Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

i'm with zoyd and svtzr: i actually thought we played pretty well and were just thoroughly outclassed. not a whole lot to be done.

highlight of the game for me was seeing SGA officiated almost like a normal player, which a) makes him look like a ho-hum allstar and b) highlights how good the rest of that team is. and though holmgren is getting the press, i view him like shawn marion in phx--if he's scoring, it means the defense is breaking down elsewhere. when holmgren tried to iso, he did basically nothing. he got everything off our perimeter d getting broken down basically at will. this isn't houston, and our inability to move feet on ballhandlers is going to be a MAJOR problem against this team (would be against SA, too).

downside to SGA not getting bs calls is that reaves also did not get his whistle last night. i think on maybe 3-4 separate plays he got contact that put him on the line in the regular season but didn't in this game, and it made his line even uglier than his missing three point shot. speaking of--someone else mentioned this, but i don't know why he drifts so far off the line out top after he gives up the ball. when it comes back for a three, he ends up way out instead of right near the line, making the shot unnecessarily difficult. i don't think anything is gained in the passing angle, but it's happened several times lately, so it almost feels intentional. luka does it sometimes, but he can hit from out there about as well as right at the line (still don't like it, though). harden used to do it all the time, but i chalked that up to laziness, lol. anyway, i actually thought reaves was one of our better defenders (again!), and he did a great job getting penetration against okc's guards--particularly wallace, whom he torched several times. he just could finish past the second line or make passes for easy scores. okc is the league's best defense. it happens.

thought ayton was really good, actually, and if you knew nothing of back stories, you might think he was the 30m center and hartenstein was the 10m (though he was also solid). hayes struggled a bit, but i thought the refs were mad at him or something. seems like all questionable plays involving him went the other way.

lebron came to play and set the tone early, but i thought he faded as the game went on (whole team did, except maybe rui, who ironically had the worst +/-, which might be related...).

people are saying this series is a referendum on reaves, but i disagree. he's still going to get a very large payday. fully healthy supermax devin booker shot 25% from three with a 1/1 A/TO ratio in a sweep against this team for a reason. i do agree with tada that both reaves and luka being hurt for the second consecutive postseason is incredibly worrisome, though. my hope is that adding regular season depth can mitigate that, as you're not trading for or signing someone better than reaves, imo.

and if any player is losing money by the minute, it's kennard. okc went after him relentlessly on defense and didn't let him get anywhere on offense.

in all, after a weird matchup with houston, i'd say the regular season warts are on full display again here. we can play a little better, but tbh, they can play substantially better than they did last night, too. we'll be lucky to get a game--it will take a crazy shooting night AND the refs not giving SGA his FTAs on the same night.

 

They are simply a much better team.
They don’t lose a thing when any of their bench players come in. Our bench is trash.
We obviously need to get younger and more athletic.
Austin was bad, but also isn’t 100%.
We don’t have an answer for Chet.
Luka would have helped and maybe could have made it a series, but we still would have problems defending their athletic superiority.

 

Tough matchup. LBJ was the best player on the floor, IMO. I like some of the scheme and the processing from JJ. I thought we were competitive and had a chance if somebody else stepped up. All good. OKC will make adjustments and Jaylin Williams (their second best player) is still out, so that isn't good when they won this game by 18, LOL.

Either way, we knew this was going to be a tough series. Probably short, too.

 

the answer is not getting scrambled. he's athletic, tall, and has a high hoop iq. you can't be looking for him when the shot goes up; the body has to be on him already. if it is, he's pretty well neutralized, tbh. on the other end, you need to have shooters that pull him away from the basket as a helper. we do not.

 

When your starting backcourt shoots 7-31,
2-13 from deep, you probably aren't going to win.

 

Disappointed and Disgusted. Lakers looked mentally checked out. They need to play to their potential for once vs okc. I don't mind losing but not like this.

 

Not sure what game you were watching. We were fighting the whole night, no-one is mentally checked out.

