Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

TEam totally got mesmerized by that Dalton Klay Thompson performance and took their foot out off the gas pedal.
Seemed to forgot point differential matters in the NBA cup so Utah wasn't going to roll over even if the game was never really in doubt.

Please find some defense and upgrade the Gabe/Cam/Max/Dlo positions - you just stumbled into the next generations Klay Thompson after you picked up a Manu like player off the trash heap and signed him to best deal in the league. You got to get some legit defensive players who you can play in the playoffs: DFS/Bruce Brown to complete this roster. Cant let a chance like this go away

 

Not the big 3 I expected in July.

 

It's a big 4: Reaves again with huge cajones to finish the games. That 3 and cut layup was the only offense the Lakers had.

 

Lakers, still Rui-less, outscored Utah by 12 in the 1st, only 1 in the 2nd, but 9 in the Knecht-epic 3rd. The 4th was strictly el tiempo de basura. Lakers stay unbeaten at the Crypt, 124-118 and it wasn't nearly that close. I wanted Quincy to get some 4th Q mins, but ya can't have everything.

What went right: Lakers, winners of 5 straight, did what they were supposed to do and beat up on a team like Utah. 6 straight wins now, which we haven't done, lo, since 2021.

AD: 26/14/6. John Collins got a Flagrant 1 for punching AD in the junk. Cheap, Draymond-esque move, Collins. You're on a jit list now, muthah.

Lebron 26 with 12 assists. Couldn't find the range from outside (1 for 5), but some other guy picked him up on those accounts. Another guy named...

...Dalton Knecht: suddenly we might have a guy who could be the first NBA player to hit 15 3s in a game. Make no mistake, every one of us had their jaws dislocated by his performance. The 23 year old starter from Fargo, ND had 37 in 38 mins. (Recall: Klay had 37 in one quarter, so DK has a ways to go there. Freak stuff!)

I can't believe it: after all these years, we have a lights-out shooter from deep who plays smart, fast and big (for a guard).

He's friggin' twenty-three years old!

What went wrong: not much, but D-Lo has gone so far south I hope he has snowshoes and a GPS. 28 mins off the bench, 0-4 from deep, 2 for 8 overall, 8/6/6 with a steal and a block. Hit 4 FTs when the Jazz were rallying late. He remains..."out of sorts"?

Not a lot to complain about.

Okay, okay one thing nags me a bit: I'd like to see us beat a team by 25. We go up 20-25, but relax late in the game, probably 'cuz it's better to let AD and Bron sit. Still: the one thing elite teams do is blow other teams the eff out. We could've done it tonight, but it's apparently not the way we roll. Still: a win is a win. Alas, we may not be as good as we look right now, winning 6 straight. Play a good game against ORL and then beat DEN and then it's time to freak out that we might be really really good. Just my view...

Don't take ORL lightly! Going into that game Lakers and Magic are the 2 hottest teams in the NBA, with 6 straight wins each. (CLE finally lost a game.)

 

Yea man, gotta say: when it gets very nervous late in the 4th, my money is always on AR hitting a big shot to give us a breather. He's quietly been doing it all year. He'll have a bad shooting night, but he's there for us late. Always. Ice water in his veins and all that jit. Love his game.

Good to have Cam back too. He doesn't score but does a lot that doesn't show up in the box. 2 steals and 2 blocks, solid D.

 

The best kind of Big 3 because we didn't need to give up the rest of our roster only to have another brick being laid, if you catch my drift.

 

Dalton didn't even have a single assist SMH

trade bait

 

Sorry all I can do is take screenshots

 

I could sit here and complain about the team force feeding Knecht a bit too much and taking themselves out of rhythm, but f*** that. Last night was awesome!

If we can get Vando back somewhere near how he looked in 2023, and if we can get Wood back and shooting the ball closer to his career averages than what he did last year, we could really have something here. I think I’d want to keep Dalton in the starting lineup and swap out Cam for Vando. With Dalton’s shooting, LeBron and AD shooting much better than they did in 2023, and Redick’s creativity, I think that group could mask Vando’s offensive deficiencies a lot better than we could in 2023. Then we’d have DLo, Rui, Wood and Cam coming off the bench. Even without trades, we could be pretty damn good.

 

Check my signature for how to embed tweets

 

LT told me I tried it, it’s not letting me delete x and add twitter, I’ll keep trying

 

Are you copying the link and then pasting it? Once you “paste” it you should be able to do anything you want to it. Could even insert “I was wrong about JJ as a coach”.

 

Yeah I copied the x link address and then deleted x and typed in twitter, didn’t work! I’ll keep trying .

how about if I type in “ wait til the season ends “
And I am not impressed by a PLAY IN either and a first rd bounce

 

Copy the link, then paste it in the link (URL) icon and it will format it for you

Looks like a sideways link of chain

 

that one is all on us, too many missed FTs down the end, and letting the Wagner kid cook when he spent the entire 4th quarter playing hero ball.

 

Should have been a good win against a tough opponent (Magic have been rolling even without Banchero 6 out of 7 wins)
Instead just give the game away
AR misses 2 FT's
LEbron 1-2
AD come on man missed 3 out of 4

JJ playing Dlo and matching up Knect against Franz for most of the 4th so Franz got rolling was stupid as hell
Max good game
Lebron had a huge 4th that was wasted
Cam was really good on offense and defense but you can't get a guy like Franz who's been rolling get that confident before you put your best defender on him

Dlo and Gabe need to be moved ASAP - can't survive in this league getting nothing from your backup guards consistently

 

Yeah I would still rather AR shoot clutch fts over Davis even though AR was garbage tonight at everything.

I still remember ADs meltdown against the Mavs a few years ago that included missing fts and leaving Kleber open for the dagger game winner. I don't trust him at the line.

 

Missed 11 FT and like 7 or 8 in last 5 minutes of the game.
Brother Vagners played like prime Curry and Klay and freaking Goga collected like 15 rebounds