The more I thought about it the more annoyed I got. 3, one of them a tech for defensive three seconds. That was the number of free throws Russ and LeBron shot…combined. Now, lest ye think I’m laying the loss at the feet of the referees, there were many other areas of egregious play on the Lakers part last night. But if someone were to tell me that Russell Westbrook and LeBron James would combine for only 3 FTA (all by James, by the by) and the other team (in this case the youthful Grizzlies who started off as one of the worst defensive teams in the Association) shot 29 I would say you were watching a game one of the refs had some cash invested in.
- 29 to 8. That was the difference in free throw attempts between the Grizzlies and Lakers. That is an absurd differential given that Russ basically attacks the basket all game, every game. Russ missed another late game shot at the rim, had 5 turnovers and otherwise had an efficient game (by Westbrookian standards) but to imagine him not getting hit on any shot, that the young Grizzlies are just that good at defense, that they only committed 11 fouls to our 25 is basically absurd. I call BS.
- Ok, but for reals, we lost the game all on our own. The defense after the first half basically stayed in the locker room. Not sure what Fizzy’s calling card is as a coach but it ain’t halftime adjustments and it ain’t defensive chops. We never found an answer for Ja Morant who got what he wanted, where he wanted, and when he wanted it all game long. The only that slowed him down was a hard foul on Westbrook that resulted in a shoulder stinger late in the game and we couldn’t even capitalize on that. Gone was the late game execution, as well. Not gonna lie, kind of can’t wait for Frank to get back.
- The Laker bench was awful. Starting with Melo and wandering down the box score not one Laker player off the bench showed up. Too much BBQ ribs, I guess. A game later from their inspired play against the woebegone Rockets the Grizzly bench thoroughly outplayed ours which was the biggest difference in the game.
- The birthday boy ran outta gas. LeBron was superlative through 2/3s of the basketball game and then came his 3rd quarter rest which was also when Fizdale chose to put Russ and 4 guys who can’t shoot out there and watched the lead slip away. All the momentum swung Memphis’ way and that was that. The King tied his career high for three pointer’s made with 8, scored from everywhere and flirted with a triple-double. It was all for naught.
- Russ is not the problem. Gerald and I went back and forth on this topic and likely will for as long as Westbrook is on the team. The degree of variance you get from Russ is high, his intensity, pace and frenetic style of play lend themselves to miscues and missed shots due to mostly the force in which he puts the shot up with. But Russ isn’t the one trotting out absurd lineups like Westbrook, Collison, THT, Stanley and Bradley for long stretches as we saw last night. On the second night game of a back-to-back Coach Dave went with a really short 9 man rotation which didn’t get the job done. Ellington didn’t play and we signed 2 guys to hardship deals only to leave them in warm ups to this point. When you need energy, as we desperately did throughout the 4th, you have to wonder what the coach was thinking putting his star guard into a position like that.
Friday kicks off a 5 game home stand, this is basically the end of our “games we can burn in the name of learning” stage of the season. The standings are taking shape and they’re not including a Laker team in any spot near the top. We’re fighting for a 5 seed like the rest of the lackluster west is behind the Grizz, Jazz, Suns and GS. We need to avoid the playin because we’re old, although an argument could be made this team also needs more time together. Come March and April we’ll look back at the number of league-leading ten point games we blew and wonder what could have been. There is a lot that needs to change between now and then. The bench needs to get steadier, we need to explore what we can get for the thus far underwhelming and yet to play THT and Nunn and I’m sure the noise around a Russ trade will only grow until it either happens or the deadline passes. The team needs to tune all that jazz out and focus on the in-house solutions available to them.
Aloha Jaime, nice post as usual. For me a couple of thoughts. This is what getting older looks like in NBA terms. We ran out of gas, especially in the 4th. It really wasn’t even the defense. A lot of standing around on offense. The Griz scored 26 in the 4th, which isn’t a disaster but our 16 was. Fatigue causes lack of focus and both Russ and LeBron lost focus in the 4th. And Melo another oldster never could get it going on the back end of a road back to back. Our Thin bench didn’t help. And why didn’t we see more Dwight? He was a plus 17. Now his stats weren’t great but he kept a lot of rebounds alive. The Griz had 13 offensive rebounds for 19 points. But not on Dwight’s watch. There is a flip side to going small and giving up all those offensive boards with Dwight off the floor is a good example of a that.
I felt the same way about not having Dwight when his rebounding could have helped us. I totally agree with you on that, Michael.
Happy New Year, Jamie. Great fiver with lots to get into.
1. The Zebras. One thing I hate about doing podcasts right after the game is you don’t have time to really review all the stats. I thought the refs were doing their normal job of screwing the big-name Lakers since the announcers never broached the subject. I also missed much of your opening comments catching up with the game after taking off time for Covid tests so I was shocked after the show to learn how badly we had been jobbed by the zebras. Forget everything else. Gave over.
2. Yeah, we lost but I don’t know how that was not a 3-point foul for violating LeBron’s landing spot on the overturned foul call. Truth was the refs put us in such a hole all game long that it would have been a freakin’ miracle if we had won. The disrespect for contact when LeBron or Russ drive is criminal. We clearly had some bad lineups out there but then that’s what happens when you have so many key players injured or in H&S protocols. Just must live with it for now.
3. Bench was awful? What bench? That’s the spill-over from having to start guys who should be coming off the bench. You no longer have a bench. While all the Lakers starters had positive +/-, all the bench players were negative for game. We were missing Davis, Nunn, Reaves, and Ariza, probably four of our best eight players? Yeah, they missed Brooks. But we were playing the #4 seed with their superstar shining bright and should have won the game if not for the refs. I’ll take that as progress.
4. That Russ and four non-shooters lineup killed me too, Jamie. Frank has to be happy that he got to miss this stretch of games as Fizdale didn’t ace this as any kind of interview. Man, when you have this kind of a roster with so many flawed players, you need to sit down before the game and decide what rules you need to follow. Who can’t you play with whom? How many shooters and defenders in each lineup? Do you stagger Russ and LeBron? Who can play with Russ? Fizdale was flying by the seat of his pants and got burned by that lineup for sure.
5. Russ is not the problem. Let me put this another way: How Russ is playing is not the major problem with the Lakers. Injuries and Covid have been bigger forces that have held the Lakers back. However, Russ’ stye of game forces the Lakers to play a certain way and his presence as a third star limits the team to only being able to have two other starters to complement the three superstars. I’m not going to waste time redoing the Westbrook trade or offseason moves. What’s important right now is we need to make smart moves at the trade deadline. If we stand pat like you think we will do, you can write this season off on February 10th because it would take a miracle for this roster to produce a championship in my opinion. We need a trade for a player like Turner, Simmons, Grant, Barnes, or Wood.
I also think LeBron should and will stay at the five when AD returns. He’s going to finish his career as a small ball center. That and a big trade will save this season.
Lebron came into this back-to-back in energy reserve mode. You could tell he was not gonna be as aggressive after that monster effort needed to put away the woeful Rockets. Looking at his shot chart he only took 5 shots in the paint..so he wasn’t gonna get a whole buncha free throws. And I’m trying to remember if I ever jumped up and said something shoulda been a foul on Russ. As for Fizz, he’s just keeping the seat warm for Frankie..not anytime to implement his own system. Ellington missed the HOU game with an illness; guessing that’s also why he didn’t play in this one. Felt like Dwight shoulda been in late for rim protection since Jah had everybody on roller skates. Maybe it was still a covid re-conditioning thing.