 

Thank you. I was going to but I’m taking issue so often with stuff he says that didn’t want to again so soon. (Him) Disgusted and (the team) checked out is just whack. It was competitive for 3 quarters we were hanging close to the defending champs and one of 2 favorites to win it all. AR not having a really bad shooting game and we were right there with a shot.

 

Whoever said we were checked out is lame. We played hard. They are unfortunately just better. We needed to be flawless and we unfortunatly weren't. …we need to get Game 3 hope for a key injury to OKC, and just keep extending to see if we can get Luka back. Don't crap on a real effort by Lebron, Reaves, Smart, Rui (for sure!) and even Ayton doing what he can.

 

The Refs The Refs The Refs and the Refs.

 

We're trying hard and have been really good at times. We just can't sustain the effort for 48 mins and they come in waves. When you have McCain scoring 18 off the bench not missing a shot, it's tough.

 

It’s like we playing on skates out there. We can’t make any mistakes and miss shots. They know if they miss a shot they can score the next 4. It’s a tough matchup. You add the refs and it’s nearly impossible to win.

I watched McClain during the season he wasn’t playing like that. Ask yourself why would Philly just trade him to OKC??? Everybody gifting this team. They better win it this season. Because teams will over pay their bench guys.

Ajai Mitchell will be somewhere else when he gets paid. Casson Wallace will be somewhere else when it’s time to get paid. He’ll get paid and be starting somewhere else.

That’s why this clipper trade is a disaster because they’ll draft another young player and sit him and he’ll be the next bench guy on a rookie deal that they don’t have to pay with second apron and then he’ll just fill their bench in.

I’ve never seen anything like this where a team has gotten gifted.

it’s like the NBA made sure to pay them back for Kevin Durant leaving and James Harden leaving. But Harden left because Clay Bennett didn’t want to pay him a max contract and pay the luxury tax.

San Antonio was created to make sure OKC didn’t win 10 in a row.

I honestly don’t know how we get a championship back unless we

A. Get Gianiss

B. Get Booker

C. Get Markanahan

D. Get Kyrie

E. Get Cooper Flagg

F.Get Keyshawn George

G. Get Anthony Davis

H. Get Jaylon Brown

The cards are stacked against us. This team is going nowhere OKC is going to be good for a while. You have to get a superstar difference maker and hope everybody stays healthy.

 

You get Silver to give you Jokic or Wemby and maybe you have a shot. And yeah I’m talking about the Lakers only legit shot we have.

Maybe you can hope the Rockets give you Sengun. There is no legit inside game the Lakers have and that’s the harsh reality with this team. We haven’t replaced it since Anthony Davis left.

We can all talk Walker Kessler but does that move the needle? I don’t want Austin traded.

 

eh, or SGA twists an ankle in the playoffs next year, and if you're the second best team, you win. that's pretty much how things have gone for a very long time. you don't have to be the best team on paper, just in the mix. then you need injury luck. that's it. nobody likes to talk about it that way because it takes some of the sport out of it, but show me who's healthy among the top 5 nba teams, and i'll show you the winner.

edit: btw, this is another reason the 2011 mavs team was so amazing. caron butler was probably the #2 guy on that team, and he missed the playoffs (iirc). but they still beat a fully healthy heat team (and several others also at full strength). wild stuff.

 

we don't have any interior defense, Ayton is not really a defender, and no one else can bother them at the rim.

last night they were 25% from 3 pts at the half, we were at 44%, and the game was still tied

 

We have a bench that in no way resembles a Championship one.
We have a decent starting five(when healthy).

OKC’s bench: 48 points, 9 threes
Lakers bench: 20

 

we're three or four players short of a top-8. gotta add at least one starting caliber player this summer without losing any.

 

We were already top 5 in the league this season. Why are we 3 or 4 players away from top 8?

 

players. on squad. rotation.

 

I would just take mitchell, wallace, Caruso, and even McCain?over Jake and the Lakers would be awesome?