Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

Maybe Olivari finally gets a shot? We could use a dose of adrenalin or whatever cliche. Also, Atlanta is his home town. The Hawks were his favorite team growing up.

 

WTF …. yesterday it was JHS had a groin issue and today they’re saying hamstring??

 

man, just sit AD and take the L or to try to catch them sleeping. the hawks are playing their best ball of the year, and i feel like historically we lose to atlanta a lot anyway, even when they're bad. i give us zero chance with lebron and reaves both out.

 

Lol..next week it will be Covid

 

Jeanie poured soooo much cash on scrubs like Bronny & DUI boy! It’s absolutely disgusting how unfair life is .

 

wow the amount of mistakes in the 4th and OT was outrageous, we did everything we possibly could to lose this one.

 

They didn't lay down and die in this one. There is that.

 

bunch of low iq idiots, I dont know wtf JJ said to Gabe but why would you help when your guy is Trae, the most dangerous shooter on their team and F'N AD B2B TO of course he'd find a way to f up game like his missed ft's

 

wtf we need status for that scrub jr?

 

SMH..same s*** happens every night in the NBA. I can't understand the logic behind it either.

 

Craziest game of the season.I was hoping that it's make up for Orlando loss.Oh well.DLo for Trae is confirmed

 

Tough loss.

We didn't play great but it was miles better than the 2 previous outings. Our defense is not good at all. But at least they tried.
Really dumb possessions in crunch time twice, we kind of deserved it. It would have been good for morale to get a win like this, but they kinda deserve this punishment for this road trip.

Great game by Gabe. This is what we signed him for. But atrocious defense on that last play, letting Trae get so wide open. It's a difficult play, but he should have done better. Still very happy with his performance.
Bron and AD were great. They are the leaders, if they play hard, the team follows.
Max looks much better and playable. DLo needs to get traded asap

 

Lakers 132 Hawks 134 in OT in ATL. Lakers are now 12-11.

When we were 10-4 I didn't think I'd be saying this in December, but the Lakers lose but at least looked like an NBA team.

Unfortunately, they had to be much smarter but weren't in the most critical times, so they lost in OT in ATL.

Gabe played really well except for leaving Trae open for a dagger 3.

AD 38/10/8 and 8 for 8 from the line, but seemed to mentally lapse at a crucial moment. Ah, well.

Lebron: played. I thought for sure he sits this one. 39/10/11 with 3 blocks. 6 for 11 from deep, so it looks like maybe his 3 is back, who knows.

We got 17 total points from our bench, all Max and D-Lo. Hawks bench contributed...lemme check the stat sheet...65 points. So, there's that.

Trae: 31/4/20
Dyson Daniels, 21 yr old 6'7" guard, was defensively awesome for them. 5 steals, including 2 crucial ones.

What went Right: The Lakers didn't lose by 30.
What went Wrong: They still lost, and it feels to me like they're never going to win a game again, ever.

Any one of us can argue this team is hopeless, and make a good case that's true.

Any one of us can argue we're far better than we've looked recently against MIA, MIN, PHO, DEN, and you can make a fair case.

We started the year 3-0. We looked good. Had a road trip and were 4-4. Then we won 6 straight to go to 10-4.

At that point, we lost the ORL game on missed FTs in crunch. Any one of us could cite that game as a turning point, that the Lakers as a team overall lack confidence in their ability to execute when they must. They're soft mentally. They are not clutch. And those 3rd Q collapses to DEN and PHO would back you up. The MIA is the all-timer for the argument, "The 10-4 record was a mirage; this team blows."

We've recently won against SA (fairly convincingly) and Utah (with loads of luck). If we lose those two games we're the talk of the NBA: Lakers have lost 9 straight; what happened to them?

For me, I'm gonna need a lot of wins and really good games to be convinced we're something other than a #9 or #10 in the West at best. Because the collapses were just sooooo so bad. Good teams lose games. But not like the way we've been losing games. Not even close. Something's very wrong.

Clearly, we need a big. Clearly our bench is shallow AF. Not sure how you remedy those issues. It's gonna be a long season, friends. Buckle up!

 

I can live with that loss, we caught a hot team on the road, after we'd been playing like crap. Good to see ours stars step up to the plate. I'll chalk up some of the late game miscues from them, to a bit of fatigue.

