Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

Lakers


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Anthony Davis gets hand slaps from LeBron James and Gabe Vincent after scoring against Minnesota. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Hey everyone, this is Dan Woike and welcome to The Times’ Lakers newsletter, where we talk about a team that just managed to do the impossible — win on opening night and during a LeBron James milestone game. It was a real “negative multiplied by a negative equals a positive” situation Tuesday night.

Anyways, some more from the game and a look ahead.


The value of shooting — even just as a concept
The Lakers were one of four teams to shoot worse than 30% from three this preseason, so it shouldn’t be too big of a surprise that they started the season slowly from distance.

In their win against Minnesota, the Lakers made only five of 30 from three, an appallingly bad shooting night for a team that’s spent real time and effort trying to shoot more from deep.

So how did they win? And why was it so surprising?

The Lakers became just the 11th team since the introduction of the three-point shot to attempt 30 or more threes and make five or fewer and still win. (Good news, the 2019-20 Lakers were one of the other teams to pull this off.)

In talking to players and coaches after the game, a few things stood out as to how they managed to beat Minnesota on a night when they couldn’t get a shot to fall.

For one, Minnesota really struggled. The Timberwolves turned the ball over 15 times, new acquisitions Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo were fairly quiet, and it took them until the second half to play with any real defensive force.

But two, the Lakers played incredibly hard, from LeBron James on down, in their first game under JJ Redick. They, not Minnesota, “punched first,” as NBA coaches love to say, dictating the physicality with their effort and speed.

Three, the Lakers made good on their promise to be more physical on the offensive glass. They created 15 offensive rebounds with effort and intentionality — Austin Reaves had four of them.

And, probably most important, Anthony Davis dominated. Some of that dominance, though, can be attributed to the Lakers properly spacing the floor around him and at least being threats to shoot from three even if they couldn’t buy a basket. While the quality of three-point shot went down from a typical Lakers game last season, the volume of attempts and the motion to create them gave Davis more room to attack Rudy Gobert without the threat of help coming to double.

The Lakers will need to make shots to have a successful season, and the double teams on Davis are coming sooner rather than later, but Tuesday night, the willingness and intention from beyond the three-point line was enough to pull the Timberwolves away from the rim and give the Lakers a chance for an improbable win.


One last note on Bronny James and his debut

Bronny James and LeBron James leave the court after a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

There has been continued discussion about Bronny James’ chances as a NBA player. It’s deserved, particularly because of the circumstances surrounding him joining the Lakers. But good or bad or whatever else, Tuesday was a special accomplishment for him considering the trauma he suffered at USC when he lost consciousness during an episode of cardiac arrest last year. The time on the court with his father Tuesday night was short and ultimately didn’t matter in the final score. History and family aside, any player going through that kind of adversity and being in a position to compete in the NBA makes for a nice moment.

 

We need another banger if we are going to play with more physicality this season. Lebron is too old, to sustain that type of play, for a full season and the playoffs.

 

HEY, we don't want no stinkin' fairness!!! Eat the olives and drink that juice!!!

 

I have not moved my schedule for years to watch our sucky squad. I have a feeling this year will be different. Bout damn time!

 

If you can become a believer, then so can OX!!!

 

phx is a good test early. beal, durant, and booker all look really good early, imo. with bud in charge, this one of the league's very best offenses. we're at home, so i give us a decent chance, but we'll have to shoot a lot better than in game 1 or we'll just get outscored.

 

Key will be to attack the new PGs when they in. When they're out and Beal and Book are acting as pgs, pressure them to turn it over. They will.

I also like our overall size against them a lot.

Just please don't let Jaxson play against Nurk ever again.

 

Walk it off at Crypto

 

Honestly impressive game.

Rui/Dlo got exploited early by the Phoenix drive and kick offense. They put Rui into switches and exploited Dlo lack of foot speed making them switch.
The Rui/Dlo/Max minutes were f***ing brutal - just a lot of stupid rotations, dumb passes, you name it

I thought the Knecht minutes were huge - those 2 threes flipped the tide.
In the second half, no Knecht <BOOO> but more importantly no more Max, a lot more Vincent and Rui's made several smart plays on offense to make up for his defensive mess from earlier.
Lebron went old man Magic game
AR was awesome - a lot of AR/Lebron PnR similar to Denver were they were killing the Nuggets <sad about that loss still>
AD was awesome (although I think this game you could have made the case AR was MOTM in soccer terms)

 

What went right: we beat damned PHO. And dig this: after we fell down 22 in the first half!

AD and AR were huge.

Everyone else looked pretty good but if it's true that blondes have more fun, our new blonde ain't feelin' it. No fun. 1-6 and a 2nd straight game of looking a bit lost and out of rhythm for D-Lo.

D-Lo: that's what went wrong. But he'll be back. The D ratcheted up and we caught PHO, passed em, went up, what? 13? The last 5 mins were garbage, and I was scared because KD/Beal/Book/Tyus can get you a huge bunch of points in a 90 sec. spread if you don't take care of the ball.

There was a play in the 4th where AD got the rock on the wing and backed his man down, then another guy came over to help, but AD was a BEAST, and scored despite another guy coming over to help. I'm like: if it's gonna be like THAT this year? We are looking good.

First time we've started 2-0 since Zen Master's first year as head coach.

It was a good night to be an LA sports fan.

 

Beating the Suns is always nice

Hey! We're 2-0

How about that 3 point shooting?

14-27 51.9%

Are we sure that's correct?

 

This was a HUGE win. Not just for the dub and remaining invincible but how it happened. We faced adversity and had all the condiments to get a heavy beat down, trailing by over 20 against a team with 3 of the best offensive players in the league.

But we remained focused, executed the game plan and cleaned mistakes and got back to the game by the end of the 1st half and came out for the 2nd half playing even better. Great great stuff.

We will have 5 or 6 games like this during the season where nothing works and we are down bad, and this game will remind them not to panic and believe they can turn it around. Really really huge win.

Masterpiece by the coaching staff and JJ. Great adjustments and gameplan. AD and Reaves are great and will be the leaders of this team with Lebron taking a back seat until the playoffs.

If healthy we're going to have a great season

 

Then there were only seven undefeated teams left, and we were one of them.

 

Will be interesting to see how the game plan goes for Fox and Sabonis and always kicks our a** Sacramento.

 

Nah … they can’t wave anyone and bring him in with that “third rail” of the 2nd tier cap penalty.

 

Dwight needs to hang it up and stop begging.

 

Lebron and AD are still a pretty damn good duo.