Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

I know! Part of me keeps thinking, "What's the catch here?" The post-bubble Brick times were so bad I'm still having trouble coming to grips with the Pelinka Miracle and how quickly we went from SUCK to...I'll just say it: the best team in the NBA, pretty much.

It all seems very suddenly almost too good. Not that I'm - or any of us - are complaining!

The only Laker getting major mins that I was beginning to sour on was D-Lo, but he's been really good lately. Love his game now that he's calmed down a bit.

 

Poole and Klay both in mid 20s. They were pretty bad to average last series. Lets ride them and see if they can beat us.

 

We took a huge shot from them and still walk off with a victory on the road. I will definitely take it.

 

You have to think they'll hit less, we'll hit (a few) more.

JP has been really bad lately, I know shooters cook against us but I think he'll come back down to earth a bit.

 

JP did come back to earth with that missed 3 at the end. Someone should slap him for that decision.

 

That's just him not knowing he's adopted. Kerr has to remind him he's not actually one of the splash brothers.

 

Defense wins you championships and we’re pretty damn good defensively.

This series is still gonna be a tough one though, Kerr and the Warriors are great at adjusting. This one still goes 7 I think bit we have home court now.

 

Bron found his shot early.

Rui is a playoff monster

Rest: Bron (28 minute) and AD (33 minutes) will have legs for game 3.

 

Hopefully this is appropriate here.

I know a lot of you seasoned vets have cool heads and really/seemingly are able to keep your composure, even during these stressful af games. I truly feel like I’ve lost years from consistently watching this team throughout my life.

So I ask, in a very serious manner, how do you contain yourself after a loss like this? Some of you posters may have seen me harp on this in the past as well, but when you get so emotionally invested in a team like this since you were very little, how do you truly do it? I get, that ultimately, it’s 1-1 and perhaps some may say “perspective”, but when you see the effort isn’t there game to game IN THE PLAYOFFS, how do you do it? It boils my blood unlike anything else in life.

I feel like utter **** and it absolutely crushes my mood, my family, my wife and my 2 little ones, and I have no answers.

I really want to be able to stomach **** and nights like this as most of you apparently do.

So I kindly ask, how do you NOT get yourself all riled up over our lakers when they lose? Esp in this fashion?

Sorry to rant, these guys make so much money, I’m less forgiving. I expect unrelenting effort, pressure, determination from these guys ESP when they’ve shown they can do it. Thanks for reading everyone, I appreciate this Lakers family very much, but i very much hate days/nights like this.

 

Golden State make 21 more 3-pointers — giving the Warriors an NBA record for most in the first two games of a playoff series at 42. James' Cavaliers hit 40 against Atlanta in the 2016 second round.
It took 2 games to set a record and Warriors only split home games.
Lakers in 5 !!!

 

The JaMychal Green adjustment doesn't make a 30 point win, its lack of effort on defense and rebounding is what gets us there. We stole game 1 so to me, this felt like a calculated loss. Feels a lot like the Pat Tillman game from last series.

We have a defensive adjustment or two to make, I fully expect them the Lakers to do it. The bigger factor is that AD will play with more intensity on defense. The team will follow, and we're at home. Don't get too low.

 

I very much appreciate you Weezy. Reading/hearing something like this definitely helps. I will try to keep that in mind. Of course, it will take time for an adj. However, 30 years for you… I’d say you know a thing or two about life in general. Thank you man. Much love, here’s to hoping we take care of business on sat!

 

I have come to expect it from this team. Some nights, they all play like it’s a game 7, others they act like it’s meaningless. For whatever reason, this group is the most Dr. Jeykl and Mr. Hyde type I’ve witnessed in my 36 years of watching.

 

Easy. These are multi millionairs playing a game. They will go home to their mansions and go to awesome summer vacations in Cancun. While you are an average Joe beating his wife and neglecting his kids lol. See the irony of this?

 

Can’t get too up or down by how any one particular game plays out in a best of 7 series. A blowout early in the series is NOT indicative of some major gap between the teams. There have been series that ended up going to 7 games where both teams alternated blowout victories.

