WMC 24-25: Seasonal Highs And Lows!

not doing the basics really irritates fans

fundamentals people! fundamentals!

 

ham is a f***ing joke

 

The lack of fouls was very frustrating

 

AD, Rui, Gabe disappointing

 

Another opening night loss. Hopefully the team is more ready to play against the Suns.

 

The supporting cast we're relying on offensively was garbage. DLO. Rui. Austin. They each have to be aggressive and make a much bigger impact.

Anthony Davis went full milk carton ad in the second half.

Nuggets killed us in second chance points.

Refs were s***. Would've lost even if they were competent, but they've got to call a better game.

 

Game sucked but luckily for reasons I don't think directly related to Lakers weaknesses: refs really seemed to go out of their way not to call stuff. Every 50/50 ball and bounce seemed to go Denver's way (loose ball straight to Denver, strip ball straight to Denver, hit front of the rim roll in for Denver, opposite for the lakers)

That being said two big things were worrying and was worried about prior to the season:
Man the fall off from Schroeder to Gabe is drastic.
I was worried about this but with Schroeder you could much guarantee that he was going to be better than the opposing backup and even quite a fair share of starting PG's. Schroeder had definite faults but he could win you games attacking the rim and with toughness on defense.

Still think this was a good offseason but the Denver matchup sucks for the Lakers and they haven't addressed it. No POA defender to sink on Murray and no Bubble Dwight to let AD roam instead of stuck guarding Jokic

 

Agree on literally everything but I also think that Ham is not doing anybody any favors playing Dlo/Vincent backcourt together.

In general though - we just don't match up well with Denver. I hope we can avoid them in the playoffs cuz we'll get waxed once again

 

POA defense matters quite a lot

Lakers : Let's get rid of Caruso then Schroder

 

Refs already in midseason form with screwing us over.

Several no calls during the run that brought us closest. Every 50/50 call going Denver’s.

 

i had stuff going on, but i every time i checked in on the game, it was like watching game 5 of the wcf. which i suppose could be expected, but i still hoped for better.

annoys me that denver's guards don't miss jumpshots against us. murray and kcp will miss those shots in a game later this week that denver loses to a ho-hum opponent.

my primary wmc is that we have to play phx and then at sacramento. can we please, just once, get a start to the season that isn't brutal from a scheduling standpoint? how many teams in the league wouldn't be expected to go 0-3 in these games? 3?

edit: one more--why does reggie jackson always look like a credible nba player against only us? is there some back story there? like was rob his agent at one point, and they had a falling out? what's his deal? he generally sucks most of the time i see him against non-laker opponents.

 

Yeah. That was my thought and I expressed similar in the game thread.

It's like we just can't get over the hump against that team. Every time we cut into the lead you just knew the Nuggets would answer and they did.

It's like they are literally 3 or 4 shots (usually three pointers) better than us every time we play. I know its more complicated than that, but that's how it feels for me watching it.

Just aggravating to watch.

And yeah, Reggie Jackson and now KCP are basically Reggie Miller and Ray Allen against us or something, while several of our guys can't hit the broad side of a barn.

It's like, you gotta be kidding me. lol

And yeah, the schedule makers never do us any favors. It would be nice to get a balanced schedule where we can get some momentum going before facing off against finals contenders. Especially when we are still trying to get the team to gel with new pieces.

 

coming out of that timeout, we give up a three to murray (which was mildly contested), then lebron misses his three, and it's ballgame. kcp pull up jumper off broken action, then a wide open corner three for their best shooter. every time we play this team lately.

 

0-4 here we come

 

I'm expecting a 6-4/7-3 start.

 

It's one game and doesn't change my opinion of how good this team is/will be. I am starting to think, though, that we're not very well equipped to play Denver. Lowe made the point on one of his recent podcasts that you don't build a team to beat the Nuggets/Jokic by signing a bunch of burly, 2000's era centers. The game is too different now and Jokic is too good. The only thing you can really do with Jokic is force him to defend as much space as possible. Fight their offense with the right kind of offense. Yes they were missing Murray and/or Porter in those series, but the Suns and Warriors shredded their defense in 2021 and 2022, respectively, by forcing Jokic to defend P&Rs and other actions in space. The two ways to do that are to play a true 5-out offense, or have an elite level guard or guards (Curry, CP3 and Booker in 2021).

We don't really have either. We can't play a true 5-out with AD at the 5 unless he starts hitting jumpers at a bubble level again (which he won't). At this stage of his career, LeBron can't really be the guy running 50 high P&Rs per game. Reaves is great, but he's not at that level right now and I'm not sure he's getting there this season. DLo isn't that guy either. I hate to even bring it up, but Kyrie would be useful in this matchup. That's not me saying we should trade for him.

I'm not going to go as far as to say that we can't beat Denver, but our more likely path to a championship might be if the Suns or the Warriors take them out first.

 

For all those off-season takes on how Lebron sucks as the focal point of an offense and it's AR's team, or Dlo's team, or AD's team or whatever, this was a wake up call



The conundrum of this season is going to be whether they can truly move Lebron off the ball where he is a devastating force and can conserve energy or the other guys just won't cut it and it has to return Lebron as playmaker again.

 

As much as I think he is nuts, Kyrie on offense would be sensational with the Lakers. He does all the good things D.Lo does but on steroids - just a better shooter, passer, finisher, ballhandler.

Two problems: his defense in the playoffs which was good with the Cavs seems to have deteriorated and why would Dallas trade him for worse parts? If I had to make a low wager bet I think the Jeremi Grant trade is more realistic and Lebron will be the de facto PG again this post season with the Lakers going back to the bubble formula of massive size with skill (i.e. AD, AR, Prince, Lebron, Grant finishing lineups)

 

That's why I was stunned when some were saying our best lineups won't include him. What games have they been watching?? The Lakers made perfect use of him last night. Very efficient and off-ball. The only ugly part of his offense game is those damn dribble out the clock threes (which he didn't take yesterday.)

And for as limited he is defensively, he's pretty much routinely still the most + impact player we have overall.

 

No doubt we need the old man to win. Especially as our new additions get acclimated to the team.

I feel like we should be able to hold the fort down much better when he sits though. I think that will come as the season progresses.