Big picture, if we are able to add a couple of starting caliber guys to our roster, James and Davis stay healthy, and get a few guys out hurt right now, back in the fold? I still like our chances to make a deep playoff run, it's only December.

The world starts really paying attention to the NBA, by the MLK day games, so hopefully some of the things I just mentioned will have materialized. We do need a win disparately right now tho, hopefully the Portland game is it.

 

this loss would have been no big deal had we not gotten destroyed in the two previous games.

the late game execution is getting really worrisome. i wouldn't have expected stuff like this, particularly from the stars. just erasing your great games with poor play at key moments.

we don't piss two games away with preventable errors, and we're 14-9 and 5th in the west right now. when the conference is this close, you just can't have that stuff. especially when we're incapable of blowing anyone out. pressure is on even more to get the close ones. maybe that's why we're crumbling in those moments--lebron and AD know they can't screw it up. recipe for screwing it up.

 

The good:
-effort. Team played hard throughout, competed. Came out of the half strong. Even defensive effort was there... we're just terrible even when trying.
- our stars looked like stars. Welcome back, we missed you.
- best Gabe game as a Laker. Some terrible shot selection and a lot of no no no, yes! Plays

The bad:
- execution. You have to be sharper, especially in the clutch. AD made some awful decisions. Gabe left their most dangerous shooter and it looked intentional. Bron got cooked by Hunter even when he was trying. 4 years ago, he shuts Hunter down (If Hunter could stay healthy, he's the type of wing we need to grab).
- all for nothing. When Bron and AD have one of those games, it goes into OT and they log heavy minutes you HAVE to win it. We can't go to that limited well and come up empty handed. Just can't.

 

Lakers snap a 3 game losing streak and beat Blazers 107-98, at home, w/o Lebron, who missed his first game of the season. I guess someone convinced him that his goal was lofty and admirable, but you need rest 'cuz you're turning 40 in 3 weeks, dude.

We lost the 1st Q by 6 but won the 2nd by 20, 37-17. Maybe everyone bought in on playing D? At least for this game. 2nd time this season we held a team under 100.

AD 30/11 with 5 blocks
D-Lo off the bench: 34 mins - the most mins played by any Laker in this game except Rui - and 28 points on 5 of 10 from deep, 14 dimes, only two turnovers.
Rui: 23/5 on 9 for 13 shooting, 4 steals. Rui stepped up w/Lebron out.
Dalton going through a cold spot from 3, but I like his midrange game and would love to see more of it. He looks really good midrange. When he drives to the rack he looks super athletic, but this is the NBA, so you need to read the D. He's too predictable when going for a slam or layup and often gets blocked.

What went Wrong:
We led 59-45 at the half and POR outscored us by 11 in the 3rd. The old 3rd Q stagnancy. So: 3 point lead going into the 4th, and a lot of us were dreading a collapse to the lowly Blazers.

They got 4 more offensive boards than we did. Ayton - one of those NBA players I just don't like, never have, 'cuz he seems like a d*** - got 19 boards.

But before 3 mins were gone in the 4th we pushed the lead back to 10 on good D and a 2-man Rui/D-Lo game. After that POR cut it to 7 on a 28 foot 3 by Jerami Grant, but then D-Lo hit 2 3s and Cam hit a long one and with 7 mins left we were up 14 and never looked back, really. At the 2:38 mark both teams emptied their benches. Quincy hit a 3! The 4th Q answer to POR's making it one-possession game AND our 37-17 2nd Q were the What went Right.

5 days off before a game in MIN. T-Wolves lost a close one in San Fran tonight. Lakers can rest up, but need to get their mentality together over the next few days.

For now, we're 2 games over .500. On New Year's Eve the Cavs are in Crypto and I hope we're still over .500 then.

 

4-4 over the next 8 is possible..the next 4 are interesting.

 

Yea, we got 4 days off until that game in MIN

Then:
MEM
@SAC on the 19th
@SAC on the 21st
DET on the 23rd

I hope we can win one of those SAC games, and we get Beastly AD. One can hope!

Xmas day in San Francisco, national TV, etc.

 

Take notes Lakers ! This is what WINNERS look like