Damn. DAY-ummmm. I think I'm starting to get DEN PTSD. 104-104, then Nugs cooly reel off 10 straight to end the game. What went Right: Jaxson Hayes. Lakers played the best team in the West really tough w/o Cam/Vando/D-Lo and Max, who got injured early. What went Wrong: Jamaal effing Murray. Aaron Gordon, whose head is twice the size of Jamaal's. Every time MP, Jr winds up from 3 against us I wince. The best passing Center I've ever seen. And I remember Bill Walton. AR has to be better from 3. 2 for 7 tonight. 0 for 5 vs. Charlotte. Then again: Lakers 8 for 25 from the arc, a typical game for us all-around, right. Good game. We lost another close one to DEN and their obnoxious, classless punk of a coach. Freakin' rough loss though, all told. It's difficult at this point to not just say, Hey, Denver is better than us. Damn. DAY-ummmm.
I was actually pretty impressed that we caught them in the fourth with that Hayes block and Reaves three. Then we fell apart and lost unfortunately. I’m not counting us out in a series against them. We didn’t have Dlo, Vando, Cam or Vincent. Hopefully at least three of them will suit up for us if we do play Denver. Right, pretty close game down the stretch. Wrong, they still won.
Nobody can't navigate well enough through screens and stay in front of Murray to bother his shot release ... Raj C tweet is perfectly right and this is why I'm not mad : the execution gap down the stretch is huge. Also this is a pretty low IQ coaching staff/group of players , Denver has trouble scoring when we stay home but we keep overhelping off great shooters
i think we can get over the hump against them with a full roster. they're only slightly better than us when we're actually trying.
That was my main thought last night. With Vando and DLO we win that game. Even Reddish would've helped a lot.
Right - AD, Prince, Hayes, and Mays. Effort was there in the second half Wrong - Rui. LeBron and Reaves didn't really get going until the second half. Execution during the last two minutes.
Same thing happened down the strech with Hayes helping off the strong corner and off MPJ again . This is why we keep losing against Denver . STOP OVERHELPING
i think they know and we know that murray will basically shoot 100% in isolation against non-vando/reddish players, and they have the personnel to make helping from other spots a bad proposition. if either of the low men help instead of the wing players, it's an very easy skip pass for an open three or a 2 on 1 against the remaining big need a guy who can make murray less of a sure thing without a screen.
We keep making the same mistakes against them for six straight games .. We can't stop them because Denver is doing a great job exploiting our defensive overhelping schemes : Hayes gave up a wide open corner 3 in the clutch Bron gave up a wide open dunk in the clutch Reaves gave up a wide open 3 in the clutch
The thing that makes Denver so tough is their floor is so high. Jokic and their halfcourt sets are so good that they're getting good looks at the basket like 80% of the time almost regardless of how you're defending them. Defensively, they're nothing special but don't make mistakes. They remind me a lot of the 2000s Spurs teams. They don't stack up against the all-time teams because the talent isn't overwhelming, but they're just rock solid and won't beat themselves. I'm still hopeful about this team getting into the playoffs and winning one or more series, but Denver may just be a matchup we have to hope to avoid. I think we could beat OKC, they're small and teams that young tend to suffer at least one playoff loss before really contending. Minnesota would be a rock fight but I ultimately trust LeBron and AD more than Ant and KAT in a slower, halfcourt game. I think we matchup fairly well with the Clippers and they obviously lose any home court advantage. But Denver is really tough for us.
Lebron blew that game. His late game, defensive lapses and hero ball, comes back to bite us a lot against the Nuggets. I don't know why we don't go to AD down the stretch more, Jokic can't guard a chair.
Jokic and Murray will get theirs but we cant' allow MPJ to get 27 and Murray 11 assists . I'm pretty sure we can beat them if both Jokic and Murray score 35 but stay home on others
Jokic and Murray execute down the stretch of games, more consistently than Lebron and AD, in these matchups, simple as that.
we need someone that can stop Murry or slow him down. He kills us, I think AD does fine against Jokic. He is too fast for Jokic, he forces Jokic to extend too far. Plus he does give Jokic some problems with his defense. It would be great if we could find a player who could help AD and someone who could work Murry. The completely recurring theme is that Murry kills us every time.
I think you've got to take something away from them with the big two on that team. In these matchups with Denver we have not been able to stop either one of them. The problem last night is we also let Porter go off. That cannot happen. I do think that having Cam or Vando if available will be helpful in slowing Murray down at least.
Vanderbilt has issues with Murray, because Jamal doesn't really drive all the way to the Cup, off the dribble. He's able to use his quickness instead to step back into his jump shot. That's why Jarred wasn't as impactful against Denver last season. Murray was also, just too big for Dennis, Cam is the better option IMO.