It started ugly but finished on a beauty. It was everything you want in a 7 game series in 1 game. Some questions were answered, new questions emerged and all in all planet Earth was treated to a very enjoyable basketball game. Hard fouls, hard cuts and a gritty win kicked off the NBA playoffs…kinda. Evidently the play-in doesn’t count for the regular season or the playoffs? WTF?! Whatever.
- The greatness of LeBron James. Kind of lost against the back drop of a spectacular go-ahead three pointer in the final minute of the 4th quarter was another…not playoff nor regular season (really NBA? really? You invent this play-in and created some sort of non-game? H’ok…). I guess this makes James the All Time leader in play-in triple-doubles, I suppose. LeBron showed everyone why is still the best player in basketball. The Flagrant Foul that wasn’t that resulted in blurry vision? No problem. Swarming defense that bumped him off every paint shot? I got you guys. James stayed the course through a rocky first half, went over his loose minutes limit and delivered the 7 seed to the Los Angeles Lakers.
- 10 men deep. Called on it on the preview podcast, Frank went 10 deep and I was actually mildly surprised we didn’t see more minutes for more guys. Luckily for Laker fans Vogel came to his senses and tightened up the second half rotation to just 8 players: James, Davis, Drummond (barely), Schroder, Kuzma, KCP, Caruso and the instrumental insertion of Wesley Matthews Jr. into the rotation after he didn’t see the floor in the first half in favor of Trezz and THT. Frank continues to, mystifyingly to me, experiment with his rotations. It’s a dangerous game to play in the playoffs but it also speaks to the lack of chemistry and continuity this version of the Lakers has been able to put together.
- Good thing we have Alex Caruso. He steadied the offense early, then came up some incredible defense late and stayed within his game to find the open man for some nice looks around the rim. A lot of those didn’t come up as assists because of good, hard fouls by the Warriors but they did result in foul shots which helped us to a 25-15 advantage in free throw attempts. That helped us bridge the three point differential (15-10, advantage GS) and overcome a generally poor shooting performance. Caruso also proved to be our best player to slot onto Curry for defense as Schroder just couldn’t keep Curry in front of him and still looks like he’s finding his legs in every facet of the game. We’ll certainly need Dennis as we move forward and he’ll come around with his conditioning but until he does it’s nice to have Caruso as an option even though he’s nowhere near the scorer Dennis can be.
- Wesley Matthews making the most of his role. In the first half Frank went more with Trezz and THT who both played OK but weren’t effective defensively and didn’t overcome that enough on offense. That forced Vogel to turn to Matthews in the small ball line up he used a lot more in the second half and Wes delivered with a key three pointer, some stout D and a huge rebound. +/- is a wonky stat but in Wesley’s case I think it apropos he led the team, by far, +/- in his 14 minutes because his defense was huge for us in the second half. His numbers weren’t eye-popping but his contributions were sorely needed last night.
- Controlling the glass and keeping the turnovers low. These are things I’ve harped on since game 1 this season. Our team has a turnover issue, well-documented at this point, and we’re a team that needs to control the glass to make our defense as effective as possible. Since we’re the bigger team it stood to reason that we should control the glass. We also forced more turnovers than we committed, aided by some traditionally silly play by one Draymond Green, but it was the rebounding job that impressed me even more. Almost every Laker who played grabbed an offensive rebound (THT and Trezz did not) with LeBron James leading the way for rebounds off our own misses. That was another huge key in us getting 8 more shot attempts than the Warriors got. The Laker defense in the 3rd was where the game turned for us and Frank, to his credit, stuck with what worked down the stretch.
Next up Phoenix. I like our chances in this series and expect us to win in 5 or 6 games, haven’t decided yet. Regardless, it’s going to be tough no matter what as we see 2 more All Star guards in CP# and Booker along with a bevy of solid players who can shoot the three and defend better than advertised. We need to keep the turnovers low on our end and keep playing stout defense. When we do that we can win any game, even one where we shot 40.7% from the floor. Go Lakers.
That is nuts! I am glad to see that anyone now can have their hands and arms forward, not straight up, and slap a guy’s face. Uh, it’s okay, sheesh!
At least Dray didn’t get a groin shot in…
Thanks, Jamie. My main concern has been AD’s reluctance to look to score at or near the rim, and instead, trying to settle for long jump shots which are low percentage shots. Those kinds of shots tend to give extra possessions to the opponent if they keep rebounding those misses. I know he gets double-teamed, but there has to be another way to get him going rather than those long jump shots. I cringe everytime he takes those shots. For one, they are a thing of beauty when he makes them. But they also have the propensity to get the team in the wrong footing.
As for Dennis, he will get his mojo back when he gets his conditioning. Right now, the team as a whole is lacking continuity as a result of the injuries. But, judging by our second-half performance, it’s only a matter of time before we see this team leap higher above everyone else. That was a good game. Thanks for the fiver.
Great points buba and Ibtitalky agree on AD. I’d like to see him start off closer in his scoring then move it out, not vice versa.
Exactly, that would be the better way.
Excellent fiver, Jamie. Loved the 7-game series rolled into 1 comment.
1. The NBA Stats now have added Play-In to Preseason, Regular Season, All-Star Game, and Playoffs as a filter for stats so it now has it’s own statistical category. LeBron looked washed in the first half but came out and played great in the second half. That dagger 34′ three to win the game and the two backdoor passes to Kuzma and Caruso were vintage Playoff LeBron. Here’s hoping his eye is OK and he’ll get some needed rest in the Suns series. Great job as middle linebacker on Lakers’ defense.
2. The only reason Frank went 10 deep is because some of the player chosen for the first half played terribly, namely Drummond and Schroder. Glad to see the adjustment to bench Andre and later Dennis in favor of AD at the five and Wes Matthews at shooting guard. THT played fine while he was in. Frank almost lost the game for us by refusing to end the Drummond experiment early. LeBron saved his ass.
3. Another heady game by Alex, tough defense and clutch plays, especially the two drives and passes to AD and LeBron in the paint. Double digit Alex should get more minutes going forward. He still almost starts every game with a poor pass but at least he still plays great D and hits his shots. He and Kuz are #6 and #7 in the rotation and Wes should be #8.
4. I lobbied for Wes to get key minutes in the last podcast and it was great to see Frank replace Dennis with Wes to close the game. Wes had highest net rating on the team. His defense was again a key. He should be #8 in the rotation going forward.,
5. The thing is we don’t need to have a traditional center to have an advantage on the glass and in the paint. Just play AD at the 5 and LeBron at the 4 and any three of KCP, Schroder, Kuzma, Caruso, Matthews, or THT and we can get needed spacing and still be the bigger more dominant team.