Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

Wasn’t it the spring /summer of the Magic/(Vash) debacle when she along with rest of BSPN and the media was piling on Rob and Lakers too?

 

could've been. i know for sure it was sometime in 2019 when the FO seemingly shut the door on her and she ended up on ballmer's payroll shortly after

 

yeah, i'm sure ramona hears stuff here and there, but she's an outsider, and i'd take most of her laker reporting as attempts to undermine the brand, tbh.

 

Have to take any Lakers news with a grain of salt. Rob doesn't talk much.

 

He always starts out the season without the lift, that doesn't really concern me. In that particular game, I watched the game and I'm not sure, that we saw the same thing. He got a step on Brooks whenever he chose to drive. He just got hacked repeatedly by Brooks every time he got by him.

 

I guess he's still mad that AD wanted out of New Orleans.

 

AD is who he is. We could get a pretty strong return from him, and from LeBron, and field ourselves, a legitimate hungry and talented team.



never gonna happen. So hard to trade the massive contracts and get a decent return. And we would have way too many players.

 

Cam starting for Austin. I think Reaves is coming off the bench.

If so, kudos to Ham for going for it and not be stubborn

 

I don’t like this team.
They consistently are out rebounded and have length at every position. No excuses for this.
Until they decide to give more attention to rebounding AND start hitting some threes, they will continue to flounder.
Ha!
After I wrote this, they started hitting threes and started to rebound!
Great turnaround.
Austin was clutch down the stretch.
Cam suddenly can shoot! I hope he can keep this up!

 

Austin with 35 minutes. If we need him off the bench, I don't think that will be an issue for him.

 

The good
- Bron: doing incredible things at a top 5 player level in year 21.
- Corner Cam: rose to occasion and was ready for the moment. 4th Q 3s and defensive energy.
- Rui: very active in his limited play
- AR: looked good in the Manu role
- team came out with more energy in the 1st.
- Ham sitting DLO when it's time to get serious.

The bad
- Can we have stop digging double digit deficits in the first half?
- Rebounding has to be better. It was embarrassing for 3 quarters. Gave Suns way to many second chance baskets and they all seemed like made 3s. Those are back breakers.
- AD isn't 100% clearly. He was not good in the first half. Nurk was getting the better of him most of the night. He picked it up during the stretch when Bron sat in the 3rd. Defense was still solid and desperately needed.
- Ham only finding 20 minutes for Rui.

 

My own interior monologue watching the first 3 Qs against PHO: I swear we need Vando and someone who can hit 3s like Vincent. Giving up offensive boards like mad: again! You'd think they'd be sick of that and...AD doesn't seem to be aggressive once again after an injury...this team...Leaving guys so open there's like 15 feet between the Suns shooter and a Laker: swish. More 3s raining down on us. This effing BLOWS!..I swear this Laker team is a "good" team but maybe the chemistry isn't there. PHO isn't a good team, we've lost 3 straight and we can't hit anything from outside...more offensive boards given up for points...D-Lo puts up numbers, but sometimes he's way too careless with his handle or his passing...this is ridiculous...I hate this team...what a drag...My gawd this is depressing.

4th Q: Wood gets the board! Perimeter passing...Rui hits a 3! Only down 4, but this entire game we get close then fall back by 11...Cam hits a 3! We're only down 1!...AR makes a nice shot: WE LEAD! We lead?...Cam hits another 3! We're up 4! How is this gonna go south?...Wood hits a 3! Good passing! Suddenly we feel like the Pacers or Warriors...jagoff Grayson Allen makes a bad pass...Rui dunks! We're up 7! It looks like they got sick of losing! About time!...This could still be bad...KD hits a 26 foot shot with a guy in his jock. Man. Dude's sick...Lebron with a bully-ball drive and hoop. Back up 6...AR hits a 3! What the hell happened? This is the first time this year I've seen the Lakers shoot the lights out. Nurkic with an old-fashioned 3 point play: our lead is down to 2...Bradley Beal is really hurting the Suns in a tight game: bad passes, fouling, missing shots. And that basket at the end of the first half pissed me off: he carried!...Taurean makes 1 of 2 FTs...Taurean's job is to try to stop KD. Good luck. Taurean in KD's jock and KD still hits a 14 footer. Damn!...AR hits an AR style shot, moving through the paint! 3:30 left and we're up 4...KD hits a shot. How is anyone supposed to guard that?...Lebron hits a 20 footer...Taurean misses a 3...Cam misses a 3. But Bron gets the offensive board! Taurean misses a 3 footer, heavily contested...offensive board by Cam! Cam misses a 3...AD gets the offensive board. Cam hits a 3!!!We're up by 5 with 70 seconds left! Now Laker fans know what it feels like to WIN on offensive rebounds...KD misses a shot! Taurean acts like he's gonna bomb, drives and makes the layup! We're gonna win!

Then: sweet relief and euphoria. Lakers looked like who I thought they were, but only in the 4th Q. But it was enough!

The bad: the first 3 lackadaisical quarters.
The very very good: entire team got sick of losing and turned it on in the 4th. Taurean and Cam looked really good on D and hit 3s. Rui, Reaves, Wood. AD and the Old Man: money! That 4th Q helped me regain some sanity over this team, who I think is much better than their record indicates so far. We'll see.

 

I felt EXACTLY the same way last night.

 

Rebounding sucks right now, there needs a concerted effort to crash the boards from the guards, because LeBron ain’t doing it

 

For so cal lakers fans going to the game

 

All Tournament games count as regular season games, except the Championship game.

 

Yeah..that's what a tournament is my man.

 

? Tournament games are regular season games, that we were going to play anyway bro. The Championship is 1 extra game.

 

Yeah part of the season, except now LeBron has extra motivation to save himself for those games and not play the other “ meaningless” reg season games .