Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

he gay.

 

Lakers played their string of 82 with nothing on the line, so they started:

Alex Len: C
Markieff Morris: F
Shake Milton: G
Bronny: G
DK: G

...and lost in POR by 28.

I didn't see the game, being transfixed by Clips@GSW, which was a really good game. Draymond had a layup in extreme crunch, tried to draw a foul, and in so doing got neither the foul nor the layup. Just beefed it, and put GSW in the play-in. Goshwhattashame.

Saw this from Dalton Knecht. Real purty.


Bring on (future Laker) Antman, Naz, Jaden, Julius, Donte, SGA's cousin, Rudy, et.al. Bring it the f*** ON! Less goooo! The 2nd season starts...(cough) in around a WEEK!

 

Everything.
Buried by their threes.
Nazi, who always destroys us, did it again.
Their “others” completely outplayed ours.
Luka was the only one to show up bigtime on offense.
Their defense was excellent.
Squidward as the color commentator.

Bright side: they can’t shoot this well from three two games in a row, or can they?

 

got outplayed and outcoached today, we couldn't even create open shots for our role guys, everyone was covered

the lack of a serious big man seems to hurt us more than people anticipated.

 

In the first game vs Lakers ,Chris Finch's team made a record in Minnesota's playoffs history shooting 21 three-pointer out of 42 for exactly 50 %

 

Game 1 bigtime nightmare loss as, like whiplash, after Lakers up 7 after the 1st Q, MIN outscores (and outplays) us 67-33 from the 2nd Q to about halfway through the 3rd to suck the air outta Crypto. MIN shot better, crashed the boards better, boxed out better, ran more, and their D was top-notch. Credit where it's due.

Going in, I thought I'd seen a TIGHT West in playoff matchups, but this year is insane. Every series except #8 MEM vs. #1 OKC can go either way. Our game tonight: proof in the damned pudding.

Luka hits a halfcourt 3 at the buzzer to end the 3rd to cut the deficit to 16 - it had gotten up to what? 27? - and with about 90 seconds gone in the 4th Q Luka hit a little shot to pull us to within 12, but after that we couldn't get stops. MIN's outside shooting was insane: 21 for 42 from deep. Naz Reid's nutty form 3s from the corners (6 for 9 for Naz) gave me Scott Wedman flashbacks. You olde timers know what I mean.

Kuzmo and FrontofJersey22: I'm with you: no way does MIN shoot the 3-ball like that again this series. The Overall Statistical Universe agrees with us, as y'all know...

The 2nd Q: MIN was up for it; we were not. MIN won that Q by 18 and that was pretty much all she wrote right there. Just a nightmare game.

Now the Lakers have something to prove. Truly. I expect them to do it.

Can we lose this series? Yea, we can. MIN's good and they have recently hit their stride. Lakers in 7 though.

 

Some of us KNEW this was gonna happen. Pygmy ball is just stupid and having scrubs like Hayes and Len as your bigs is pathetic.

 

Got outrebounded and points in the paint was nonexistent. Please sign a big this offseason.Gabe and DFS were dog water off the bench too.

 

We are going to have to make some adjustments. I'm skeptical of the Lebron/Rui at 5 strategy, working that well against the T wolves. We did a good job of attacking Gobert, but once they went small, we had no answers.

 

Big choke job by the Lakers

They need to get re-focused and figure this out

I get the hot 3 point shooting, but we took ourselves out of the game

JJ really needs to prepare better

Hopefully the team and coaching staff all learned a lesson and will make adjustments

 

This team just didn’t come out with intensity appropriate for a playoff game. It was like they were playing some random game on a Monday night in January. Reaves other than a couple of good moments on offense was a pretty much a non-factor. LeBron decided to turn things on way too late. And moving forward it’s critical that either 1 of Rui, Gabe, or DFS has a solid night every game or we are cooked.

Also doesn’t help that Wolves were hot from 3. Probably won’t be like that again, but probably shouldn’t rely on that either.

 

We're going to find out Tuesday.

-They still have no answer for Luka. They took away his playmaking, which SHOULD have been fine. We have f***ing Bron and Austin.

-I knew Austin would be taken out of it offensively but he has to pickup the playmaking to offset that. Minny is best equipped to stop him out of our big 3. Defensively he looked like an undrafted player. Too many mental mistakes. Bought on every pump fake they fed him.

-Bron...I don't know. Was it a feel out game? Is the groin not letting him activate playoff mode? The chase down block was awesome. If he's right, they can't guard him. I thought he got a lousy whistle. Ant and Randle were able to dictate the terms of physicality and the refs allowed it. At home, that's a problem.

-Rui has to be our 3rd best player. He needs to average 18 this series cause I just don't think we're going to get it from Austin. Outside of those corner 3s, he was disappointing.

-Gabe and DFS have to be a factor. They weren't.

-Win the glass, win the game. Conley was their only player who played 25 minutes+ and didn't have at least 5 rebounds for them. We don't have a center, Luka can't be our best rebounder.

-Guess what guys: we need a center this summer. The Jax story was cute. He's a fine backup. Tricked some into overacting and placing a wild value on him this summer. Look at his usage from 3/29-4/9 when we played 7 huge games and he's wildly pedestrian against the better teams, teams with size. 7&5-ish is fine it's not worth significant financial investment.

 

Agree

 

They won't be as hot from 3 (probably) but we still look like s*** and this might be it. Starting to think, GSW was the only team we could beat in rd1...

 

For those who think it’s over, it’s not. This is a seven game series, remember?
I’m hoping this punch in the face wakes the rest of the team up.
I don’t think anyone thought this was going to be an easy series. We will win Tuesday night and be right back in the series. This team can, and will win on the road when it shifts to the frozen tundra of Minnesota.
This loss was not on JJ, it was on all of the players not named Luka.
Also, Happy Easter to all!

 

Character time to see how they react after getting punched in the face

 

Yea this is not a death knell, but Tuesday is a must win. If they lose then I would say it’s over.