Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

What a win. What a game from AR.

we are absolutely rolling right now.

 

AR with 45

Rui with 24

Goodwin 10

Hayes with 12 boards

Everyone chipping in to make it work

Have to enjoy the effort

 

who was that masked man?

 

Goodwin

 

Austin went right; Indiana went left.

 

Yeah. Goodwin can play IMO and was a nice signing.

 

Amazing what good coaching and genuine belief can do even if a bunch of talent is on the bench in street clothes. Remember when we lost to the Timberwolves by 30 and then the Heat by 40 in December? Feels like 10 years ago.

 

those things are effort and leadership, imo.

and i'm not pinning this on AD at all, but maybe lebron losing his running mate (and partner in the "we'll turn it on later" crime) has been useful of late.

in other words: we had two guys preserving energy in leadership roles, and now we have one--who stepped up his energy of late. this has a cascading effect.

i think if lebron (and AD) had played with this energy all year, we'd be in 2nd right now. but i understand why that's basically impossible for those two guys at this stage in their careers.

the uncomfortable conversation they had was partly about this, imo. they're both at the point where someone has to do the day-to-day lifting and let them show up when you need it most. you can't have two of those as your biggest earners.

 

it's crazy how good the west is this year though, even with our recent form we're only 3 wins above a play-in spot!!!

 

definitely. good point about relying on AD to clean up. nobody's behind you right now. i remember so many folks being like "AD's back there, so i can be aggressive", but many times it came out as "AD's back there, so i can be passive". i think this is part of how dantoni's suns lived with boris diaw playing heavy minutes at center--that's boris diaw behind you, bro--d up.

 

I was thinking something kinda similar earlier today that grew louder after this game.

Is 1-12 better defensively without AD? No, we're definitely not a better defensive team without him, he's the best defensive player in the game when he wants to be. But when that safety blanket doesn't exist and isn't there to cover your mistake, everyone has to be next man up. Having Vando and DFS as the co-captains defensively and vocally lead that charge seems to be working really well so far.

In the playoffs it will be different though cause that's when you need *that* guy, rotations shorten, pressure mounts and that's why the stars are the stars in that environment.

It's similar concept offensively with Bron. We shouldn't be relying on a 40 year old Bron to be our energy leader or waiting for him to flip the switch. With Luka and his alpha-ness, Bron never has to be that for us again.

 

I did my usual really good job of not finding out the results of the game, then watching it at 2 AM last night. (Don't ask.) I had read that Bron would be sitting it out vs. IND, and, given the way we were playing, we were due for a loss.

Didn't know Myles was out, too. Maybe we had a puncher's chance? With 40 secs left in the 1st, Trey Jemison gets a pass from Gabe and lays it in: Lakers were up 44-19. Rui and Reaves had stepped up. It was frankly astonishing to see.

So that's the way we roll suddenly: jumping out to big leads from the opening tip.

When we do this, we usually blow the lead and it become a tight game. Will this one do that? Yea, it would.

Weird seeing Markieff Morris gettin' mins in the 1st half. And I knew we'd signed Goodwin...is he that guy wearing a mask? Whoa! There's Jemison gettin' early mins. Is Koloko injured? Shake carrying the ball up court...

So: we won the 1st by 22, which was crucial.
IND won the 2nd by 6; the 3rd by 6, and the 4th by 3. It wasn't enough.

If we look back at this game, the guy who won it for us was...HIM!

2 days after a 0-9 shooting night from deep (but a ton of FTs made), AR goes for 45/7/7 with 3 steals. Gettin' double-teamed near the time line, going around a screen to get into the paint. A four-point play. Waiting to be doubled then dishing to the open man. Enormous usage when he's on the court. IND played him like they'd play Steph.

Lakers 124
IND 119

I thought the refs were sub-par, overall. Was it Vando who blocked a shot that had hit the backboard and they didn't call it and Carlisle flipped out and got T'd?
Tyrese did get hit late on a 3 FGA and it wasn't called. If they do call it, he makes all 3, it cuts the Laker lead to 2? Pacers challenged 2 calls in less than a minute and won both. Rui got triple-teamed, smothered, and obviously fouled and these refs called a jump ball. They were just not that great, these refs.

When IND was closing in, with Tyrese hitting those gorgeous rainbow-arc 3s...Jordan Goodwin banks in a 3 with 2:26 left to put us up 13. We're gonna win AGAIN!

Feels like we have somethin' here, folks. Wow.

Some posts above here link losing AD's back line of D to Lakers players sorta realizing that the training wheels are off and ya better step up, psychologically. I see that.

Meanwhile: AD has a monster first game for DAL - 26/16 - before leaving late the 3rd when he suddenly grabbed his groin. No contact. My gawd, AD. You can't catch a break.

Finally; anyone else think that Vando/DFS/Jemison: we're suddenly...ehhh...not to be pushed around? That play Jemison made on TJ as the ball was going out of bounds: looked borderline dirty and Jemison got T'd immediately. When they reviewed it I thought there was a chance Jemison would get kicked out. Interesting...

 

yeah, jemison absolutely didn't need to shove that guy out of bounds; it was a weird play. and then he pretended like he didn't mean to...when he most certainly did.

that guy might need max's therapist.

 

f*** TJ McConnell

 

Jemison moves like a clumsy oaf pretty sure h was off balanced on that play

 

I definitely think there's some truth to this. I think it happened with some of those Gobert Jazz teams too. Conley, Mitchell, Bogdanovic, even O'Neale, those guys were all at one point known to be pretty good defenders. But they started to over rely on Gobert cleaning up everything. The way Mitchell was getting torched by guys like 30 year old Reggie Jackson was ridiculous. We lost one of the best defensive players in the league, but the team is playing better team defense.

 

I saw AR and TJ having an extended conversation while someone else was stepping up to the free throw line. Couldn't tell with AR's typical I'm-a-happy-guy-because-I-know-I'm-HIM expression whether it was good natured or they were jawing at one another?