ROCKETS -at- LAKERS - 2-19-14 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Tank-a-thon… Before the injuries hit, before the Lakers went into tank mode, this would have been on one of those games you mark on your calendar and get up for. Now? Just another Wednesday night as the Lakers jockey for draft position.

The fireworks came before the game as the Lakers traded Steve Blake, one of their best players in D’Antoni’s system, to the Golden State Warriors. He’ll fit in excellently there and give them that guard toughness they’ve missed since sending Jarret Jack out. The Lakers will have cap space next season if they want to bring Blake back, which they have apparently told him is a possibility.

“It’s one of the best places I’ve ever played at,” Blake said. “In the future if they want me back, I would absolutely, definitely consider it.”

“One of the toughest guys I’ve ever coached,” D’Antoni said.

Blake’s hard-nosed, two-way game will be missed. Farewell, Blake Mamba. In the meantime, welcome to the post All Star Tank-a-thon.

The Lakers brought out their third string to start. When Dwight got the first touch, the boo’s came. Dwight picked up a tech after dunking around Kaman a possession later, and the crowd was into it early. The undermanned Lakers, however, struggled to keep in striking range with the Rockets, giving up runs to close the first two quarters. And just like that, they were down 21 at halftime. The interest faded and the blowout commenced. The Rockets would hit 18 threes, score 62 points in the paint and cruise during the fourth quarter on their way to the 134-108 win.

The Lakers may not be done trading. Moving Blake gets them much closer to being under the luxury tax, which makes it only easier to trade away more contracts for little in return. And every trade that pulls talent away from the Lakers now is like a trade up in the draft come draft day.


Marshall -- -- With Blake gone, this is Marshall’s ship to command. A great situation for him to continue to improve his game. He had a couple of pretty assists tonight on his way to the 20-16 game. One of those passes on the break through the D to Meeks was a highlight reel feed. There’s a lot of talent in this league, but probably not too many that could thread it like that one. Kendall played 43 minutes even with Farmar’s return. He’s going to clock a lot of time on the court with Blake gone. Blake provided some on-court toughness that Marshall still has to learn. Hopefully, he picked up a little of that from Blake even though they didn’t spend a lot of time on the court together. The Stats: He scored 20 points on 7-13 shooting (4-6 from three, 2-4 from the line) to go with 1 board, 16 assists, 3 steals, 4 turnovers and 1 foul in 43 minutes. He was a -17. The Action: His floater was blocked. He swiped the ball back on the other end. He missed a wing jumper off the handoff. He measured and drained a wing three off the Kelly kickout. He kicked to Wes for the sideline three. He attacked around a screen and scored a layup like Nash (he uses his last step so well to get space). He hit Sacre for the 10-footer off the two-man game. He tried to pull a pass back and lost it, then fouled. Good double team on Howard to force him to throw it away. He swished a baseline jumper on the break. He swiped a ball and pushed it out. He lobbed to Wes out of a timeout for the layup. He attacked and flipped a pass over his shoulder to Kaman for the score. He missed a pull-up three with the clock low. He missed a two-for-one jumper from the top of the arc. Second Half: He attacked, drew Dwight and hit Kaman for the dunk. He let Kelly fill a lane while he screened a defender himself on the dribble, and then hit Kelly for the dunk. He tried to chest pass to a man under the hoop instead of a bounce pass and it was picked off. He airballed a chuck from three trying to beat the shotclock on an inbounds. He drained an open three straight away out of a timeout. He swished another three on a Farmar kickout. He attacked, ball-faked to freeze the D and missed the layup he should have had. He attacked, drew the D and fed to Hill for the reverse. His behind-the-back pass was picked off. He hit a jumper at the FT line. He attacked and missed an easy And-1 layup, he made one FT. He found Wes in transition for the three. Sweet bounce pass to Meeks on the break, threading it perfectly by Lin’s feet, past another defender and right into Meeks’ hands at full speed for the layup. He made one FT after Meeks tried to sneak in and take them after a timeout. He threaded a pass to Sacre in the paint for the short one. He sank a wing three.

