Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

I said it in the Vando thread but DFS shooting still allows you to play them together. That's an intriguing combo as defensive they can switch 4 to 5 spots plus they seem to get every loose ball out there

Really hope Vando can shoot like he did last year before he got hurt. He's got small hands and gets knocked off when trying to finish inside so you can't use him like Denver does Gordon but man if he can shoot the jumper with confidence that opens everything up for the Lakers. Because he's good in transition and creating secondary possessions just need to a threat in slowed down half court sets

 

Because of the concerns you expressed I still believe they need a big who can give them some offense when AD is sitting

 

I know he was off, but props to the defense, they gave Steph hell in the final 24. Max and Gabe mostly, but also DFS and Vando.

 

Need to get this one wrapped early. Trap game against Philly tomorrow

 

The worst teams in the League can play well against the Lakers because we are the worst at defending the three.
Plus, when we are up big, we stop running any type of offense and just Chuck away.
Fun game to watch in the first and just ugly, dumb basketball the rest of the way.

 

1st game of the long Grammy road trip in CHA: up 39-19 after the 1st, then we do what we do: we relax. I'd love to see us just stomp on a team and win by 30+ sometime. Lakers win 112-107. It shouldn't have been that close. We won, but it was maddening.

AD doing stuff to get back into the MVP conversation that he'd dropped out of about 6 weeks ago. 42/23. That foul on the 3FGA after Josh Green stole the ball from him? We're up 6 with 13 secs left. Green makes all 3. Ask your doctor if Dammitol is right for you.

Lamelo twisted his ankle? Okay, guys, let's relax. CHA won the 2nd, 32-20. We won the 3rd by 1 point. And CHA, relentless, Lamelo-less, won the 4th.

We were up 26-5 early and it was still nervous time over the last 10 mins of the game. FFS! Up 9 to start the 4th, CHA cut it to 3 65 secs in. Fer crissakes!

Now we gotta face Philly in a BTB on the road. I sound like a spoiled brat, but you increase your lead to 35 at half after being up 20 at the end of the 1st, and it takes the wind out of the Hornet sails, gets Bron and AD a lot less mins. But that ain't the way we roll. 4 Lakers played at least 36 mins. You keep up the blitz into the 2nd and that's unnecessary, but man: these Lakers are too cool and laid back to just crush an opponent when they could if they really wanted to.

Damn it's good to have Vando back!

Fave play: CHA cuts it to 6 with 1:27 left. Then D F-S skys over Bridges for a dunk: up 8 with 1:07 left. Turns out we needed that more than we knew.

Okogie had 4 steals but seemed like 14 to me. Take care of the damned ball!

I have a bad feelin' about the 76ers w/o PG13 and Embiid. I see us gassed and getting run out, but not like that nightmare game in PHI last year, where we lost by 44 or whatever it was. It was a nightmare.

 

We looked like World beaters in the 1st but reality bit the rest of the game. This is why we’re not contenders, point differential still -1.1

 

JJ’s interview on the floor after the game he said we played hard the whole game but just were a lot of mental errors including 3 out of bounds plays we couldn’t execute and the turnovers.

 

They point differential thing doesn't worry me that much. Last year we finished 47-35 with a +0.6 point differential, which was worse than the Suns, Pelicans, Kings, Warriors and Rockets. I think most would agree that by the end of last season, we were a better team than all of them. 2023 was a little different because we brought in a bunch of new guys at the deadline, but we finished 43-39 with a +0.6 point differential which was worse than the Grizzlies, Kings, Suns, Clippers, Warriors, Thunder and Pelicans. We made it to the WCF and were genuinely the 2nd best team in the conference by the end of the season.

Our point differential sucks because our best player is 40, our second best player is kind of lackadaisical by nature, and the team (in part following their lead) likes to pack it in and conserve energy at every opportunity. Last night was a good example. Played an awesome first quarter, AD was trying to put on a show, and from the start of the second quarter they were just trying to relax and run the clock out. When they get behind to a young, athletic team they tend to let go of the rope and live to fight another day. LeBron and AD don't really care about the regular season, so the team generally doesn't either. They'll have 2-3 week stretches where they overall play really well, but they'll take that as evidence that they can kind of flip the switch when they want to and go back to uninspired play for a while.

 

all this. the makeup of our team is such that we can get blown out but don't blow people out. historically, this means you're not a good team, based on statistical models. but statistical models can't be applied evenly to all cases, and i think we're an unusual case, as sk points out. we generally overperform our point differential and record in the playins/playoffs, imo. you know, when we're not playing denver...


anyway, terrified about this one. 2nd night of the back to back against a team missing its biggest names (not best players, though, maxey's probably been their #1 guy this year by a good margin).

i guess i complain that teams always play their guys against us, though, so let's hope that doesn't come back to bite me...

 

I don't know about all that. JJ tends to tell it like it is with what happened, whether he screwed up or why any game went the way it did. I listened to his on court interview right after the game and posted this earlier. Also we don't know really know "what" that lineup was about in the 2nd quarter without either LeBron or AD. He could have done it or been trying it for any number of reasons. As was alluded to by JSM semi joking but maybe not .... maybe playing chess showing Rob what happens when AD sits without a legit center and Bron out too.