Aloha,

Just thinking about tonight. Who do you have guarding PG? Personally I would put AD on him. PG is
not a quick first step guy and AD should be able to stay in front of him. This is actually one of those matchups that favors AD at the 4, at least until Trevor comes back.

Aloha

Well what do you know. We finally managed a blow out. With the exception of the Bucks game, this was the first game that we played hard for an entire half. Going in to the season I expected a lot of growing pains. You can excuse the mistakes we have been making because of the new roster but you can’t excuse the lack of energy we have been playing with. Sure it was the Kings but play with that kind of energy and intensity and you have a good chance of winning even against the top teams. And you surely will win against the teams you should beat.

Game ball to Dwight. His energy was infectious. Even when he didn’t grab the rebound himself he would keep it alive for others. I really don’t get Frank’s fascination with DJ. Dwight has out played DJ in nearly every game. Our center rotation should be Dwight, AD and LeBron. DJ should be in only in case of injury or foul trouble.

Isn’t it amazing that when you look for your 3 point shooters and get them good looks they get you 3’s? Malik and Wayne combined went 9 for 16. That will get it done. AD and Russ went 1 for 7. That won’t. Let the shooters shoot. The next step will be finding the shooters when LeBron returns. Now there is a lot of minutes when all 3 stars are not on the floor together. If we can’t find our shooters when all 3 stars are playing. At least look for them when they are not.

Wayne’s defense was much better than advertised. He contributed to Buddy having an off night. And Malik was good as well. I think Wayne should get the start at the 2. Because Malik can create I like him off the bench when either LeBron or Russ rests.

I wonder about THT. He was holding that knee and left the game and didn’t return. I haven’t heard anything yet. I hope he’s okay, we can’t afford another injury.

AD started the game inside and was dominating. Move to the outside and missed a bunch of shots. Went back inside in the 2nd half and dominated again. I hope he stays inside most of the time, at least until he straightens out his shot.

Russ sucked in the first half. But he owned it and became himself in the 2nd half. I think he came out thinking playmaker for others. He can’t do that, he has to be himself and attack. That’s when things really opened up for our shooters. And he found his rhythm and the misses turned into makes. He has to be Russ because when he try’s to be C3P it doesn’t work.

Aloha

Yet another snoozer.

Why did we sign Wayne if he is going to get one shot in 15 minutes. I mean do we have any plays?

AD was dominating inside and then decided to settle. Missing five mid range and a 3.

Another bad half by Russ. 2 assists and 4 turnovers. 3 missed layups. We signed him to take over for LeBron if out. He hasn’t done it much this year.

So tell me again why we start DJ over Dwight. He constantly out preforms DJ. He’s keeping us in it with 10 points.

Can we stop a few pick and rolls please?

11 turnovers. The only good news is the Kings have 10.

LeBron is out tonight due to health and safety protocols. Talk about a snake bit season. It never ends.

Aloha

Well yes we won, but there is no way I can call this a good win. Another big lead blown to a poor team is not a good win. The emotion I felt afterwards wasn’t joy or happiness, it was relief that we managed to hold on.

After the Kings loss, Robert Horry had an interesting observation. He said that when we pulled ahead by 13 he was a lot of smiles, laughter and celebration. He said in the Kobe Shaq days when they went up by 13 they wanted to step on your neck and destroy you. And when you think about it, after a big run, Kobe would still have his game face on. So with that comment still lingering in my head I watched the teams reaction during the time out after we went up 19. Smiles, laughter and celebration. We took our foot off there neck and let them back in the game. We stopped playing the way we did to build the lead.

Last night our big 3 carried us. But that is not a championship formula. If even had an off night we probably lose that game. THT managed to get a little involved but the other guys were reduced to spectators. Shooter need to shoot. This team really needs to create opportunities for the others if they expect to win.

Aloha

Just a couple of first half observations. Why DJ over Dwight? We played LeBron at the 5, so why not start Dwight. Makes no sense.

We gave up defense to bring in 3 point shooters. Malik and Wayne each got one shot. If you wonder why 3 point shooters never pan out here, that’s why. Shooters need to shoot. Monk was on a roll and he’s been basically ignore. There will be no championship unless we can get more guys involved. It’s literally 3 on 5.

Aloha,

I watched the Warriors beat the Clippers by 15 in Staples. And I came away with a few takeaways. Steph is definitely the best player in the NBA, still our big 3 are better over all then then their top 3. You can even argue that our role players are more talented over all then then they are. So why are they 18 and 2 and we are 10 and 11?

First there is the continuity issue. Most of Warriors played together last year. But that is only a small part of it. The bigger issue is coaching.

The Warriors players are constantly moving as is the ball. Our offense is, iso one of our stars and get out of the way. No ball movement and no player movement. There is a lot a talk about adding more offensive punch to the starting unit which only makes sense if they are going to get them involved in the offense. If not, what’s the point?