Meeks -- -- Back after his ankle sprain, Meeks didn’t quite have the same jump in his step early on. He seemed to loosen up a little as the game went on and looked more like himself. By the end of the night, he scratched out his usually big scoring numbers this season. Good job running the floor, as usual. We had him briefly at PG when we rested Farmar and Marshall for a minute. Meeks tried to steal a couple of FTs from Marshall in this game out of a timeout. Not sure what that was about. After the refs reviewed it, Marshall hit one and ended up scoring a point more than Meeks. The Stats: He scored 19 points on 7-14 shooting (2-6 from three, 3-3 from the line) to go with 1 board, 2 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers and 3 fouls in 34 minutes. He was a -17. The Action: He attacked baseline, took a bump, threw it from behind the backboard, it hit the top of the board and bounced down and in for the And-1, he made the FT. He made a tech FT. He fumbled a dribble away. He threw a bounce pass away for points the other way. He didn’t come to the ball on a Farmar pass and it was picked off for a score. He missed a three next time down. Second Half: He made a tech FT. Short on a long three. Poor spacing on a post entry and it was picked off. He sank a quick-fire three off the handoff in early offense. He picked up his dribble too soon, then took and missed a baseline runner. He sank a pull-up at the FT line. He missed a layup on the break. He missed a wing three. He got it back, attacked and scored a layup. He sank a wing three in early offense. Wow, Marshall just threaded the needle from about 25 feet away, through defenders, on the break to Meeks for the layup. He swished the leaning floater in the lane. He missed a wing three. He missed a pull-up jumper in transition.

Kaman -- -- Dwight easily dominated Kaman. Chris struggled with his footspeed and holding him off the offensive boards. Offensively, Kaman was clanking out of the gates. Just bricking jumpers right and left after making his first one. Wasn’t a pretty game at all. Again, when he has too many days off, he’s rusty. With an amped up Dwight, not the best time for Kaman to be MIA. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 4-11 shooting (1-1 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 2 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 22 minutes. He was a -8. The Action: He sank an elbow jumper. He missed a 17-footer. He stole a jumpball from Dwight. He missed a baseline face-up jumper. Way short on an elbow jumper. He missed a baseline jumper. His jumphook was easily rejected, he didn’t even put a fake on, just served it up. He fumbled away a dribble for another Laker turnover. He missed a quick-fire 16-footer. Howard just grabbed the Kaman jumphook right out of the air (probably a goaltend, although it looked short). He flipped in a short one over Dwight in the lane. He picked up a flagrant-1 on a challenge against Harden. Second Half: He dunked off the drive and dish from Marshall. He gave up a layup to Dwight off a missed FT, not boxing out. He took a pass, spun and scored the And-1 layup, he made the FT.

Kelly -- -- You could see his confidence fade early in the first half as he started missing jumpers. That usually means he passes up open looks or second guesses himself. He scratched out a few points in garbage time. The Lakers may be trading away more bigs, so Kelly is going to be leaned on for even more minutes. A rookie dream. He needs to make the most of his time on the floor and work on mastering his strengths, learning the pro game and working on his rebounding (which needs work). He doesn’t have time for the rookie wall. “We got a lot of young guys we got to develop and we’ll try to do it the best we can,” D’Antoni said. The Stats: He scored 13 points on 4-14 shooting (1-5 from three, 4-4 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 3 assists, 2 blocks, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 29 minutes. He was a +3. The Action: He got tapped on a corner three. He sank a wing three on a kickout. He stepped in and took a charge on Harden on help D on the other end. He attacked and kicked to Marshall for three. He missed a 22-footer working behind a screen. He probed and charged and had to sit early in the second quarter. He missed a three wide left. He missed an open corner three next time down. He bricked a layup on the break. He moved in off the dribble and missed the 18-footer (should have moved in closer). Second Half: He missed a wing three. He dunked on the break when Marshall set him up. He attacked from the wing and drew FTs on the layup attempt, he made both. He was blocked on a layup off a long outlet. He blocked a man from behind. He missed an easy finish in the post. He attacked, spun and drew FTs, he made both. He hit the turnaround jumper easily over Lin at the FT line. He posted up and hit the one-hander in the lane, a little Pau-like on that one.