Obviously I would have liked to have seen a win, or at least a better performance from the Lakers… but honestly? I think a loss like that is going to be better for the long haul of the series compared to if we had lost in a nailbiter where Lebron and AD had to play heavy minutes. Once the game was clearly going in the Warriors favor, I’m glad we threw out the white flag. Get our guys some rest and let the Warriors get comfortable against our schemes that were clearly not working, rather then trying to stage a futile comeback attempt and pre-emptively clueing them in on how we’re going to adjust.

Think I read that when the home team loses Game 1, they have won Game 2 16 times in a row. That’s just how these things shake out. Anybody expecting us to steal BOTH away games against the defending champions was just setting themselves up for disappointment.

End of the day, from where we started the season, if you told me we’d be 1-1 going into Game 3 of the second round against the defending champs, I’d be ecstatic

 

i'd have called bs. no way. i think this one's going 7, probably with us coming out on the wrong end, but wow, do people not remember november?

@timothy: i'm also older, and i can say that in my 20s, i had a lot more emotionally invested in the outcomes of sports games than i do now. i felt like it was having kids and bigger problems, etc., but maybe some of it is just perspective taking. one thing i think you realize is that the little high you get from the team winning a title is short-lived, and you're back to grousing about why you didn't sign this 11th man over that one just weeks later. it's not like any laker title improved my life in any appreciable way. so why should any loss do the opposite? in the end, my life is going to go exactly as it was going regardless of some game's outcome...unless i allow a game's outcome to affect my behavior. as a psychologist, i'm a big believer in the idea that you can feel things (and can't control that), but you don't have to do things (you can control that). you can feel angry but not do things that angry people do, for example.

finally, i'd also recommend just...disengaging a bit if you find it impacts you this way. some forum members like to point out that i don't watch every game, but part of that is strategic. if i think i'm probably not going to enjoy the experience (and the experience isn't necessary for my personal growth or success, like a basketball game on tv), i can just avoid the experience. if i miss a great game, i can just watch it later!

in the case of game 2, i missed exactly what i hoped to miss. i may go watch a couple bits to try and see what happened strategically--because i'm just a basketball fan in general, but i didn't have to sit there and stew. i slept great.

 

I get it. I have certainly had those moments as a fan, particularly when I was younger. Like others, as life has gone on, I do have larger issues that happen. If the worst part of my week was the Lakers losing, then it was a good week you know.

The best thing I really did though was really embrace how my team was playing and putting realistic expectations on them. It helps me keep things in perspective.

Our team has played really well since the trades, but we still have bad habits, a rookie coach, haven't been playing together long enough to fully gel or have complete chemistry, etc. etc. On the other side, the Warriors backs were against the wall, they had to win, they have two of the best shooters of all time (and that's not hyperbole IMO), they were playing at home, etc etc.

So sure, I wanted a win and was rooting for us as always, but I knew it was going to be tough. Once I saw our guys struggling, I could see that once that inevitable shooting blitz from the Warriors came, we wouldn't be able to get back into it. We hung in there for a bit, but the third quarter sealed our fate.

Those are the breaks sometimes.

Also, while I am of course rooting for us to win the title, that is also a long shot for many of the reasons I and others have listed.

To keep from rambling on any longer, I think by really keeping the issues of the team at the forefront of your mind, it helps you level set and keep perspective when they lose. At least it does for me.

 

What on earth said they didn't "try" hard enough, or that the effort wasn't even there? FFS here we go again with mind reading and ignoring the fact that we are playing the defending champions who have had their core intact for freaking over half a decade, and have shooters that can go off at any time and a very bright coach who knows how to make adjustments, while we have a rookie coach still learning on the job with a "core" that has been together for like 6 weeks. Not enough of AD's or anyone else's shots were dropping, while certainly enough of GS's were.

 

Anyone that thinks we had a >10% chance of pulling the game out last night has never watched basketball seriously in their life.

It was such a predictable result. This is a multi-champion team facing an 0-2 deficit at home. There was zero chance they were losing that game.