Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

Utah shooting 19 FT in 4 quarter to Lakers 3.How is that possible?

 

This team has to be one of the top five worst defensive Laker Squads I’ve seen in the past 20 seasons.
Inexcusable with the talent they have.
I’m blaming Polly Pocket Pool.

 

No question Frank, injuries and all does better with this roster. Most certainly on defense. The roster he was given when they brought in Westbrick, him included, that he was scapegoated for …. was a joke in comparison both sides of the ball and with LeBron and AD missing as many games as they did.

 

How does Ham come up with these lineups? This is a cluster****, FO's continuous support worries me even more than the coaching now.

 

Right. I didn’t like the calls to say the least.

 

Jazz beat the best teams in the league. Consecutively. Of course they were going to use and abuse us with or without Bron.

If they tricked anyone into thinking otherwise, it's giving off this energy...


Refs sucked. AD had a bad game offensely but I credit that to Utah more than I put the blame on him. They have the length and help to bother his shot. Their game plan worked and we're not beating them with role players.

Good
-DLO had the game of the year. Let's send that tape to potential trade partners. He was engaged and aggressive throughout.
- everything AD did other than scoring. 2nd triple double of his career. He was doing all he could to contribute since he knew his offense was not going to help the team.
-Rui brought great energy and aggressive play. He was our most physical player, shouldering Jazz guys out of the way. Looked like prime Melo to start the 4th.
- the supporting cast overall. They all stepped up more than I've seen them collectively in any other game this year.

Bad
-AD's offense, 5/21 is brutal.
- the Cam and Rui situations make no damn sense. Whether it's Ham, the medical staff or both, putting an injured Cam out there in consecutive games while having Rui on a 20 minute cap.
-Ham. His rotations are garbage. I like Mays but question some of the lineups Ham had him part of. Small ball while losing the battle on the glass is an interesting choice.
-Vando's late 3rd Q was brutal on both ends. 7 point swing on his mistakes. When there's no room for error, those are loud.
- Austin losing the pissing contest with Sexton. I think him fouling out was uncharacteristic and Sexton had him playing out of sorts during their back and forth.

 

What went right: 48 mins of effort. I can't look at any one player and say: he doggin' it. lakerjones is right: Taurean needs to hit at a higher percentage (every time I use that term I think of Hubie Brown, who used to say it at minimum 8 times every game).

Vando's D is so good I just love watching him. He was huge this game; his stat line won't reflect that. He's the epitome of a guy who makes a major contribution and you just don't see it in the box score. Good to have unmasked Rui back. And I like seeing Wood before I see Hayes.

If we try 25 3s and no more I think it helps us. Tonight 8/24. I wish we could hit 3s. I've also stopped thinking this team EVER will. That game earlier this season when we made 22 was a freak. We aren't one of those teams. OKC was 15 of 49, and...

What Went Wrong: around 6-8 of those 3s missed were on ORB: at least 3 times they missed a 3, got the board, missed a shot, got the board, and then a guy hit a wide open 3. That kinda crap kills me. We beat OKC on the boards 36-27, but they had 13 ORBs while we had 8.

SGA is a freak but I think he's slightly injured, no? Man, that kid...Holmgren too. Jalen Williams...Man, OKC has a very bright future.

So: the LA crowd boos Giddey, who might be guilty of statutory rape? I wonder if it affected him. 22 mins: 8/5/3 on 2 of 8 from the field.

CAVEAT: just when the Lakers look like this, they lay eggs the next 2-3 games. They've yet to win 4 straight this year. I'm not gonna jump up and down until they win 4 straight, personally speaking.

 

Bueno:
They played one good quarter of real defense
Malo: Their “I don’t give a sh$t” attitude regarding rebounding AND closing out on threes
Still need a real POA defensive guard and a defensive big

 

Echo all that. Ham really is a moron about this. Vando is starting to look like last year again and Rui def needs more minutes. I LIKE AR and DLO together it’s a dynamic pairing that each game will give more offensive impact for the whole team than Prince does ….. and ding ding effing ding Vando like last year was obvious IS the guy who’s better defense allows them to do that. FFS at least pull Primce quickly for Vando to give those 5 a look again.

 

we're still not defending 3s. Luckily OKC couldn't hit anything last night either, even Open 3s.

 

We need less Prince and more Vando and Wood if the team wants to rebound better. Prince gives us nothing on the glass

 

Damn! Clippers are only 3 games out of 1st place.

 

Lakers beat DAL at home on 1/17/24: 127-110 and it wasn't that close; last 6 mins were garbage. Lakers outscored Mavs 42-27 in the 3rd. And I'm not sure if we looked much better than usual lately or the Mavs just had one of their crap games. Probably a bit of both.

Right:
Anthony Freaking Davis.

D-Lo and Vando were stellar. Imagine if Vando had any offensive game at all.

We tried 28 3s, but reached double digits in makes with 12. Taurean was 0-3 from long. He needs to hit those or break Ham's "from here on out" dealio with the starting 5.

Only 10 turnovers for the entire game. D-Lo handled the ball a ton and had ONE of those TOs. I'd like to see more games like this from him, but I won't hold my breath. This was him at his best. Be that smooth killuh D-Lo!

Wrong:
That we don't play at this level more often.

If If If: we beat Brooklyn then POR and then give the Clips a really good game: Maybe I will start running alongside the bandwagon, thinking maybe I should jump back on.

 

we've gotten a bit lucky two games in a row with teams just shooting blanks, but i'm pretty sure some versions of this year's team lose both of those games.

AD, lebron, dlo, and reaves all show up on the same night and we can play with anyone.

vando getting back to being vando has been very helpful. we're much better with vando instead of cam in the sf stopper/energizer role, imo.

 

Numbnuts will start Cam again when he’s back and move Reaves to the bench …. wrecking continuity, chemistry and offense once again.

 

A healthy Vando in a role/lineups that make sense is great. It was awesome to see DLo hyped after Reaves threw that trailing lob to Prince, when he's playing loose and confident he's exactly what we need. Last night was easily the best we've looked outside of the IST.