Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

Always nice to get a win over the Flippers

Great to see the team rally behind the trade and show Luka their character and effort

 

I don't remember a single play from Kawhi or Harden in that game

 

They were useless. Norman Powell was the only guy doing anything of significance.

 

Powell should be their all star . Harden is shooting 39 % from the field !

 

They were playing for their Laker lives and trying to impress Luka.

Gotta figure if they can move AD, they can move anyone who doesn't have "James" on the back of the jersey.


Loved the collective defensive effort. We shot the hell out of the ball too. In a way that's foreign for Laker fans.

Really impressive win.

 

It was. This whole run has sparked hope for me. Add in Luka and who knows how far we can really go now.

 

I wonder how Steve Ballmer felt watching Luka walk to the Lakers bench with all eyes on him and the Lakers proceed to beat the sh* t out of his team. It makes me feel bad for him (it doesn't).

F him and the Clips.

 

LOL.GSW fans as usual complain on FT difference.There is no Davis,but they shooting 19 FT in 4 quarter
Curry 35 shots - 5 FT
Reaves 17 shots -16 FT

 

What do they expect? They don’t have any shot creators outside of Steph who was being hounded all night by Vando and we also trapped him alot so he was not just one on one. The Lakers have two guys in Austin and Bron who consistently draw fouls that’s literally a basketball skill. They know how to draw contact and put opposing defenses in bad spots. Just wait till Luka comes back.

The Warriors are just not a very talented offensive team because they don’t have a guy outside of Steph who can break the defense down. Jimmy Butler is supposed to be that guy, but personally I think he’s past his prime and will little impact.

 

Lakers came out strong yet again and blitzed a team in the 1st Q: up 13 for the 1stQ, and 20 at halftime, 69-49. Lakers beat GSW again, 120-112, this time at the Crypt.

GSW made a run in the 3rd; Lakers looked a bit flat and stopped whipping the ball around on offense. GSW won the 3rd, 30-21. With 1:35 left in the 2nd Lebron hit a shot to put us up 26. Lakers up 11 going into the 4th, but GSW cut it to 6 before 3 mins were gone. Nervous time. This will not be a re-run of the Clips game. On a BTB on the road, and shorthanded, GSW got it down to 5 with 3:40 left and Steph hit a 27 footer. With 1:08 left Bron hit a 27-footer to put us up 9; 3 secs later Steph hit a 3 to put it back to 6.

GSW is a 3 point shooting team and they chucked up 53. Only 16 went in. That's 30%.

Lebron has been unreal the past 3 games (Knicks/Clips/GSW). Tonight: 42-17-8. He and Gabe combined for 11 for 17 from deep to make up for...

What went Wrong: AR couldn't hit from outside: 0 for 9. But he got into the paint and drew fouls and hit his FTs.

Vando played 21 mins and had 14 boards, incl 4 offensive ones. Whenever he and/or DFS is out there, all's right with the world in Lakerland.

Curry looked like a high-volume chucker for most of the game: 13 for 35, incl 6 for 20 from deep. Our 3 point defense has gotten better over the last 10-14 days.

Draymond Green showed his skills as a dirty player: few players have ever committed that many fouls that weren't called while somehow getting his opponent whistled for a foul. Dude's an all-time dirty player but also: very effective.

Lakers torched GSW for not getting back. GSW put up a good fight, but they're now a game under .500 Will Jimmy made a huge diff? He'd better, because he's now in a position where a LOT is being expected of him. If he doesn't deliver for them it will be cataclysmic. They just gave him over $60mil per year for 2 years.

All in all, another game in which, if we come out in the 3rd and extend a 20 point lead to 30, it's garbage time early and the mins go way down for Lebron. Rui played 39 mins. He shouldn't have had to, but ya can't have everything. (Where would you put it?)

Lakers go to 30-19. Next up: IND at the Crypt, a 1PM ("matinee") game on SAT. Then: the advent of the Luka Era this MON against Utah.

