Enough with this BS that the Lakers only added offense this offseason. They added the second and third best defenders in the league. Wes and Marc not close to being ‘washed.’
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Why the Bubble Lakers Are in Serious Danger of Becoming the Bubble Bucks
After the Houston Rockets’ Game 1 Round 2 upset of the Los Angeles Lakers, there are renewed calls for Frank Vogel to change his starting lineup but what he actually needs to do is change the style his team is playing.
Heading into the playoffs, the concern was the Lakers’ ability to contain the Rockets’ small ball offense. While the Lakers still need to adjust defensively, their real problem in Game 1 was beating the Rockets’ small ball defense. The smaller, tougher Rocket’s defenders were essentially able to bully and outplay the taller Lakers’ players in the paint at both ends of the court, winning points-in-the-paint and tying them in the battle of the boards.
Benching traditional back-to-basket centers is only part of the solution to matching up with the Rockets’ crafty small ball lineup. Starting and playing Anthony Davis or Markieff Morris at center will help the Lakers defensively. But pounding the ball inside to Anthony Davis against PJ Tucker is exactly what the Rockets want. You don’t beat them just by going small on offense. You actually need to play small, which means without a traditional center.
While the Rockets offense is revolutionary, their strategy on defense uses simple time-tested traditional tactics of packing the paint, keeping their opponents from getting to the rim, and forcing them to shoot long jumpers. Starting Anthony Davis at center and isolating him in the post against the smaller PJ Tucker is fools’ gold. It only clogs the lane, prevents LeBron from getting to the rim, and ultimately helps the Rocket’s defensive strategy.
What the Lakers need to do to beat Houston’s switch-everything defense is abandon trying to take advantage of their height in the post and instead spread the defense to open the floor for LeBron and AD to attack the rim. The way to beat Houston’s defense is to unpack the paint and eliminate any rim protection by playing 5-out sets positioning five players who can effectively shoot the three and attack the basket behind the 3-point line.
Players who could be good fits for 5-out sets include starters LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Danny Green plus reserves Kyle Kuzma, Alex Caruso, Markieff Morris, and Dion Waiters. Frank Vogel would be smart to consider playing an eight-player rotation of those players against the Houston Rockets. They could match up on defense and enable the Lakers to spread the floor and attack the paint on offense.
You’ll notice that I did not include Rajon Rondo in that eight-player rotation because he lacks the 3-point gravity necessary to keep his defender from sagging off him to clog up the middle and is a liability on the defensive end. Besides a respectful loyalty to JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard for their contributions to winning the West, Vogel needs to understand this is not the right series for Rondo or McGee or Howard to play. Not against the Rockets.
While the Lakers also lost Game 1 to the Blazers, what’s scary about losing the first game against the Rockets is how they beat LA at their own game. They didn’t dominate by raining threes. They played smarter basketball. Like Mike Budenholzer, whose refusal to make changes has the Bubble Bucks on the verge of being swept by the Heat, Frank Vogel’s reluctance to adjust his lineups or style of play may end up costing the Bubble Lakers.
Right now, the Lakers aren’t in great danger but if Vogel continues to rely on his usual lineups and rotations and the Lakers lose Game 2 to the Rockets and go down 0–2, the odds of them winning the series plummet to just 7%. While that’s not the 0% odds facing the Bucks, it’s not where the Lakers want to be 2 games into the series, which means Vogel needs to get serious and make major adjustments before Sunday’s Game 2 against Houston.
The changes Frank needs to make are simple. On offense, he needs to bench McGee and Howard, give their roles and minutes to Kuzma, Caruso, Morris, and Waiters, and spread the floor with 5-out sets to free LeBron and AD. Defensively, he should consider playing a triangle and two zone to double Harden at the half-court line, commit defenders to prevent easy corner threes, and keep Anthony Davis in the middle for rim protection.
The bottom line is LeBron James and Anthony Davis are being outplayed by James Harden and Russell Westbrook but a big part of the blame is due to Frank Vogel stubbornly refusing to change his lineups and strategies.
LeBron James teams lose 40% of Playoff Game 1’s
Not concerned about a Game 1 loss. Amadeus makes his adjustments.
In 47 playoff series, Cavs, Heat and Lakers have lost 19 of 47 Game 1’s. Including Thibs Bulls who won all (3) Game 1’s vs. LeBron. LeBron won 4 straight in all 3 series.
