Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

Playing to the level of the opponents, so every game is a battle.

 

Playing defense with this kind of intensity is eating your legs up .

You tend to chuck 3s when you are tired

 

MIN scared the crap out of me, due to that 4th Q comeback against OKC. They looked like they were gonna do it again, but this time it would be much worse. 'Cuz it was against us! But the Lakers win 111-102 and are now 16-4 over their last 20.

This incarnation of the Lakers tends to start off strong, takes a decent lead at the end of the 1st, plays a solid 6-8 mins of the 2nd, loses focus, and allows the opponent to get a lot closer by halftime. What they do in the 3rd is anyone's guess, but lately they've been playing teams even or losing the 3rd. Tonight, the 4th was scary for awhile. It didn't have to be, but...

What went Right:
We started off strong and contained Ant, who was 6 for 12 before getting tossed. We played good D on Jaden, Naz, and Alexander-Walker for most of the game.
We won the game.
When we desperately needed a hoop in crunch Luka threw up a 28 footer near the sideline with Jaden in his jock. It disappeared in the rafters for awhile, then swished. T-Wolves had cut the lead to 4 when Luka hit that impossible Kobe-esque shot as the clock went out, 3:39 left: Lakers by 7.
Jordan Goodwin - Zorro? - he's still playing really good D and was 3 for 5 with 2 steals in 13 mins. Found gold with this guy!

What went Wrong:
Left 14 points at the FT line.
Antman got kicked out. (I love watching him even though he was playing us.)
Rui got hurt. I see him missing a few games, but we'll see.
Luka's shot is still WAY off.

Lebron: 33/17/6 and continues to amaze.

MIN's kid, Terence Shannon Jr: 29 mins off the bench: 25 points on 9 of 15. He's big and fast and gets downhill willy-nilly to the rack and will torch a lot of teams. Been watching him from the jump this year, and he deserves at least 29 mins if I'm Finch.

Lakers need to play the 3rd Q with more intensity, but I won't hold my breath on that.

Now we play Ballmer's team twice, in the Crypt. We'll probably be missing Rui.

 

There was one point where I saw Luka limping a bit, seems like his calf may still be hurting him.

 

Not having to be the primary playmaker has instantly helped LeBron.

The team just looks like it is adjusting to each other. It will be a bit before they have all really synced with Luka. But what we are seeing in spurts out there is encouraging.

Wolves got an emotional boost when Ant got tossed (which I honestly don’t know if either tech was warranted). And most teams make a run.

They made it interesting but I never really felt like we would actually lose last night with the way LeBron was playing.

 

he's still not very close to himself, imo. he's so good that the numbers and impact come anyway, but it might not be until next year that we see the guy we're expecting. playoffs, maybe...

 

Definitely not himself.

I’ll say it again, he really had no plans to leave Dallas. I know we are talking about millionaire athletes but the emotional aspect of all of this is very real and can’t be discounted.

No one wants to be essentially let go from their job no matter how high up the food chain they are. I’d argue the top guys at times take it worse because they generally believe, with valid reason, that they will control their own fate. That applies to athletes too.

Surely he had an entire plan laid out for how he would return from injury and get himself ready for the playoffs. That has been completely disrupted and we are seeing that on the floor IMO.


We are also seeing a lot of what makes him a special player though. And as several posters have pointed out, he is freeing up LeBron and making his life much easier.

Bottom line for me is that this team is legit. If it were any other team the praise would be overflowing from the talking heads. Since it’s us they have to hate a bit but we are going to be a really tough team to deal with in the playoffs.

 

Similar game with Dallas, glad for another win.

Next one will be tough. Rui left injured, Brom felt his hamstring late in the game and Vando shouldn't play back 2 backs.

As it stands, I would sit those 3 and maybe even Luka. It's the Clippers and they're right behind us but we are poised for a strong postseason, I'd rather focus on the long game than bragging rights with the tenants.
Sometimes it works too, like Boston last year. Give leeway to Knecht as he really needs to recover his confidence. Give minutes to Reddish, Jemison and Milton too

 

Offense is still wonky.My belief it’s because everyone is getting used to the speed(or lack there of) that Luka plays at thus tweaking the rhythm the team has grown accustomed to.Once they grow accustomed to his style they should be very good on that end

 

Cuck the Flippers

 

The goods

- the bench mob all with a positive +/- and all but DK had a double digit positive +/-. On night two of a back to back, that's HUGE. so big props to Jemison, Goodwin, Vando and Gabe for rising to the occasion.

-Luka on a bad shooting night, on a back to back, he's not himself... still gets you 30+

-Bron gutting it out and continuing to dominate both sides of the floor. He's 40 doing this, folks! 40!

- 102 points allowed. Defense continues to suffocate.



Bad

- injuries. Everyone is getting banged up. Hopefully time missed is to a minimum. Closest thing to a break we get is between 8th ( Boston) and 13th (MIL), there's only the Nets between those two games.

- 3 ball is still off as a team. Think it's defense related and I'm ok with it if that's the why.

