Agreed. D Lo needs to play better - will be tough to do with that Chase crowd and energy. I just wonder if Bron and Ad will conserve. See if the others are hitting shots and if Klay or Steph are off, then ramp it up second half with blood in the water…or if not, shut it down and play for game 6.
Lakers need to make Curry and Klay defend too, including early - not just in the 4th. D Lo and AR can pnr to Curry - using Bron and AD and Rui. Vando is great at making their guards work to get shots, but he allows them to hide and conserve on defense. Lonnie and Dennis need to be in constant movement too - making Klay, Curry, and Poole run more on D - early. Of course the game will slow down if it is close in the second half.
They are tired both physically and mentally. We will find out how much they have left tonight. Seems a lot has been happening that is chipping away at the foundation of their team. Hopefully tonight will be the night it all collapses.
We are winning it either way. Cbags are not beating us in a seven game series. Be nice to take #18 by beating them but Philly or Miami will do.
I've been pretty high on the Lakers winning the West, but I think Toklat has been highest on the Lakers winning it all. I like it! I think I'm the President of the Lakers > Miami 2020 Repeat Club though... TEAM 2020 REPEAT, GET ON BOARD EVERYONE!
I mean, he's not wrong, it was working for them and they were up by 7-12 until they ran into Lonnie MFin Walker. I agree with abeer's comments on our counters, but we didn't have it solved, it only worked bc of Lonnie hitting shots. And Bron & AD are dog tired now. Which is why I favor resting them early in G5. I do hope that I'm wrong and that we close it out early though!
i know "be careful what you wish for," but i'd feel a lot better if they played philly in the finals instead of boston. embiid will be a problem but AD will also give him problems defensively. boston is a great 3 pt shooting team and they'd have more trouble defending tatum/brown compared to harden/maxey/harris but let's think one step at a time. i'm not even counting the warriors out
I think both of them would be tough opponents, but I know I would feel better playing Philly because if we then lose to Philly, it's a shame but I'm still kinda fine (as much as I don't want Harden getting a ring), but if Boston gets a title, then I'm not fine at all. I'm done being behind Boston in the championship count.
Yeah walker had an aberrant game but he's a streaky guy, he shown that he is microwave type. The piece that is being missed that the Lakers/lebron kept feeding him because Steph was guarding him. Just like the GS plan is to target Bron/AD, the Lakers was to attack Curry (and a lesser extent Thompson) wear him down while resting AD on offense. They totally load managed AD so that he could play D
This is a really good thread: the Wiggins move was successful in essence as it put two non-shooters off the action when AD came to help Do they go with Moody now to counter? Poole they lose too much on defense. This was the Achilles heel that I though gave the Lakers chance - they don't have as many two ways guys as they once did
I missed their game, was looking at the box score and in the first half, sometime late, I saw that Jokic only had 5 points and Durant was just starting to roll. I thought it was looking better for the Suns, then I came back and Jokic had 25 and Durant had around 18. Denver was blowing them out and I was wondering what happened.
Durant is still great but he doesn't seem like "greatest scoring forward of all time" great anymore if that makes sense. Booker OTOH that guy is impossible to defend.
I know Booker is talented but I am still not sold on him being that guy. Guess I need to watch him closer. I think Durant has lost a step, he settles for long shots too often, like Lebron. He seems like he is not as good as he used to be.
I am tired of this historical b******* that Kerr and GS almost never lost playoffs series.This record was when Durant was playing and Klay wasn't injured and didn't miss almost 2 years. So I think tonight is dynasty is coming to END.
