-4 now. We started out 3-0, then after our first road trip we were 4-4. Since then: 5 straight, beeotches!

Next game: TUE night in the Crypt, vs. Utah. Jordan Clarkson, Markkanen, Sexton, Deyonte George. That crew. Get it!

 

We have 1 more tuneup game, possibly two with Banchero out. Then bring on the Nuggets!

 

We had to get our Knecht-tion involved!!! Hell of a game kid!!!

I am beginning to feel the olives flowing again!!!!

 

Got out rebounded

Shot 30% from the 3 line

And still won

9-4

I'll take it

Could be better, but it could be worse

 

we need to take care of business against utah and orlando. the last two games haven't given me a ton of confidence there, but wins are wins.

denver will beat us because they save all of their best games for us.

 

Back-to-back wins on the road is something to feel good about regardless of the opponents. Great to see the team keep composure after going down early in both games.

Utah should be a win, they’re tanking harder than anyone else in the league right now. Turns out they didn’t need to trade Markannen for the Warriors role players so they could tank properly. Orlando, though, will be a tough game. They’ve won 5 in a row even without Banchero and play hard and physical every night.

 

We just can't get comfortable wins with this group.
Anyway, typical trap game against a team depleted with injuries but that has all players playing all out, treating it as a playoff game (which it is for the majority of these players that will barely play) in the back end of a b2b on the road.

Yet, we are doing what contending teams do. Grabbing these gritty ugly wins. You won't play well the whole 82 and these type of wins like the last 2 is what brings you 3 to 4 places up in the standings. Even more in the wild West.

5 in a row, let's get to 6 Tuesday

 

LAKERS giving back ahead of holiday season

 

Knecht with 33 points at the end of the 3rd

11-13 FGs

8-9 from the 3 line

En fuego

 

Finishes with 37

Wow, what a night for Knecht

12-16 FGs

9-12 from the 3 line

5 boards and 1 stl