- Jax. Not good tonight. Didn't get his first rebound until the end of the game. Zu took it to him, as expected. Some poor handles on lob attempts as well.

 

…. more bad somewhat. and with caveat tonight Rui was out and the AR went out early. we’re winning with Luka but the offense is Luka and LeBron trading off pounding the ball, calling for picks way out by center court and a lot of ISO ball. not really the ball zipping all over the court with all the passing skills so far that I was thinking we’d see.

 

Clippers come into the Crypt and Lakers beat them 106-102 despite no Rui and AR went out with calf tightness, which is a drag. I was hoping we'd made a good game of it even if we lost, but with this win we're 17-4 over our last 21.

I thought the refs didn't do us any favors in this game.

When the story everywhere is Luka and Lebron, we've turned the season around with DEFENSE. Here's how many points we've given up recently:
Clips: 102
T-Wolves: 102
Mavs: 99
Nugs: 100
POR: 102
(loss to CHA): 100

Goodwin: 3 steals. Luka: 3 steals. Gabe: 4 steals.

That's all stuff that went right.

What went wrong: AR's injury.

Gutsy win!

 

We pull another win and I like it. Team is showing the kind of resilience that I’ve been begging them to display for the last several seasons. In the past the team has looked like it thought it was better than it was. Effort and energy was often in question

This group of guys fights to the end. When the game gets tight they respond.

 

These games are just dress rehearsal for the playoffs, we can grind and win gamers while playing horribly

 

one contributing factor here is that lue was basically playing lebron and luka straight up and switching. he was very intentionally trying to take away their passing, and it worked. he's lucky luka's still off, as he's roasted that theory time and again--against lue! we're lucky lebron was locked in and took it personally that lue wasn't sending help. i couldn't believe it after a while. near the end, they started trying to double luka and lebron, hoping the role players would be cold, and they were--but they had just enough in the tank and made just enough plays. and the real difference is that we are playing defense for full games these days. lue wasn't counting on that, either.

i thought the refs seemed like they wanted the clips to win. that overturned call where jones just grabbed luka's hand and they said "hand's part of the ball"...i was just begging for one of our guys to just slap the s*** out of kawhi or harden's hand while it was on the ball the next play. just to make a point. the refs knew why that ball went out of bounds, and it wasn't because luka just lost it. total b*******, and the mealy-mouthed explanation was even worse.

anyway, the positives:

defense! DFS, gabe, vando, goodwin, lebron (!), hayes, luka (!), even knecht at times! where has this been? why did nobody try when AD was on the roster?! we could have been the league's best defense!

negatives: the shooting! we missed a lot of open looks. also DFS and vando need to get more comfortable making choices in the middle of the floor with an advantage. teams are going to give us that. hayes is honestly better than those two right now in that situation, and that's not great.

stray thoughts about clippers:

kawhi's lost a full step, as has harden. they need powell to scratch out more points. zu dominated partly by our design, imo.

kris dunn's out of body first half kept us from blowing it open--well, that and our poor shooting. but in fairness, we didn't get a lot of good looks. the defensive strategy was good--until luka hit those back to back threes and lue had to change course or get blasted (he had to be having playoff flashbacks at that point). second game in three that the opposing coach having to sell out to stop luka opened up easy buckets for us.

anyway, glad to stack ugly wins. when i saw two games vs. the clips back to back on the schedule, i just wanted to make sure we got one. next one is house money, as far as i'm concerned. and without austin and rui, it will be tough sledding. so, it's good to have that one in the pocket.

 

If you watch Kawhi, he's lost a step for awhile. That just didn't happen overnight. Although, for people who don't watch the Clips, they probably haven't saw it up close and personal. Harden is also 35. The team is done. They'll be blowing it up soon.

The offensive organization sucks; could be that we we're trying to integrate Luka, and he's just compounding it by missing shots. Maybe we're so focused defensively it's affecting our shot-making on the offensive end? Either way, well the defensive has been a stellar surprise, once the offense picks up even a bit, we're in business.

Still think we need a big man this summer and that will ultimately be our demise in these PO's, but we have a shot with LBJ and Luka. Additionally, we also have the assets to add around Luka for the next 3-5 years.

Keep stacking wins, get improvements from the role players, and skys the limit.

 

Lots of unnecessary panic. We are building chemistry with a new roster, nursing a few injuries, Luka playing his way into shape and we're still climbing in the standings and playing great defense. Come playoff time our defense will kick it up another notch and Luka will be Luka by then and we have the leagues best coach. LeBron is playing great. We got it made. Championship.

 

Luka’s three being off is really irking me.
Our defensive, becoming elite, has given me hope that we can go far in the playoffs.
I still can’t stand watching Beerdo McFloppington or Robotic Cornrows and especially Zu, when he’s destroying us.
So happy we beat the fake rivals- make it two in a row!

 

With Luka, DFS, Vando and Trey we were meaner and nastier than the Clippers. That hasn’t been the case over the years.