The Warriors play under sized but they are locked in defensively and they gang rebound. The Clippers were much bigger but only out rebounded then by 4. And the Warriors got 11 offensive boards.

It’s up to the coaches to get the players moving and getting everyone involved. I watched Draymond do the things that LeBron should be doing more of, if only Frank had the guys moving.

If we must go big I would start Dwight and have him, LeBron and AD rotate at the 5. If we do the sensible thing and start AD at the 5 then I would start either Malik or Ellington at the 2 and THT at the 3. THT actually played well last game but only got 24 minutes and Ellington also played well in his 16 minutes. Yet we let LeBron and Melo play close to 50. As good as they are at their ages they need more of a blow from time to time. We saw LeBron completely gassed with the game on the line and that’s cost us the game.

Yes the players have to play with more energy and commitment but ultimately it’s up to the coaching staff to get the best out of them. If Frank can’t do that he may not be around when the rest of our players are back.

Aloha

AD is out with the flu.

Aloha,

Poor Luke he never had a chance. The Kings are a dumpster fire. They have 5 centers on the roster, 6 if you count Bagley, who can play both the 4 and the 5. A long history of questionable drafts hasn’t helped either.

Aloha

Last night the Lakers banged my table and nearly knocked over my half full glass. Now I wasn’t one of those guys that predicted the Lakers would burn through the NBA to open the season. I knew when you turn over almost your entire roster there are going to be growing pains. And all the injuries only made matters worse. So I wouldn’t even mind the losses if we were playing with the energy required to win in the NBA. Unfortunately I think the Bucks loss was the only one that we found that energy. We made the Thunder, Twolves, Celtics and trailblazers all look like title contenders. The Lakers are the team you play to heal.

I believe the the blame can be spread evenly between Rob, Frank and the players. I think Rob over thought the situation. Now I have never been on board with 3 super stars. I have always been more of a deep support cast for 2 stars. Sure we struggled when our stars were hurt last year but the reality is that it hasn’t changed. If AD or LeBron go down in the playoffs we aren’t going to win a ring even with Russ. Now Russ was about the only star we could have traded for with our assets. The Wizards needed to get out from under his massive salary and build a team around a Beal, and they did a great job. There was DeRozen but a sign and trade would have hard capped us and knowing Pop he would have asked for AD and draft picks in return. 😂

The problem is that the team Rob put together isn’t the defensive team that we have been. We now have to score a lot to win. Our offensive system is basically, put the ball in a stars hand and get out of the way. And that’s fine when you are a top notch defensive team. Not so much when you aren’t. If the Warriors with all of the player and ball movement, I wonder if even Steph Curry could excel like he does in our offense.

Honestly I think we would have been better bringing most of the core back. Even trading for Buddy would have been a waste because this offense has never been one to create good looks for 3 point specialists. Love or hate Dennis, he was a quality defender. I honestly believe at fair price he is a better fit then Russ has been because of that defense. I mean nearly every post game James Worthy mentions him and his D.

Look at this roster.

Dennis (again reasonable salary)
AD
LeBron
THT
Kuz
Alex
KCP
Nunn
Ellington
Monk
Melo
Trevor
Dwight
Reeves

That would have been is a better team than this one. Primarily because the defense would have made up for our lack of a dynamic offense.

Now after all of that my glass hasn’t tipped over quite yet. Both Nunn and Trevor will bring much needed defense, along with new dedicated energy to the defensive side we will get better. But the offense needs to be fixed. THT didn’t have a great night, but only getting 6 shots after his last 3 games, is clear example of the problem. AD even said in the post game that THT needed more looks. Yes we do need to learn to play together with LeBron. As long as we put the ball in a stars hands and get out of the way, we will continue to struggle. And if the energy isn’t dramatically improved it will be a very long season.

Great listen with Pete, Darius, and Mike all loving how the Lakers responded to playing the Bucks without LeBron. Great games by Russ and Talen. Give it a listen if you’re tired with all of the doom and gloom podcasters. These guys are without doubt the best on the Lakers beat.

Pete pointed out what a great game Russ played with a 5:1 assist-to-turnover and great game management, not a skill that Russ usually shows piositively. If Russ can manage the game like this, it will be a great difference maker for Lakers.

The three podcasters also loved how THT is enjoying a breakout a week before he will be 21-years old. Played a back-to-back, and didn’t need any workup time to get going. He has hit the ground running. Mike pointed out how when Talen was asked if he thought he would be this good this year, he said he did because he trusted the work he put in, especially the 3-point shooting. Kid needs to start. THT for Bradley and Ariza for Melo will yield the right starting lineup: Russ, THT, LeBron, Ariza, and AD.

