Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

Bron is 0-4 in opening nights as a Laker, hasn't meant the end of the world and this year is no different.

I don't expect to see that from Bron every night, he's too old to do that for 82, but he's fresh and healthy. Looked like the best player in the game... still. The J looked like it was in mid- season form, but I was even more impressed with the efforts on D.

AD looked healthy and dominant, too. If those are healthy and playing like this, no one will beat us...I don't care who you put against us.

Baze played great defense and we're going to need that all year. Pleasantly surprised he was able to disrupt Curry to the degree he was, maybe being his former teammate gave him an advantage.

Russ will figure it out. We know he's a slow starter. He'll figure out the passive/ aggressive balance.

 

If the refs didn't give the Suns extreme home cooking in this one, I think we have a chance.

Those calls really killed the competitive spirit of a lot of our guys, including Bron.

Positives...

Russ looked like old Russ.

8 of our next 9 aren't against NBA teams who should be in the league.

 

yeah, i commented on the officiating in the game thread and was shouted down by some, but i thought it was extremely impactful early. we laid down after that, and that's on us, but it looked like they were on the take early. just some ridiculous calls, all for the same team, all in a row. completely turned momentum.

my positive is that our 4th highest paid player hasn't played, nor has probably the biggest FA acquisition (nunn). i didn't love either's defense in the preseason, but that's some serious talent in streetclothes. maybe one or both can help us not have 4-5 minute scoring droughts on top of our very shaky defense right now?

my other positive is that it's still early, and i fully expected to be 0-2 with a bad loss to phx this morning. i don't think it's panic time, but i also don't expect we're going to suddenly go gangbusters against the dregs, either. let's just hope we can scratch out a couple wins while we figure out what can and can't work. maybe the smallball stuff late in the last game was the first glimmer of a workable scheme.

 

Time to lock this thread up yet or leave it for a couple more games? With so many guys out it was like we got so little out of the pre season games and are going to have to play catch up and experiment on combinations for months now.

 

Why? We're going to win 3 in a row.

 

Nah- we are winning the next seven in a row!

 

Yeah, we were in the penalty with what? 9 minutes or something left in second Q. All of our big 3 in foul trouble. Inconsistent calls at best. Refs turned a blind eye and were contradicting themselves with every whistle. The block/charge calls were nearly all terrible. Every time down the floor it seemed there was a whistle. The E brake got pulled on our rhythm and momentum. I know it's impossible to find any flow during that, but I was surprised at just how much it took our guys out of it mentally. These are players who have seen everything the league can throw at them in the past 10-15 years. It's certainly not the first time they've seen s***ty officiating.

 

We won a game. That’s all.

 

We survived the Ja storm and got our first W. That's enough to celebrate.

Quick rant about Ja, he's a baaaaad man. Looks like a smaller pre-injuury Chicago Rose but with range.

 

He reminds me of Iverson with better passing vision. He’s incredible.

 

I’ll take it

 

Was nice to see us hitting some free throws down the stretch.

 

So true. We now have guys who don’t make me sweat when they get fouled late.

 

Exactly.

 

Melo Monk and Reaves, shock troopers

 

Spurs are going to be tough.

We can win that game, though.

These are the games we need to win...

 

Totally agree.

A lot of Russ’ defensive lapses have been when he has pushed up close on a Melo trap. Clearly we’re asking them to do that, but our big needs to do a better job of covering the helpers man.

Work in progress.