Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

Yeah, the Nuggets roster I've got no problem with. Most are likeable or at worst neutral. But Mikey, f*** him. Excluding our own, he's my second least favorite coach in the league. Doc's got top spot. I've never seen a such a sore winner. He's a really good coach, he doesn't need to do all the extra nonsense. It's kind of like CP. CP is a hall of fame PG, he doesn't need to be a dirty POS, but he can't help himself.

 

I actually feel a bit sorry for Mikey. The dude just can’t be content with reaching the pinnacle of his career.
He needs an army of therapists to sort out his troubled mind.

 

The Championship chase is a ruthless game. I don't blame Malone, for using every means at his disposal, including this little physiological game, that he's playing with the Lakers. It's working too, we've lost 7 straight games to these dudes, they are in our head.

That game went the same way a lot of them have gone. Close game in the 4th quarter, it was a 1pt game with 3mins to go in the 4th. What happened? Jokic and Murray stepped up and made plays, Lebron and AD came up short. Both teams went to their best players at the end of the game. Theirs delivered ours didn’t. That ain't on the role players or the HC. They did their jobs, they set the table, and got us into a position, to win the game. Our superstars are supposed to finish the drill. Once again, they didn't get it done.

 

true. also helped that their third 30+ million guy went 10-10 from the field, though.

 

No doubt Porter did his part, Jokic and Murray finished the job.

 

Reaves/Dinwiddie/Cam were freakin awesome on defense.

They ran screens for SGA to get Reaves off of him: that's insane to think about with all the crap he's been taken.
Cam got a lot of flack for the Denver game: yeah he's not great on offense but he really is a very good defensive player. He's just bring so much size.
Dinwiddie was great as well: probably need to be in there against Denver as he's the best mix of offense and defense this team has

SGA was good but he was not great, the really shut the good Williams down.

Honestly feel this team can take any team but Denver. Denver is the only team with a big who messes up AD ability to help defense and the 5 two guys who lakers can't hide anyone on.

 

Bueno: Wow! That defense in the third was exciting to watch.
DLo with those crazy bombs.
Austin being Austin.

Malo: all of the turnovers and bad defense in the first quarter

 

Nice to have a laffer against a good team; needed that especially after that DEN loss.

Lakers jumped out to a 22-11 deficit and OKC's swarming D on BTB forcing a lot of TOs by us. That and we played sloppy. Was worried we were in for a 30 point loss, booing, etc, but Lakers got it together and tied it by the end of the 1st.

But OKC, the best shooting team in the NBA, couldn't hit shots. Some of that was us ratcheting up our defense; some OKC just couldn't hit. (With the exception of Dort.)

Really good Laker team coverage on SGA: when he got near the paint we collapsed all over him. We made him score at the FT line. Only 20 on 5 for 13, but 9 for 9 from the line. Guy's basically unstoppable and either he was off a bit this game or our D did a really good job on him: I think it was a bit of both, but moreso our D.

I expected OKC to come back in the 3rd and they did: cut it to 2. Then our defense set up our offense. I thought D-Lo, AR and AD were as good as they can be.

So good to have Cam back! Dig Taurean hittin' corner 3s. Loved AD pushing Chet out on D, hounding him.

AR's showing improvement on D; guys aren't going around him so easily anymore. That's huge for us.

What went right: our defense got going in the 2nd half of the 1st Q and stayed good until garbage time. You know, that rare time when JHS gets to show us what a fine G-League player he is? I suspect he's pressing when he gets into games for us, but man: he has never looked like a real NBA player to me. Not yet. I suspect most of it is mental.

If we can play at or near this level for the rest of the regular season, I think we can finish 6th or 5th. PHO, currently 6th in the West is only 2 games ahead of us right now and we've played 63 and they've played 61.

 

We just have their number. They can't handle the size of Bron or AD, Chet will help there when he fills out the frame a little more. We have wings big enough to really bother SGA. If we can take away their best thing and they can't stop our best two things and struggle limiting some of our other guys... there's not much they can do.

The Good
- best the entire team has looked since the IST?
- Ham told them at the half it was the best defensive half they've played all year. Might be right. Probably our best 1 through 9 collective defense this season. When Bron is out there in the second quarter putting the clamps down on their backup 2 guard, I said oh s***. We're serious about this one.
- outshot them from 3 at a better %
- killed them on the glass. After AD, we had 5 other Lakers with at least 6 rebounds. They got the message for this one.

The Bad
- turnovers. Really sloppy start to the game. 12 TOs in just the first half. 21 total (8 above our average)
- we let them back in it in the 3rd, think they cut it to two. Some poor timeout management during their run.
- Rui really struggled in this one. I think early foul trouble took him out of rhythm.

 

Lakers lose a game they really needed to win, 130-120, at home, to SAC, and it wasn't that close, the Lakers being down 21 with 8:37 left in the 4th.

WRONG: the 2nd Q, being outscored 44-20.

AD's worst game of the year. There was one play late in the 3rd where the Kings missed a shot and he's just standing there and one of their guys swoops by him and tips it in. It's been awhile, but this was that old AD who just isn't really in the game.

D-Lo/AD/AR: 14 for 38 from the field. I don't know why they have our number, but I suspect our size doesn't match up well with their quickness. But I'll say this: in this game, at least, our defense was ATROCIOUS. I'm kinda disgusted. This was at home, had a day of rest and Cowbell-Town is directly in front of us in the standings, and our guys don't play D.

I don't wanna just blame bad D: the offense sucked too. Guys just stand around, few cuts, lackluster screens. WTF happened to our mentality here? This is the kinda of thing that makes me look at Ham with some side eye.

RIGHT: (audio: crickets)(old west town, like in Gunsmoke: tumbleweed drifts by)

Ok, ok: Bron 31/5/13 on 10 for 16, not missing an FT: 10/10. Rui was 13 for 17. To quote an old Yardbirds tune, Still I'm Sad.

So: we kinda HAVE TO go into SAC a week from tonight and kick their a****, right? Who's with me? Ya betta be, 'cuz this one SUCKED. What? Did they think they could coast after being up 37-28 at the end of the 1st? I'm about ready to join that chorus here who regularly get together to sing that old classic "Fire Ham."

 

Kings are a nightmare matchup for us. We have no one who can even bother Fox and Monk. They are way too fast/athletic for our backcourt.

It also doesn't help that AD can't matchup with this team for some reason. Sabonis just looks way better than him consistently

 

they looked way too quick/athletic for us including their bench guys, apart from the 1stQ they ran rings around us.

 

Sacramento exploits Austin and D'Angelo on D. Fox and Monk excell at attacking off the dribble. Reaves and Russell biggest weakness on D, is guarding dribble penatration. They are fairly decent, against catch and shoot guys.

This is where our two superstars are supposed to impose their will, and balance that out. The old Lebron, would have come out after halftime, and attacked the paint relentlessly. That's how we cut the lead down, dude is 39 tho, he can't sustain that level of energy anymore. He's still crafty enough, to do it in spurts, and knock down some J's.

AD tho, he's got to pick it up. He had some foul trouble early, and just never got in sync.

 

Season

What went right: Lebron and AD were basically healthy for most of the year.
What went wrong: Coaching schemes and rotations are weak, injuries to Vando and Cam are costly.

It's over!!!

Spoiler: FFFF

 

They will probably smoke the Bucks tonight.

 

Didn't smoke em, but we won damnit!!

 

so glad they didn't panic and trade russell for someone like rozier or lavine

this team is so goddamn bipolar