Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

But Lebron is an elite defender. How can this be?

 

That's a big no no from every company that puts one of these events on. Besides only got 2 hands. And a little less hearing today. Anthony Kledis (sp?) was interviewed on stage for 20 minutes though earlier in the day. These guys have been doing R&R for 35 freaking years. Insane when you see the energy they put into a show. LOL for the obligatory encore he walked back out onto the stage in a handstand. I got the shot. Most of the performance further to other side of stage and someone else had him and Anthony. I had the guitarist a lot.

 

Tonight is an important game...if we can get a big road win against a team that is right behind us in the standings, it can propel us to two more wins against the Cavs and Bulls...making it potentially 5 in a row without LeBron and the longest win streak of the season.

We badly neeed it because then we got Thunder Rockets Warriors Sixers Clippers Warriors Pacers C Bags Sixers again...that's going to be a real test of where we're at as a team when we go through that gauntlet.

 

wow. we should be due for a pretty easy stretch after that, and we'll need it. good news is lebron should be back for some or most of that, giving us a puncher's chance in all of them. still, that looks like a 4-5 stretch even if we were playing well.

 

Oh, great.

Wrong thread, btw.

 

The locker room will implode without a doubt according to ESPN experts though

 

Really disappointing losses in this LeBron-less stretch. The team desperately needs to get back to its' defensive roots. That has always been the key for this team success (with or without LeBron). In LeBron's absence, it appears the team has individually attempted to fill the offensive void to the neglect of defensive intensity. In particular at the start of games that is vital to a young team success. Luke should abandon his set rotations and dole out minutes based on committment to defensive effort/intelligence. The positive aspect of this slide is that the team has hopefully been humbled to understand that offensive talent/potential/agression alone will not win games in this league.

 

Except we’ve actually become a top 5 defensive team in this stretch (though it sometimes doesn’t look like it). Unfortunately we’ve fallen to like 28th offensively.

(Saw a tweet on this over the weekend)
-
Here we go

 

Saw that stat to and believe we regress to the mean as the game plays out over 4 quarters. We consistently have started flat, given up easy buckets with slow close outs at the 3 line, and dig ourselves a hole we can’t quite recover from. Haven’t done a dive on the stats but our turnover/transition margins (steals, blocks, offensive rebounding) seemed to have dropped considerably.

 

Changes are a comin'

 

I posted another video. I guess Javale was disagreeing with Luke on how to handle drop coverage, and Tyson was more effective. Might change when we have a full lineup back, but I think the goal is to prevent layups/dunks and easy starts by the opposition. We've been sucking in that department.

 

Everyone is forgetting this team is built for the playoffs.

#notconcerned

 

lol, good one bro. You can't out golden state but what we gona "out do" them at again? "smash bros" is it? as in smash the rims from all the bricking?

 

If we go 7-33 on 3s and 16-27 on fts we're gonna lose playoff games too. Do those numbers matter less when the games matter more?

Every bad shooting playoff loss:
#builtfortheplayoffs

 

4-7 without the "kang" is not terrible, they actually held up pretty decent, especially on the defensive end. But it's clear they miss having Lebron dictating with the ball in his hand. Good thing he's coming back.