Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

The Luka Era hath come upon ye. And it wuz good. Yea, verily. If he hath gone 1-7 from deep, let it not bug you, for the Lakers doth ran the eff away with this muthuh. Like early. Felt like quasi-garbage midway through the 2nd Q. Lakers beat Utah at Crypto, 132-113. Everyone got mins, except DK, chastened and in street clothes, listed as "DNP-Personal." It's the worst setback of his life to get dealt by the Lakers only to be taken back into the fold after Mark Williams flubbed his physical. Worse than when, in 7th grade, Mary Anne said she was taking someone else to the Sadie Hawkins dance. What did she see in that dum-dum Taylor Jackson? He thought he was so cool with that Rod Stewart hair. Worse even than Mr. Clark's English class in 11th grade, when he thought, 'cuz he was the hoops star, he'd get a C- even though he not only didn't read The Great Gatsby, he never even lifted it off the table. He got a D. It was horrible. Now this.

I kid.

There are some among us who think he's mature enough to bounce back and make his minutes worthwhile. I am one of them. This kid is going to be a lights-out shooter. Someday. For someone.

Bron 24/7/8 with 7 turnovers, mostly careless passes or ones with hot mustard on 'em: they're so fast that if you did catch the ball, your hands will sting into Wednesday.
Rui: 21/6 His midrange game has looked very sweet the last 3-4 weeks.
Jaxson: 6 for 6 from the field. That's like Daniel Gafford numbers. Is there some sorta connection?
Our superstar: AR: 22/9/4 with zero turnovers. He cannot miss from the line.
Fat Slovenian: welcome to the show! You contributed to the win! That's all we ask of a 25 year old.

Okay, okay I gotta come out with it: Jordan Goodwin is a find, is he not? Pesky, energetic D, a decent ballhandler, and he can score? WTF? Where has that masked man been all this time? A journeyman NBA player. He looks like a solid role dude for us. So far, I love him. Some of his defense gave me wood.

Next game: in Utah on Wed, then the ASB. Then real games resume on the 19th, when we face CHA in the Crypt in what I believe is a make-up game for one of those we missed in the Giant Conflagrations. A Crypt game against Wemby's team was smoked out, too, but I don't think they've announced a reschedule date yet, have they?

We're 9-1 over our last 10, and those games where we gave up playing in the 3rd Q feel like a long, long time ago, eh?

 

The key is we are 32-19

And we have Luka

Nice to see so many contribute last night

Have to like the team effort

 

JJ must be enjoying this dream come true with his coaches. This simply doesn’t happen.

A first year coach getting LeBron and Luka on the same team? Pretty absurd.

 

I’m not an expert like Barkley or anyone else in the media, but I feel like Luka and LeBron can work.

 

only caught the first half, but seems like i saw the whole thing, conceptually.

luka looks rusty and yes, dallas front office, a bit out of shape. he also makes us look very different out there, regardless. i saw someone on the internet talking about having a real iso penetration threat, and i agree that it's a different look. lebron can get to some midrange spots, but has a hard time getting a step these days. AR can beat you but it takes a LOT of dribbling and fancy set ups and space. luka--even in his current condition--just knows how to get by people efficiently. after that, he's among the league's best passers if not the best, and he has pretty much every shot in the book. if he and others had hit threes at just an expected clip, this game would have been uglier.

lebron's shot making early was great; his passing was bad. against a better team or in a closer game, i would have been very annoyed at the cavalier spraying of the ball all over for no good reason. i think one time he tried to blame someone (rui, i think) for not being...all the way out of bounds to receive the pass? anyway, in general, lebron has been playing with a lot more energy lately, and i'm curious as to why. whatever, i'll take it.

hayes really looks like he wants to seize the opportunity in front of him. lots of energy like always, and though it didn't show in the box score, he was battling on the defensive boards. had a nice return interior pass to rui on a play where i feel like in the past he gets blocked or misses a contested layup.

goodwin is another guy who's decided he would like a job going forward. he's really popped in his limited minutes; looked better than shake has, imo.

reaves is reaves, and that's good.

thought the refs were working to keep utah in the game early for some reason. not sure why, tbh. maybe the national tv? anyway, some headscratching calls and no-calls, most in utah's favor. didn't matter, as the refs couldn't actually put the ball in the basket for them.

markkanen's a real beast on offense. he's not much off the dribble or playmaking, but he can finish from anywhere and under duress. you forget how tall he is until he's standing next to say, rui.

speaking of, kessler's huge and uses his size really well. watching him definitely made me wistful about the possibility of williams again. i get that we probably dodged a bullet, but throwing a guy like that onto our roster right now would be pretty massive.

