Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

Start with Bron's stats at MSG

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THEN when I saw how Bron approached the start of the game, I thought this one was gettable. Then the entire team brought their A game with defense and attention to detail.

Austin, Rui, and DFS brought the buckets.

Enjoyed seeing the 3 wing lineup of DFS, Rui and Vando. That was fun.

Good Garden win, LBJ!


OK... back to tonight circus!

 

Lakers go into MSG w/o AD - will never have AD again, which is another story - and play their best game of the year in beating a very good Knicks team. The defense was outstanding.

Josh Hart had a really good game for them.

If you look at the time below when I'm posting this: it's because I had some stuff to do and DVR'd the game and just got finished watching it. I was totally thrilled by our performance.

I opened up a website to make sure I'd post the correct score. (Lakers won 128-116.)

I had no idea what I'd see at that NBA website. I'm...totally stunned. I have no idea what the stories were behind the scenes. Around 6 weeks or so ago I was posting here - I think in the Other Teams area - that I've been spoiled my whole life as a Laker fan, and said, offhandedly, that Luka, Wemby, Ant: those are the kinds of guys that eventually play for us. I had absolutely no idea we'd get Luka that fast.

After seeing how good we played w/o AD I thought of a joke like, "Trade AD!" It was unthinkable. And: earlier this week AD said to the press he needed a Big so he could play his true position: PF. I wondered how the brass takes it when a superstar says stuff like that to the press. Still: I really didn't think AD was going anywhere.

I really don't know if Luka had said or did anything to make DAL want to get rid of him. I will say this: Luka had best get into condition.

I'd like to say I'm excited about Luka in LA. But I'm too stunned right now. The win in MSG that I just watched now seems like a few days ago.
I will miss Max Christie, who was just coming into his own.
I am not excited about Kleber or Morris.
I won't miss JHS.
I will most definitely miss Anthony Unabrow Davis, one of my favorite players of all-time.

I'm not sure this makes us better. I will post this and read what you guys think. I'm literally stunned.

 

I forgot Rui can lock Towns in his sleep lol

 

100% this

We need him to buy into the Lakers being a special place to play and it's a privilege to be here

 

Oh yeah. We played a game last night.

 

We honestly looked good IMO. Have no clue what to do with that after the trade.

 

Nice win without AD

Good to see the team rally and play hard

 

Our switching has gotten a lot better. They're doing it with a lot more attention to detail. I think that's going to become an even bigger part of our defensive identity with Luka. At the beginning of the season all we had were guards and an incredible drop coverage big. Now we have a ton of wing sized bodies and no good drop big. We could throw out lineups with Luka/LeBron/DFS/Vando/Kleber and just switch everything.

 

Finney-Smith came to the team and has been very vocal about the need to step up the talk on defense; I could see that this might have had a difference. He's one of those guys who, when he speaks, his teammates listen. Now maybe they're talkin' and listenin' on the defensive end, too.

My big concern with AD and Max gone is the defense: which was just starting to look elite.

 

Clippers are shook, their era of relevance which never came is now over. the Luka effect

 

What a great win I’ll be honest I didn’t think there was any way in hell we’d win tonight considering how undermanned the Lakers would be after the trade. I’m glad I was wrong. The defense was on point our switching and rotations were good making up for the lack of size and the ball movement was great!

 

What a pleasant surprise it is to beat them in their house. I honestly expected to lose this one.

 

I only saw the second half forgot it was a big game and SSN where I thought it was recording of course was not. Was wondering how Barkley was having to handle the situation with all his tough talk to JJ and being the Laker hater he is … realizing we are RELOADING for the Luka era now with a solid team he’s joining, but then I saw he wasn’t there. Must have been assigned to another game? Too bad. What was Shaq saying about us now? I normally would skip those guys and halftimes in general but would have tuned in to see Barkley trying to downplay it all.

 

Put off watching this game until 10PM; did a good job of not seeing by how much we got waxed by the damned Clips, who are what? 24-9 against us over the last 33?

As the 1st Q ended with Bron hitting a 3 to put us up 45-29, yea, we were hitting shots, but our defense looked really good. Either that or Clips were just off tonight. Probably mostly the former, a little of the latter.

Okay, cool: we don't have AD or Max, but maybe there was some tense energy from the Luka trade that needed to be expressed, and surely the Clips would come back. It's the NBA. It's us vs. the damned Clips. I mean: c'mon.

So we won the 1st by 16.
And...whaaaat? We win the 2nd by 7. We're up 73-50 at the half. WTF?
Here it comes: with 7:15 left in the 3rd, Derrick Jones dunks to cut the lead to 13.
Then:
AR hits a 28 footer. Lakers by 16.
AR gets into the paint and lays it in: up 18.
Rui hits a 5-footer: back to 20. I wish the camera would've cut to Ballmer then, but they didn't.

Around 2 mins later, Vando hits a corner 3: Lakers by 21. This is too good! (In 18 mins: Vando was a +21.)

Lebron takes the ball out of bounds after a Beardie made FT, hits Shake, who drives as the clock winds toward buzzer: hits a shot to put us up 23 at the end of the 3rd.

We win the 4th Q by a bucket. Bronny hits a 3. His first ever in the NBA? Shake got 20 mins. Gabe was 4 for 8 from 3. Our defense kept Kawhi/Beardie/Zu to 8 for 30 from the field. We're now 10 games over .500 and 5th in the West, a game behind DEN.

Lakers 122
Clips 97

What went Right: we beat Ty Lue and the damned Clips!
What went Wrong: (tumbleweeds)

Our point differential is finally in the green! Why was it in the red, if we're 10 games over .500? 'Cuz when this team loses, baby, it loses big. Are those days over? I wouldn't be too quick to say yea. But we have looked really good lately.

-But you guys don't beat any good teams.
-In the last 10 games, we've beaten the C Bags, Knicks and Clips. What else ya got, bright boy?

It's been awhile. But Imma say we good. For reals. Now: let's see what the Chubby Slovenian can do.

 

is it starting to smell like OLIVES around here????? Or did that ship already sail?

 

Jaxson had a pretty epic block (of two, but you know the one I mean), and I thought, "That might be his last good play in the P&G."

Who knows, though?

 

hahahahahhahaha. You! You’re good you!