Much respect to Minnesota. They played their butts off and made shots until we decided to play defense and stop them.
felt like we were choking most of the game and then they choked at the end. we did dial up the defense a bit, but they also just stopped hitting. they had some good looks late.
I know it’s hard to avoid recency bias; i admit, it is for me. We were so horrible tonight. So lazy, so unfocused, so unprepared. Easily, 3-5 passes MINIMUM late in game where the passes were just unfathomable. The start and majority of the game played exactly how I figured we’d come out. But why? Why don’t our Laker players/coaches read this very post and change that narrative? Or appear to want to? Let’s not kid ourselves, Minnesota is fine and all, but they’re not a defensive juggernaut that should make us look that horrid. Realistically and seriously, how do we really plan to beat memphis? Ham really needs to stop the stupid lineups and stick w what works. Keep playing Dennis, Rui, Vando, Reaves, Dlo, AD like 35+ mins per game. Stop giving Troy so much burn. Beasley is okay for 15 mins or so if no one is hitting their shots.
still can't get over that brain dead foul by AD at the end. just inexcusable. guy is the opposite of clutch this team is not making it out of round 1, that's for sure
I think this is discounting the D: they're really locked up them up except maybe off the semi-transition stuff. It looks worse because they weren't doing the same for the first 3 quarters: Lebron not closing hard and any guard not named Schroeder/Reaves just getting there a**** handed to them didn't help. That being said the Lakers would have won it by double digits in regulation if they just hit some wide open shots. As I was saying before this game, they need Christie from next year now. They need a wing who can bury open shots and play D which is basically not Vando, Beasley, D-Lo right now.
Great D in the fourth quarter and OT. Dennis definitely deserves game ball. WHEW!!! That was a stressful game but glad we pulled it out even with AD sending it to OT by fouling Conley behind the line. True that AD and Lebron had huge moments for us, but also costly moments as well. I'm thrilled we got this W and the team gets some days off before the playoffs start.
Bron been doing his homework. He's the LeBron James of scouting opponents. Started folders on all of them when they were in Jr High.
It helped them early in the fist half for sure not having those guys: the no Gobert lineups are much harder to defend IMO as they go 5 out and have all sorts of space. Agree Ham did get his guys rest and it payed off
Memphis is a better matchup for the Lakers than the T-Wolves. THe Wolves in a 5 out lineup with KAT at center are hard to defend and even without McDaniels they have multiple good wing defenders. Memphis is a bunch of strong guys but outside of JJJ they don't have crazy length dudes out there
Thank God Ant sucked (DLO level bad). Otherwise this would be a massacre. Now let's hope Dennis is ok and can bother Ja a bit.
The wolves were hitting everything for most of the game until the 4th quarter. We can all lament and say we got lucky, but things tend to revert back to base rates and that’s what happened in the 4th, it evened out the ball game. Onto the grizzlies!
yeah, i stand by my statement. the defense improved some, but minny just missed a few wide open threes in the 4th and OT. they hit those all game long and started missing when things got tight. fatigue, nerves, regression to the mean are all equally or more likely candidates than simply us imposing our defensive will. again, there were a lot of comments in the game thread about us not playing with effort or energy, but i think we were, for the most part. we were tentative and not aggressive, but not disengaged. so yeah, the defense was better down the stretch, but their offense also just stopped being near perfect in terms of finishing plays. hell, i remember when they got the big third quarter lead, on two consecutive plays their bench scrubs scored over AD and someone else on very difficult finishes. AD just played that same defense later, and guys missed.
Basketball is a game of handling pressure. Our team has been playing under extreme pressure since the deadline. Every game has been a playoff game. Reality is they have done some amazing things to be where we are. The pups were playing well, hitting shots and then the late game pressure hit them. They are pros too. I give our team credit for toughing this out. Yes, we screwed up enough to lose but we didn't. I believe that the pressure is off of us now and we are going to play much looser and our shooting will improve. Not likely we will see that Dlo again (hopefully), AD will eventually learn to not foul 3 point shooters with .1 seconds left. We have a few days to rest and breathe a bit. I am more confident than ever we are going all the way. All that regular season crap is over and we are on level ground with anyone now. One question mark is we don't really know our level of health but everyone is available to play so from that perspective we are good.
That's kind of what I was banking on in this one. I didn't think we'd have to climb out of a 15 point hole and find ourselves in OT, but I thought as the game wore on that they'd run out of gas being as depleted as they are. It's easy for guys like Prince and Anderson to get out early and help, but when they're logging 43 & 45 minutes and having to be the team's 3rd and 4th best player on both sides of the ball... they aren't those guys. If they were, they'd be making 2-3x their salary.