 

Luka and Bron really have to be gigantic jerks with the refs because they can't get calls . It's crazy .

One thing I know will get on my nerves going forward : Luka really don't have to take this many 3s , especially step back ones .

Hopefully his shots quality and decision will improve with the threats and opponents attention Bron and Reaves are and get on the floor

 

yeah, people will realize quickly that luka complains a lot to the refs because he's fouled a lot without calls. he and lebron are both punished for being stronger than most of their opponents. lu dort was allowed to basically wrestle doncic in the playoffs last year. had dort been guarding SGA, he would have broken dwyane wade's ignominous records!

oh, and the shot selection may be something you have to live with, too. i think luka likes to play a certain way, and it's part of why dallas was annoyed with him.

 

fat, white, complainer, poor choices, multi-lingual privileged winning pillar of the community that likes beer and hates cardio



I guess we have to live with it. He's not going anywhere.

 

the West is stacked, even though we're 9 - 1, we're only 2 wins above the 7th team and a play-in spot.

 

so...we gonna get allstar getaway game trapped tonight?

 

Nope. I think. But is Luka not playing? If he does I don't expect him to look quite as rusty or miss so many 3s.

 

luka takes a while to get into rhythm after long layoffs (notoriously slow starter, iirc). i'd expect a watered down version for a few weeks.

but yeah, you'd hope there's enough residual juice in the group not to overlook the jazz in utah. never like playing the same time twice in a row, either.

 

Just be ready by April baby!! I don't care what seed we have!

 

You seriously wouldn't get a bother over us facing OKC in the 1st round?

Man, this really is the Era of Good Feelings!

Gabe and DFS listed as OUT. Guess both needed an even longer break?

 

Utah wanted their revenge and played to their strength, Lakers wanted none of this game especially Reaves

 

Non-existent rim protection, shot blocking, etc.

You know? All the things AD gave us night after night...?

 

Lakers lose to Jazz in Utah and now the next regular season game is one week from today. Lakers 119; Jazz 131. This game was Utah's Game 7, while we played like we barely cared. Utah went on a 19-6 run in the 2nd Q, with their nucleus of Kessler/Clarkson/Markkanen/Keyonte G playing at the top of their game.

Utah outscored us by 10 in the 3rd when we needed to make up for a halftime deficit. It's like the Lakers didn't feel a shred of urgency, and can we blame 'em? Given all the upheaval and drama and massive fires of late? I think they were mostly thinking about sitting around the house for a few days and recovering from all the little wounds and pains of the first 60% of the regular season. In the 3rd Q, the Lakers had a 5 minute stretch with only one basket. Ain't gonna get it done. Not with Utah playing their azzes off. The D took a deuce in the 3rd, too, when the Jazz outscored us 22-2 over that stretch when we couldn't score.

What went Wrong:
AR had a rough night shooting: 4 for 15 and 1 for 10 from deep.
We shot a lot of 3s in a game against an opponent that we don't need to shoot that many 3s against, and it looked sorta lazy. 20 of 50 from 3. Maybe they just didn't feel like going inside to get blocked by Kessler yet again: Walker the K had 6 blocks.
Luka: 16/4/4 with 5 turnovers and 5 fouls in 23 mins. Both Luka and Bron will do the the superstar diva thing when they think a foul should've been called and they just don't get back on D. They won't do that in the playoffs. We hope.

What went Right:
DK shrugs it off: 3 for 7 from deep.
Bronny: 2 for 3 from deep: 10 points in 9 mins.

We were all ridin' high on how great the team had been playing and I did see this as a probably loss/trap game, because of the Break and all the drama and personnel changes the team had gone through over the past month. But they were looking so good I thought maybe they'd still win. When they came out flat in the 3rd we knew it wasn't gonna happen.

Rest up!

 

We mailed that one in.