The best part off the podcast was talking about how THT has put the Lakers in the same possition as Kobe did as a young player in that there may be no way to keep him from starting, despite the unproven shooting stroke. They touched what I also thought was important in that he’s the one Lakers two guard who has size and physicality to be the perfect mate to play alongside Russ. They will be the Lakers backcourt of the future if Talen can continue to shoot the three well. THT is the Lakers key to playing small-ball-on-steroids.

Aloha,

So what do the Lakers actually do at half time? Apparently not much. While it’s up to players to execute, it’s doesn’t appear by the way we come out that any adjustments are ever made. We are -89 in the 3rd. Worst in the league. Yes we have injuries, yes we are learning each other but there is no excuse for this.

Now sometimes guys just get hot. Derozen was unconscious. Not much you can do when a player is in that kind of zone. Lonzo also had a game well above what he usually brings. Levine got off to a hot start but we finally got a handle on him. There were a lot of contested shots that went in for the Bulls. It happens. The Bulls are last in 3 point makes so perhaps that was part of the strategy. But when the strategy isn’t working, you make adjustments. Unless your the Lakers. But a hot shooting night had nothing to do with our poor transition defense. That was just a lack of hustle.

The Bulls had a good strategy for AD and it messed with the entire rhythm of the offense. But again there was no counter in the first half at all. We kept trying the same thing over and over again. That is a recipe for disaster. They finally pulled out AD outside and he started doing some damage but we couldn’t stop the Bulls.

AD’s emotions got the better of him but on the flip side, the ref’s generally allow a player to put their shoe on before resuming play.

Silver linings? Few. Westbrook had a decent game but I still don’t like him shooting threes. THT had a strong night. He was 4 for 7 from 3 until a couple of forced what the hell 3’s in garbage time. Still 4 for 9 is good. If he keeps that up, he will be fine on the offensive side of the ball.

Again with all the injuries I can live with a loss if we play as hard as we can. That wasn’t the case again tonight. I’m hoping we get LeBron back soon. Perhaps he can figure it out, because it’s clear that our coaches can’t.

Aloha,

Now nice win, especially for an early start Sunday game. Just a few random thoughts.

THT looked really good on both sides of the ball. Offensively he looked a little rusty in the first half but looked sharp, attacking for 12 points in the 2nd. It’s going to be huge having him back.

Malik was also huge. The guy is not only a scorer but he creates for others. He has a great handle and can comfortably fill in at PG if needed.

Consider this, once Nunn comes back we will have 3 young players that can attack the rim. Wayne and Melo will feast on opens looks. Add LeBron and Westbrook’s ability to get in the paint and it’s going to be fun.

AD should be in the MVP conversation.

I don’t like playing Russ and Rondo at the same time. It leaves our back court defense vulnerable.

Considering we were playing a lot of the game with 4 guards and Ad a lot, we rebounded reasonably well.

14 turnovers was an improvement but Russ’s 7 turnovers is still to many. His style of plays lends itself to turnovers but there are still to many unforced, careless turnovers.

I think it was the right move not playing Bazemore. We will need him but his poor offense lately has obviously gotten into his head. He needs to step back and take a breath.

With THT back and LeBron probably back tomorrow or the next game, I think we will see AD starting going forward. Still wondering what that final starting lineup will look like.

Aloha,

When you look at Portland’s line, 38% shooting 27% from 3 and out rebounded by 7 you would think we won. It’s just that we were way worse. Portland really tried to keep us in the game but we would have none of it.

AD looked off from the beginning but I thought it was the thumb but he was sick. The only good news was that he reported the thumb didn’t bother him much.

Once AD didn’t return, I didn’t think we would come back but I thought we at least see Russ and Melo lead a respectable effort. Melo was off which can happen but Westbrook’s effort was one of the worst I have ever seen from a superstar player.

I nearly turned the game off after 3 quarters which
I never do but I decided not to. I wanted to see our 2 way guys play. And I’m glad I did. Sekou looked promising. If there has been one constant over the years it’s our scouting department has been top. Notch. So when they sign a guy out of the blue over guys they brought to camp, I was curious. Hopefully he will develop into a useful player because we need a few cheap young players to develop. It’s hard to win when you turn the roster over every year since LeBron arrived.

There was so much bad that it’s not even worth talking about. Besides Sekou the only other positives was Monk might have found his rhythm after not shooting well for a few games. It was also good that Ellington got some extended run. He wasn’t great but he needed to get out there and play after missing so much time.

My glass is still half full. Last night bumped into it, it teetered but didn’t spill. I will not worry too much until we actually have our team back and playing. I won’t really know what we have until that happens. But one big downside is we are 5 and 5 and this is the easiest stretch of the season and the way we have been playing, there isn’t any easy games coming up.