Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

AR and Luka need to be better bottom line. AR can't score after the injury and Luka needs to get into better shape And stop with the lat game turnovers

 

Len is so bad, even Shanghai would say “no.”
Jemison has shown flashes, but wasn’t good enough tonight.

 

Luka was even worse: 8-26!

 

Lakers lose in Brooklyn 111-108 without Lebron, D F-S, Jaxson, and Rui. Who knows to what extent AR is still ailing. Luka's hip/lower back is nagging him.

I was wonderin' if we'd still get yet another lull of dark times with this team after all that great D, going 17-4 over 21, etc. The loss to the Bags was one thing, but AR and Luka not being able to score, all the injuries, starting Len at C: we are in for a mini-Dark Era, I think. This was supposed to be the one obvious win on the road trip. But no...

Lakers jumped out early, played a decent 1st Q and led 29-16. So far, so good, so...they apparently stopped communicating on the court:

From McMenamin's write-up:
"I think it was a very low-level communication game for our team," Redick said. "I don't think being short-handed is an excuse for how we played basketball tonight."

Luka took responsibility:
"When JJ said [that] about communication today, that was important," Doncic said. "That's my fault and we should have done better at that."

AR also took responsibility:
"I just thought I played incredibly bad," Reaves said. "That's, really, you know, about as much as I can say about that. It's frustrating not helping your team win. When Bron's out, I got to be better and I wasn't. That's one of the reasons we lost."

(quotes sourced from HERE)

Now: MIL and DEN and I don't wanna seen Len. Mo Bamba just signed a 10-day with the Pels and we couldda used him.

What a drag this was.

Lakers lose to Brooklyn when their fans were mostly rooting for us. Luka hit a 35 footer with 11 secs left to cut it to 2, Nets timeout. I thought we might force OT, but Clowney got free and dunked for the and-one and that was that.

Luka, with back probs (I'm not even gonna mention how excess FAT can exacerbate such things): 8 for 26.
AR: 3 for 14.

The only reason we were in it: Gabe and Goodwin: 11 for 15 from the arc. AR at least got to the line and was 10 for 11 there.

The team needs 3-4 days off, but ain't gonna happen.

 

does anyone like Pale Horse beer? I heard it sucks, but maybe that's just when you're sober. ok, back to basketball.

 

Ideal scenario would be if the Nuggets sank to the 4th and played the OKC instead...

Right now, the Lakers would have to beat both Nuggets/OKC to get through to the Finals.

Nuggets likely stay the 2nd or 3rd seed so ideally, it'd be great if the Wolves matched up against them. Nuggets seem to have problems against the Wolves more-so than any other team.

Also, OKC is matched up with the Clippers right now. I wouldn't count the Clippers out against the OKC. I think Ty Lue and the Clippers experience would be a battle for sure.

 

I think you’re going to have to beat two of OKC, DEN and GSW to reach the final and then you get a chance to verse the Cavs or C Bags when you get there.

I imagine it’ll be something like this out west when it’s said and done:

OKC
DEN
MEM
HOU
LAL
GSW
LAC
MIN

One side:
OKC vs MIN
HOU vs LAL

The other:
MEM vs GSW
DEN vs LAC

It’s very likely we verse Houston who’ll give us athletic hell for 5-6 games. Then it’ll be OKC over 6-7 if we can get through them. Then we’d have one of Denver or GSW in the conference finals.

If we manage to get through those 3 hard series’ - we got the best from the East who would have had a comparably easier route to get there and would be fresher.

The thing is, if we finish 3rd, we most likely verse GSW first, followed be Denver and then OKC. So any way you slice it, it’s going to be one of the toughest runs of all time.

 

I don't think we can win with these bum a** centers

with Hayes and Kleber healthy maybe, but I don't count on Kleber being playoff ready this year.

 

About to be an ugly losing streak

 

No chance undermanned, AND refs giving Giannis all the phantom b.s. calls.
Len is worthless- when will JJ realize this?

 

Len had some decent moments on D mixed in with the rust and not being that impactful.

 

Like 3 straight Giannis elbows, and he gets the defensive call on all of them, it was all like within 1-2 game mins i think in the 2nd or 3rd quarter. Like his was so obvious on all of them. Stuck his arm, elbow, everything out, but we’re the Lakers and Luka complains too much, so we’re just supposed to take it. Am I right??

 

Giannis is a superstar, he was aggressive, he's playing at home, he'll get those calls. I wish Lebron would throw more elbows, and bully more people, just like that. Has Lebron ever fouled out of a game, as a Laker?

 

Gawd we needed that Brooklyn game, but with Lebron, Rui and Hayes still out - Lebron will take awhile - Lakers lose their 3rd straight, in MIL. 126-106. The 4th Q was mostly garbage.

We were down 2 at 50-48 and never got any closer.

This was one of those games: if we stay close, Luka goes for 55-60. 45 in 36 mins.

There will be the best of times, and there will be times like this.

Just gotta take the bad with the good. And ya know who's bad? Alex Len. I really don't understand how he's supposedly an NBA player. Seriously. With a guy like Len out there you really realize how much you miss Jaxson Hayes. I mean: how can there not be a Big who's better than this?

Just start Koloko and let Len have 6 mins off the bench.

What went Wrong: scoreboard.

Giannis gets away with too much elbowing. There was a ridiculous play where he drives the lane, give DF-S a vicious forearm shimmy, and scores. And-one. The next time down, DF-S give Giannis what he got: foul on DF-S. And Giannis has the gall to act like he wants to get in DF-S's grill.

They exploited our weakness in the paint. We doubled Giannis and he dished to wide open 3s and MIL was 17 of 40 (42.5%) on those.

What went Right: AR, despite obvious physical ailment (his hand now?), looks like got his scoring touch back. 10 for 17 incl 4 of 7 from deep.

Two plays that really sparkled: I think it was AJ Green (?) who was all in Luka's jock in the corner. Luka creates space and makes a 3 going out of bounds, falling backward, and the camera caught Markieff on the bench with a WTF? look on his face. I agreed with Markieff.

Luka picks off a pass, starts to fall out of bounds, throws it up in the air to a teammate, DK, who catches, hits a streaking AR, who immediately hits Vando for a dunk.

I really don't see how we're going to give DEN a good game in a few hours from now.

 

We have 4 guys that can score (2 of them are out). D wins championships but Rob still has a lot of work to do in the summer. As great as Luka and Bron are, we're still far away from a true contenders... come at me

 

lol, we just went 18-4 over a 22-game stretch at less than full capacity. we're in a very rough stretch with injuries and scheduling and will lose a bunch for now. but if we're not contenders, then there are only three of them (okc, cle, bos).

 

We are/were nowhere near as good as our 18-4 record. Im far from spreading doom but we can't make it to the WCF with guys clanking open shots (or being afraid to take them at all). I'm less scarwd of OKC, than i'm of DEN and GSW lately, we'll see...

 

It's frustrating but we'll be on the other end of it when he suits up for us in a couple of years

 

No we won't, the refs will change the script on him then.