 

Always nice to get a win against a rival team

What's the deal with AR and the 0-9 from the 3 line?

Yikes!

Good to see the team play hard to show Luka and RW the effort and character they have

What can you say about LBJ that hasn't been said?

The guy is amazing at his age and willed us to win

 

When he hit those two 3s in the 2nd Q, then dribbled up and stopped at the logo I admit I said, "Heat check fail!" And that effing thing swished. But just the energy, the hustle at 40. Those at-times immaculate court-length passes to a streaking Laker: when they're on the money - and they often are - they're breath-taking.

Just his strength down low.

Earlier this season he started to look 40. I thought, "This is it: the quick decline." But I was wrong. It will happen, but not yet. Obviously!

 

We all know Father Time is undefeated

But Bron is a specimen that is able to last

It's amazing to see the shape he keeps himself in and his ability to jump and run with the young players

 

i went to bed at halftime figuring the game would either be fairly boring or something REALLY bad would happen. glad it wasn't the latter, but i guess it wasn't the former, either.

really like the defensive board work in the first half (which must have fallen off a bit). we had a huge FGA difference, but that wasn't about TOs and OREBSs (bad) and instead about FTAs for us (good).

reaves had a terrible shooting night, and you could see his legs just weren't under him. thankfully, gabe showed up and was an assassin!

so great to have vando back; can't be overstated how much we miss him when he's out. gabe and vando...ftw?!

i knew curry was going to try to get them back in it once lebron hit the zillion-footer; you could tell he was tired of getting embarrassed. meanwhile, i almost tuned in for the second half just to see if lebron would put that tank-assed lacrosse player on a poster. that's a LOT of chirping from a muppet who will be managing a car dealership in vermont within three years.

agree with zoyd that draymond's dirtiness was particularly notable last night. i'm actually always worried someone's going to get hurt when we play against him. and that's not good. the league should have taken care of this guy a long time ago, and they've enabled him instead, imo. he has no self control, and it's not safe. i'm surprised he's so beloved by other players, given that his antics could impact their livelihood.

speaking of, that play that svg was drooling over when curry got the charge on reaves? to me, that's a defensive foul (he slid under after reaves was already gathering) and super dangerous. that could have been another several-game absence for reaves. and curry wasn't trying to be dirty there, but the nba has to call that a block unless it wants to lose, say, anthony edwards for a month at some point.

finally, i'm curious to see how jj is going to handle a steady dose of what i saw from gs last night: guys aren't going to guard our centers away from the hoop. in a way, that was ok, as it will limit TOs because you always have a safety valve. but it will cut down on shot quality if we don't have good plans for it. last night, hayes got a bunch of touches 20 ft from the hoop with zero idea of what to do with the ball, which led to some clunky offense. this is the danger of the 5 out when your 5 can't play out. with AD at the 5, you can't do that, as he'd be able to either score from 20 or take two dribbles and destroy you. that element is now gone, and we need counters. this would have been true had we moved for a center and kept AD, too.

 

one more stray thought: after every timeout, gs ran some sort of pin down to try to get a three point shot.

man, mix it up a little, right? it worked a couple of times, but didn't a couple of others and it just shows a philosophy i don't love.

 

Yeah, guys love Draymond off the court but I would think his antics would have made them sour on him. My understanding is that he, for the most part, knows who to mess with and who not to. For a guy who talks so much I rarely see him mixing it up with another teams tough guy.

He's out of control now though and while he had incidents before that, I feel like it really went off the rails with Durant. The team, particularly Steph and Klay rallied for him though and I think that really empowered him to go even further.

The Poole incident should have been it and the league should have shut it all down, but they haven't so here we are.

Steph loves him though. LeBron too. We will see how much longer that matters but I feel like he is going to seriously hurt someone and/or finally pick on the wrong young player and get handled.

 

He’ll be out of the league before you know it and will just be a distant memory