Aloha,
Russell Westbrook is the single most frustrating Laker I have ever followed. He helped bury us in the first and dug us out in the 2nd half. Then he puts up a 3 at the buzzer. The floor was spread and he took the 3.
🤷♂️
It’s really hard to have any kind of rhythm as a team with the rotation shuffled all the time and it did hurt us, especially in the first quarter. So that’s why it was so fun to watch these guys battle when they could have given up.
It was great to see Bazemore hit some shots. For awhile he couldn’t make a layup. Hopefully this gives him a little of the confidence he clearly had lost back.
Austin had a nice bounce back game. He had trouble defending Ish but over all he was real solid. And it was good to see him finally hit a couple of 3’s.
There was some very questionable coaching moves, the biggest being going with DJ over Dwight. I think we win the game if Dwight starts. DJ’s 6 missed free throws killed us.
That blocking call on THT that resulted in a 3 point play have may have been one of the worst calls I have seen this year. It was even challenged. That turned out to be a huge bad call that may have cost us the game.
Ellington went 3 for 5 from 3. Hit his last 2 and never got another shot. This is a season long frustration for me. Our inability to look for our shooters. Steph Curry might only get five 3’s a game on this team.
One thing that won’t show up on the stat sheet. Stanley set great after great pick to free Russ. He might be the best at setting picks on the team.
It was a great team effort game. They kept knocking us down and we kept getting up.
Thanks for the post, Michael. I haven’t had a chance to comment for a little while. But you made great observations on the game. True, Russ can be very frustrating to watch. But in my opinion, this is the kind of game he needs to finally unleash himself out of the slump he was in. Now he will be able to figure out how to make things happen without the burden of turnovers. Only one turnover tonight and six for the team as a whole. Russ finding his game can’t come at a better time and if he continues to perform like this going forward I like our chances when everyone gets back healthy.
You and I have always had the same opinion about Ellington. I have always felt the same way for a long time, and it was great to see him get a chance to play. I can’t say enough about Stanley Johnson. Where was this guy all these years? He is such a dependable guy I don’t even have words to describe his value to this team. Much is not being said of Melo but the man has a midrange shot that is proving to be extremely lethal and I am very pleased to see him using that to the fullest extent. Great games from Reaves, Bazemore, and all the bench players that came in and change the game completely from the starters, who looked confused for most of the first quarter.
And speaking of starters, why would DAJ start ahead of Dwight? Going 2/8 from the free-throw line was just plain bad. I don’t ever complain about him as most fans do but I have never seen him this bad. Could be due to him being out of the rotation for a while. As for Ariza, it is good to see that they are taking it slowly with him which could end up being beneficial to both him and the team.
The calls at the end of the game definitely helped tilt the outcome of the game to the Hornets. My overall feeling about the game is one of surprise. With our main rotation out, I was expecting a whopping but man, these young lions came to fight. I have said it the other day that sometimes a team is more dangerous without its stars, and you just don’t mess with a wounded lion. Did you remember the Pacers beating us and the next day they beat the Warriors, or whoever it was, without their starters?
I like this version of the Lakers who showed a lot heart, too bad we lost.
Aloha, Michael,
Man, I feel you on Russell Westbrook. Much as I love how hard Russ plays. At the worst point in the first half, I screamed enough was enough. I could no longer support keeping Russ. The chaos and dysfunction is just too much to bear.
Then, of course, Russ turns it around 180 degrees and brings the Lakers all the way back with great play after great play. I must have screamed “Great pass, Russ” or “Great shot, Russ” over a dozen times. Might have been one of the best halves he ever played. And “F” anybody who complains about Russ taking that last shot. He earned it over a dozen times in the second half.
Would I have liked to have seen more shooters on the court? Just don’t understand why Frank doesn’t get the entire concept of spacing. You’re right about our 3-point shooting in that we don’t optimize or run plays to create threes and Frank often almost deliberately undermines his lineups by packing them with non-shooters. Far as I am concerned, the sooner we replace him with Phil Handy, the better our chances of winning will be this season.
As for starting DJ, I can only assume Dwight can’t handle back-to-backs. Either that or Frank Vogel’s boyfriend might have shared some information with DJ to get him another shot at starting. Watching him start was like having DJ stuck in our faces one last time just for revenge. I no longer want Frank Vogel to be the Lakers head coach. We cannot win with a coach who doesn’t understand the nuances of the modern game of baskertball or how to build a balanced and effective lineup or rotation.
The major problem right now is Vogel’s starting lineups are putting us in double digit deficits almost every game. The pattern is frustratingly simple. A starting lineup gives the other team a 20 point lead which the Lakers spend the entire game trying to overcome. The Hornets loss was a perfect example: lost by 3 after overcoming a 20-point first half deficit. As was the 76ers’ game, where we faded late after making up most of a 22-point lead. Same with the Heat, where we came back to lose by 6 in a game where we trailed by 26 in the first half.
The bad news is we lost those games because Vogel is terrible at putting together winning starting lineups. Even during the bubble championship season, the Lakers faced similar first half deficits with McGee starting. It’s like Frank wants to give every team an early lead. We need a coach who understands that you cannot start every game by giving the other team an early lead because of inept offensive lineups to start games.
The good news is the dysfunction created by Vogel’s resistence to playing small may finally have been ended with a commitment to play AD and LeBron as our centers. It’s also good news that the Lakers need to make major moves if they have any hope of competing for #18 this season. As you’ve pointed out, it’s going to be tough to to make major improvements due to our limited trading chips. The one thing we cannot do is stand pat. This team is not good or deep or big enough to win a ring this season unless they make a major trade for at least one new starter who is a high volume and high percentage 3-point shooter.
Finally, I also could not believe that was not an offensive foul. That’s two major calls that ended up screwing the Lakers’ chance to win a game. And people wonder why Lakers fans, who watched Shaq and Kobe get brutalized for years without help from the zebras get incredibly angry as they watch LeBron be disrespected so often despite attacking the rim relentlessly. Same with Russ. The refs clearly do not like the Lakers.
Great points, Tom. I completely agree with you on Frank. Just frustrating to see weird lineups to start games. I am tired of us being in a huge hole every game, and trying to dig ourselves out when it’s too late.