Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

Panel of experts

 

That's my dream job. Talk out of my a** about sports and get serious dough for it. Only thing that is better... being the NBA ref LOL.

 

Before the season Cook

 

Either way, LOL.

 

Kuuuuuuuzzzzz! I love it! Second favorite win of the bubble. I don’t care we won this one against their bench. Hell we used to beat the Warriors once in a while when we were very bad so a win is a win. I wanted this one.

 

Lakers 14/29 from 3 point land.

 

I think a finishing lineup of AD/Kuzma/Morris/Lebron/Caruso is going to be very difficult to score against and will have plenty of offense with good spacing.

Throw all the trash lineups and players that Vogel was playing and I think folks who aren't following the Lakers weren't seeing what the goals were. Morris getting backing into shape and Kuzma continuing the defensive progression from pre-break was the keys to these teams (assuming Lebron isn't hurt and doing his usual possum play in meaningless games*)

 

Really hope they stop messing around and play AD at the 5 for the majority of the game. Lakers should really wreck teams once they get the spacing issues are resolved

 

Hope LeGroin isn’t an issue, or it will be a short playoffs

 

Didn’t past lebron championship teams frequently lose game 1s to inferior teams?

 

We shot horribly and made numerous bone headed plays but still had a shot at it. Gotta think we will shoot better at the very least.

 

Ever the optimist I am, I still expect the Lakers to beat the Blazers and go deep. This team is just not as bad as it looks now. I have no idea what is going on but NBA players just do not shoot this badly. My main reasons for optimism:
1.Bron - I expect him to show once more why he's one of the best ever. As good as Lillard has been in the bubble, Bron is the better player overall and I'm fairly certain he'll show it.
2. AD - he should be pissed as well and I just can't imagine him being happy with this standing around the perimeter and shooting bricks all game long. He should recognize that for us to succeed against this team, he has to punish the Blazers inside more. And we all know he can, even if it's not his favorite way to play
3. Vogel - he's been very good throughout the season, which is why he has the benefit of the doubt as far as I'm concerned. That was a mighty stinker on his part, I hope he makes significant improvements as we go on.
4. The 3pt shooting just has to improve, it literally can't be worse than it is right now.
5. Hopefully once they start winning we get to see the chemistry this team was known for throughout the season and when we do, they should do a lot better on both ends of the floor.

I am concerned after this horrible showing, but I refuse to accept the possibility of us being eliminated by the freaking Trailblazers. They are good, but they should never ever threaten a team built around Bron and AD. If they do, we have dark times ahead of us again and I'm not even sure I would like to build around AD anymore if he's not capable of putting this team on his back and defeating Portland.

 

I wasn't surprised that we defended Blazers that well. I believe the Lakers can do that every game. It's the fact that our offense looked miserable. LeBron could have easily gotten 20+ assists in game 1 and if we just knocked down slightly below average in three point shooting, we'd blown the Blazers away by 15+ points. I don't think of these Lakers as the same as the one in March. Too much has changed. We're an inferior team compared to that but so are many other teams (Clippers don't look that good, Bucks don't look that good). Portland has been one of the hottest teams with Lillard playing like Kobe from 05-06 so he's been effectively the best player by far during this stretch of basketball. If Lakers keep this defense up and knock a few more shots down, we have no issues taking out the Blazers. AD needs to continue dominating the paint... they can't stop them anywhere out there. KCP was huge for us today. Danny Green, idk.. my expectations is incredibly low for him so anything he makes is extra credit at this point.

 

Much better. Even with LBJ scoring only 10 points Lakers still rout they Blazers. Hopefully they keep this intensity.
Btw Green’s shot is still dead.