Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

i'd been saying that minny was better than people thought. seems like we weren't ready for the intensity--luka aside--which is disappointing after the rhetoric this week about being ready, etc.

i remind myself that i didn't even expect the 3 seed after we made the trade. the teams we're competing against--gs aside--have basically had the same guys/system all year. it's a tall order to just pull it together and beat them, even when you employ luka doncic.

nevertheless, i expect better showings from here on out. but we punted HCA on night 1 in a game that wasn't close, and there's no way to spin that as a positive.

 

Right - won. First quarter up 19. Typical Luka on fire first quarter, Gabe was decent. Austin and LBJ in double figures.

Bad - Minny simply looks like the better team. IMHO, they have outplayed us in both games. They’re taller, faster, stronger, longer, and deeper. They’re way more physical and it shows. If the Lakers couldn’t get behind their own crowd in these two games, I’m afraid of what happens to us in games 3 and 4. I’d love to eat crow though.

 

Lakers play D and win Game 2 to tie the series at 1-1, 94-85.

MIN's 18 point win in 2nd Q of Game 1 was matched by our 19 point win in the 1st Q in Game 2.

Differences between the two games: after going 21 of 42 from 3, MIN was 5 of 25 (20%) in Game 2. Law of averages? Yea, but the Lakers just contested way better and hustled to change that number so drastically.

Our 3s were atrocious as well, with Lebron/Luka/AR going 3 for 19.

At times it looked like MIN's game plan was to throw forearms into Laker players' throats. I counted at least six, some of them called. The refs missed some plays, but I really thought they saw how physical-verging-into-vicious this game was looking, and were concerned with not letting it get out of hand.

To me, this indicated that MIN thinks they have to muscle the Lakers if they want to win. When MIN's eatin' home cookin' we may be in for some really rough play.

Julius, Naz and Jaden were particularly...I'm gonna say dirty, in this game. They managed 85 points. They scored 32 less points than they did against the too-relaxed Lakers of Game 1.

If we play D at this level in Games 3 and 4...and hit some 3s...I think we're gonna be okay, but this is already a ridiculously physical series.

This is Round ONE of the playoffs? Man.

 

Sadly we shot 20.7% from the 3 line which is really bad

AR 0-6

Nice to see the team bounce back and get the win

Time to close this out and not take any games for granted

 

Lakers made 20 for 20 FT
I don't remember when was last time that they didn't miss

 

I LOVED our defensive effort.
We need to play this tough from here in out to beat this team.
It most definitely is time for JJ to give Kief some burn just to lay down some hard fouls on Minny.
It’s also time to give Luka the Superstar Whistle he deserves and stop treating Randle like he’s the MVP.