5 Things: Rockets primed for launch, Lakers looking lackadaisical
Don’t let the similarities of the game one loss to Portland and what we witnessed tonight fool you. Houston has a defensive identity that starts with P.J. Tucker and ends with a well-orchestrated switch and collapse scheme the Trailblazers can only hope to deploy. Harden and Westbrook are better than Dame and McCollum. Eric Gordon’s 3rd option skill set is a better one than Melo’s (I consider Anthony to be the superior player, however). Lakers have their work cut out for them. Still, there were a lot of elements of this game to the one against the Trailblazers.
- We lost the battle of the boards 41-41. That’s not a poorly typed sentence my friends. By playing to a draw on the glass the Lakers lost the rebound battle. Sure, we grabbed more offensive rebounds (10-4) but that’s s much a byproduct of us missing a bunch of shots as it is box out acumen. But we didn’t get after it on the glass. Give Houston credit, they have the players suited to play their style of basketball and it’s giving the Lakers fits. Everything about how Houston plays funnels into itself to turn what feels like what should be a negative is re-routed into something positive. No player close to 7 feet tall? No worries, long shots lead to long rebounds and our guards have been crashing the glass for months. Lakers need to be better on the boards to have a shot at moving forward.
- James Harden and Russell Westbrook were better than LeBron James and Anthony Davis tonight. I’m not talking about the box score, even though that also reveals that our superstars were thoroughly outplayed, but our two guys just didn’t bring ‘it’ never reached that 5th gear. Had no pop in the 4th when we had some chances to make it a game. They need to find that extra gear by Sunday and I think they can
- That felt like a lot of Rajon Rondo. Personally, I think they should start Caruso. He’s good enough. I don’t think they will, I think Vogel goes with Rondo as a starter and it’s going to be painful. Playoff Rondo may win you a game but there’s no denying we need better shooting and defense from that position in this series. Also Rajon hasn’t played in, like, 6th months. I get it, he’s chomping at the bit and has more than a modicum of mamba mentality. But he doesn’t need to play 25 minutes per game. I’d rather see Waiters. But if anyone’s minutes suffer it needs to be Rondo’s. Even though KCP has really started slow, Rondo doesn’t look like he’s up to playoff speed.
- Using our advantages better. Entertain, for a moment, a world in which Frank Vogel makes zero rotation adjustments. Doles out minutes roughly the same. A world where our only real adjustment is to just, you know, play better. What does that world look like in a win? It looks like Anthony Davis posting up 7 or so feet closer to the basket for a lot more our possessions, he can’t let Tucker stop him twenty feet out and expect to break him down. It looks like LeBron James showing up in the 4th quarter. James did not seem engaged, especially in the second half. Not at the level we’ve grown accustomed to seeing. Kyle Kuzma needs to play as well as Eric Gordon. Didn’t happen tonight, Kuz seemed to be off his game. Like how pretty much the whole team was. Caruso needs to not commit fouls. He had a great game cooking but picked up some bad fouls and that sort of forced us, evidently, into so much Rondo.
- The question of energy. I, for one, was skeptical but willing to entertain the idea that the Rockets were a team playing on fumes. Seeing How Denver came out flat and looked gas after their 7 game series seemed to open the door a crack that, maybe, the Rockets would have a similar showing. Nope, Harden looked solid, Westbrook played with the pedal to the metal and the rest of that Houston squad looked sharp and ready to go. We need to bring that energy to game 2.
2020 Mock Draft 2.0 | Picks 15-30
Part 2 of Rafael’s Mock Draft 2.0 features the non lottery teams. Check out my website at NBAdraftjunkies.com 0:35 – Invitation to collaborate with NBA Draft Junkies 2:40 – #15 – Magic – Kira Lewis 4:16 – #16 – Blazers – Saddiq Bey 5:46 – #17 – Wolves – Aleksej Pokusevski 9:20 – #18 – Mavericks – Aaron Nesmith 10:53 -#19 – Nets – Jalen Smith 11:55 – #20 – Heat – Tyrell Terry 14:14 – #21 – 76ers – Tyrese Maxey 16:01 – #22 – Nuggets – Josh Green 17:17 – #23 – Jazz – Leandro Bolmaro 18:48 – #24 – Bucks – Nico Mannion 20:43 – #25 – Thunder – Jaden McDaniels 23:09 – #26 – Celtics – Theo Maledon 25:05 – #27 – Knicks – Cassius Winston 27:05 – #28 – Lakers – Desmond Bane 28:33 – #29 – Raptors – Tyler Bey 29:58 – #30 – Celtics – Isaiah Stewart