Johnson -- -- Wes made the most of his minutes tonight as he played a little PF, SF and some SG. He had his shot dropping. He sank his first shot and things went from there. When the dust settled after the butt kicking, he led the team in scoring and rebounding. The rest of our front court didn’t show up so all that went for naught. The Stats: He scored 24 points on 9-13 shooting (4-6 from three, 2-3 from the line) to go with 7 boards, 1 assist, 2 steals, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 42 minutes. He was a -27. The Action: He sank a sideline three on a kickout. He tracked down a missed Howard dunk and took it for the breakaway dunk himself. He airballed a forced wing jumper off the dribble. He cut in the lane, took the pass, elevated and hit the short And-1 jumper over the D, he made the FT. He sank a 12-footer in transition. He swished a good looking three off the handoff from Kaman. He finished a lob with a soft touch out of a timeout. He missed a tough jumper at a bad angle with the shotclock low. Second Half: He missed a wing three on a kickout. He stripped the ball from Howard. His corner three was blocked. He was fouled after taking a backdoor pass for Kelly, he made one FT. He up-faked and swished a fading baseline jumper. He swished a wing three. Poor bounce pass, layup the other way on the Lakers 20th turnover. He drained a wing three in transition.

Farmar -- -- Some sloppy passing in his first stint off the bench and that go the Lakers into some trouble early. That really got the Rockets their first separation. He continued the sloppy playmaking throughout the game. With 4 assists for 6 turnovers that was ugly. D’Antoni said he wanted to keep Jordan’s time down and bring him back slowly, but then the Blake trade went down. “We had to up the minutes when that happened,” D’Antoni said. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 3-6 shooting (3-4 from three) to go with 3 boards, 4 assists, 6 turnovers and 1 foul in 20 minutes. He was a -21. The Action: Nice challenge on D to force a miss on the break. On his first touch offensively, he drained a wing three on iso. He missed a wing jumper next time down. Horrible kickout and it led to a breakaway score. Another sloppy pass off the two-man game and it was picked off. He backed it out and swished the three straight away. He missed a layup on a drive (got to finish that one). He was stripped on a swing through. Second Half: He missed a wing three. He threw a jump pass out of bounds. He pulled back a dribble and drained a sideline three at the end of the quarter. He attacked and threw a kickout away.

Hill -- -- This may very well have been Hill’s last game as a Laker. The Lakers are actively shopping Hill. “It will keep you on your toes,” Hill said. He’s faded a bit this season and there are other issues lingering that point to the Lakers not bringing him back next season. He’d be an excellent fit on a contender that needs some spark off the bench in limited minutes. The ability to get second-chance points and extra possessions is huge come playoff time. He mentioned guys needing rest after the game. He seems to need that in order to provide the high energy effort every night. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 5-7 shooting to go with 7 boards, 3 steals, 1 block, 2 turnovers and 4 fouls in 26 minnutes. He was a -31. The Action: He blocked a shot in the paint, but couldn’t control it. He froze two defenders with a series of fakes in the paint and then hit the jumphook. He exposed the ball and it was stolen for a breakaway score. Nice rotation to poke a pass loose under the hoop. Second Half: He sank an open jumper from the top of the key. He blocked Harden’s drive. He stopped to avoid a charge in the lane and hit the jumper. He tapped in a Marshall drive and miss. He reversed off a drive and dish from Marshall. He hit the side of the backboard on a jumper. He missed the short jumphook.

