Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

Just re-watched this game, speeding up and skipping using the DVR: forgot that Gabe's bucket - the only Laker bench points in the entire game - was in the 1st Q, and put us up 31-7, which at the time made me feel a curious lack of stress for such an early point in a Laker game, followed by a fear that, of course, NBA teams down 31-7 at home do usually come back, some times with a vengeance.

And they did come back: Nets cut Laker lead of 74-48 to only 8 18 secs into the 4th. Then Bron hit a 26 footer to go back to 11, then another one 30 secs later: 14. He looked like an assassin. With 6:20 left he hit yet another to put us up 18. We didn't score another point for about 3 minutes but Nets only managed 5 points in that stretch of scoring drought by us. Then D-Lo hit a 3 with 3 mins and change left and it was all over. And it's on to Canada.

PHI beat TOR today 135-120 w/o Maxey or Embiid. Raptors have lost 13 straight so let us pray it's 14 by Tuesday night after dinner. O Lawd we done need dis gay-um, ninth seed as ye doth know, lawd...for in thy name ye know it truly blows to have to covet a place for playing-in amen someone pass the butter?

 

Max can actually score when in the game. In his last 10 appearances, he’s shooting over 40% from behind the arc. Another player being held back by his wonderful coach this season.

 

Max ain't ready yet.

 

The Max love is bizarre: he's been absolutely brutal in a lot of games. If it's not open 3, he get stuck in no man's land constantly and makes dumb decisions such as going straight into a shot blockers length. On defense, he just isn't a very good POA defender right now.

 

Well, the stats say he’s a better defender than Cam and some call Reddish our second best POA defender. Max has great potential that hasn’t yet be realized- it actually takes time on the court for this to happen.

 

He has the tools and seems to put in the work. He’ll get there.

 

Nice to see the bounce-back, wire-to-wire win, but all the turnovers, sloppy ball handling and inconsistent shooting by starters not named "LeBron James" are a little worrisome - especially when you imagine what the results would look like vs. top tier teams.

 

Yeah. Pioneer is right that his in-between game isn't very good right now. He's a good spot-up shooter and can hold up pretty well defensively in 1-on-1 situations, but if you ask him to put the ball on the floor and make decisions or make multiple rotations he struggles. I'm still in favor of playing him over Cam because I'm just not a huge fan of Cam, but it seems like both are going to be on the fringe of the rotation with Vincent back. Remains to be seen how that works out.

 

defensive stats suck but Cam DPM is +1.0 right below Vando while Max is -0.4. defensive win shares same thing cam at +0.9 and and max 0.7.

Cam is a very good POA defender who can press full court and has very good size plus the ability to flip his hips well to stay with folks. max has had a few good games such as Mitchell but overall he is just not a good POA defender, gets turn around too easily on change of direction and he is totally a lost puppy off ball.

I was a big believer in Max as I thought he looked very good in summer league (the receipts are there so if anything I was biased to seeing Max in a good light) but I think people takes a few glimpses of Max doing some things well like spot up 3 and miss a whole lot of bad in there. He's a least a year or two away IMO

 

I like young Max though, he has some potential. I just don't think, he's ready to be relied on, as a rotation player on a title contender .


Toklat is somewhere steaming..lol

 

Lakers go into TOR and win 128-111 and it wasn't even that close. We were up by 31 pretty late until we started to lose interest.

What went Right: Offense continues to purr like a fine machine.

Bench put up 36 more points than they did last game, so those guys aren't total dead weight. But when our scrubs came in TOR had 90 points, and I actually thought they could hold 'em under triple digits, but it was total garbage time and the hapless Raptless notched 111. Hey: good for them!

Wrong: TOR's scrubs kicked our scrubs' butts. Admittedly, that's a pretty weak Wrong, but hey: look at the competition.

Oh yea: welcome to a 14 game losing streak, Raptors. Population: YOU.

NOW: I supposed it's way too much to ask that DAL goes into GSW and wins, while the Tenants go into SAC and win? A guy can dream, can't he? ALSO: the good vibes we got from this win are negated if we go into Wiz-world tomorrow and lose to that crew. Watch Kuz put up 40? Do we have anyone who will upend that diva Poole if he gets to be too much? No?

 

The good: Lakers gave a s*** for a quarter (i.e. the 3rd) and the game was over.
The bad: come on both quickly and barrett come back pulling the WWE wheelchair move and the Raptors turn out to be a lot tougher
The ugly: FT shooting, Lakers playing with their food once Lebron sat in the second quarter

 

gabe knee swelled up again? or rest?

 

prescheduled rest

 

Bad: not force feeding AD on the block in the third when they had a bunch of munchkins out there. I really don’t understand why so often this team doesn’t play to its strengths.

Good: we won

 

Lakers outscore Wiz in 1st and 3rd by 18 and it was a BTB on the road against 2 of the weakest teams in the Leastern, but still: they took care of bidnez and I wouldda plotzed if they blew this game. They didn't. Everyone was solid except our bench. Scrubs came in after Rui made a layup with 1:21 left in the game put us up 13.

13 points up with 1:21: time to let our guys rest. Wiz in the blink of an eye-yay-YAY! makes a 2 pointer, then 2 3-pointers to cut the lead to 5: bring the Big Boys back in to seal the deal. The Scrubs need to get their act together! Only 12 points from the bench the entire game. WTF? Dinwiddie is a completely different player when he starts.

AD with 35/18 and 3 blocks and 2 steals: he HAS to be in the MVP talks.

Aside from the IND game, where we seemed not mentally in it: really good long road trip.

Home SAT vs. CLE in a 12:30 game, followed by the T-Wolves on a home BTB. Got to get 1 of those...

 

We looked burnt out, and disinterested in the 2nd half. Playing 3 road games in 4 days, can have that effect. We pushed through it and won all 3 tho!! Good job!

We are going to have to, do it in reverse at home this time, starting Saturday. This time, it's against teams fighting for playoff seeds, like us. If we win all 3, that's a great job!

 

Ok, I didn't watch this one, but how is this possible? Does the eye test say he's a bit part of their problem? Just wild to see.