Sacre -- -- Weak game from Sacre. He wasn’t much of a threat on either end. He sank a couple of short ones, but that was it offensively. The Lakers had just 3 offensive boards in this game. The Rockets had 19. Our bigs just got destroyed. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-6 shooting to go with 6 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block and 1 foul in 24 minutes. He was a -21. The Action: He missed a 10-footer from the right side. He sank a 10-footer off the two-man game. He missed a short jumphook off the two-man game. Second Half: He missed a jumphook on iso over Dwight. He missed another 10-footer. He sank a short one in the lane off the Marshall drive.

D’Antoni -- -- D’Antoni didn’t want to trade Blake, but the Lakers are in tank mode, not playoff mode. D’Antoni got Meeks back instead and slid him into the SG role where Blake had been. He lost Williams in the player movement… The Lakers trailed 16-15 when the timeout came midway through the quarter. Lakers hitting some threes early, but the D is poor… He brought in Farmar for Meeks and Hill for Kelly out of that timeout… The Lakers trailed by 3 when Sacre came in for Kaman, who wasn’t playing well. He also sat Marshall for Meeks… After giving up a series of breakaway scores with some turnover-prone ball, the Lakers trailed by 10… The Lakers trailed 32-22 after the first… He started a Sacre, Hill, Kelly, Meeks, Marshall unit… After Harden banked in a three, D’Antoni called timeout down 14 after 3 minutes… He brought in Kaman for Hill… He subbed in Kelly for Sacre and Farmar for Meeks with 7:36 left down by 14… Still down 14, he sat Kaman and Kelly for Sacre and Hill. Rockets with 19 second-chance points and feasting off Laker turnovers… The Lakers trimmed it down, then gave up a 12-0 run to close the half… The Lakers trailed 64-43… Down 23, he sat Kelly for Hill… Down 26, he brought in Farmar for Meeks and Sacre for Kaman… The Lakers trailed 104-75 heading into the fourth. Only question now is how many points the Lakers will give up in this one… He started the Hill, Johnson, Meeks, Farmar, Marshall small ball unit… After a minute, he went to Sacre and Kelly for Wes and Farmar… He went to the Sacre, Hill, Kelly, Johnson, Meeks lineup down 30… Garbage time all fourth quarter…

[LakerLanny]

Last
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Love, Laker Lanny

[mhan00]

I swear, almost all of Sacre's and Hill's boards came in the fourth after the a Rockets stopped trying. Awful game to watch.

[wolfpaclaker]

I won't lie, I did not enjoy this one at all. It hurt a bit extra knowing that the best C in the NBA ought to be playing on the Lakers not Chris Kaman. Bless Kaman but he was abused badly tonight. It's like we are in bizarro land ....

Looking forward to us maybe grabbing Embiid.

Thanks DB. 29 to go and torture ends.

[Omar Little]

Thanks DB. I don't normally critique or edit you on these, but i think I'd like to add one more on there:

Blake--
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“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” ― Elie Wiesel

[LGTownDrunk]

Almost looks like Kaman was deliberately playing soft on National TV to ruin his trade prospects. I think it worked.

Thanks DB.
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We want Soon now....we want Soon now....we want Soon now!

[Klone_dd]

A bit more energy in Staples, all directed towards D12. The Lakers started well, then, being undermanned and overworked, went to pieces at the end of the 1st and that was that. Sloppy play took all the fun out of booing.

Must thank Blake for his time here. Very gritty and determined player. Lots of freakish accidents though.

[TooMuchMajicBuss]

[Arbitrary]

[misterchipmunk]

Bring back Sasha! The machine!

[lakerjoshua]

Ouch.

[SweetP]

Thanks.
I actually turned the game off in the 4th. First time I've done that but man it was hard to watch.
Sorry to see Blake go, I hope they do ask him back.
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“There is always light if only we're brave enough to see it, if only we're brave enough to be it.” --Amanda Gorman

[OregonLakerGuy]

Thanks DB.