Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2015 11:15 pm Post subject: NUGGETS -at- LAKERS - 2-10-15 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings
Tank Battle… Coming into this game, the Lakers had lost 14 of their last 15. The Nuggets dropped 13 of their last 14. Something had to give.
BScott vs. BShaw. Who would lose?
The Lakers pushed out to a 12-point first half lead, but let the Nuggets chip it down to just 3 at the half. They’ve been very good at getting those early leads and coughing them up later.
They had just 3 turnovers in the first half, keeping the Nuggets out of transition and easy hoops. The second half was a different story.
Ty Lawson just took over. “We gave him way too much space,” Scott said. Lawson exploited our guards and weak D and finished with 32 points and 16 assists.
The Lakers poured gasoline on the fire with 9 second-half turnovers. They fell 106-96.
“Turnovers,” Scott said, pinpointing the issues. “Put them in the bonus early. Pretty much everything they seemed to get in the last three or four minutes was either at the basket or an open jumpshot.”
Clarkson -- -- On the good side, a career high in assists tonight with 7. He was moving the ball well and only had 1 turnover off those. On the bad side, he struggled to finish around the rim early on. It seemed like a lot of his shots were getting blocked or challenged well tonight. In fourth, he was looking better at orchestrating that offense in crunch time with our more offensive friendly lineup we had out there (no Black/Sacre/Kelly). But defensively, he had issues with Lawson. “He was giving him way too much space, way too much respect,” Scott said. Clarkson: “Just know, that ain’t going to happen again,” Clarkson said. Scott eventually sat Clarkson with a minute left for Lin, which didn’t help the cause, but it was a good teaching moment for the defensive side of things. That’s the hardest area for any rookie. “I was terrible on defense today,” Clarkson said afterward. Love the ownership on that end of the floor. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 3-11 shooting (1-2 from three) to go with 1 board, 7 assists, 1 turnover and no fouls in 27 minutes. He was a +3. The Action: He missed a floater on our first attempt. He pushed out the break and missed a layup. He found Sacre for a short one and Kelly for a long one to force a timeout. He attacked from the wing off a screen and scored a layup around the D. He attacked in transition and was caught in the air, throwing it away trying to wrap a pass around a defender. He found Ellington for a three and then a layup on the break. He attacked, hung and couldn’t finish under the rim. He sank a wing three. He was blocked on a drive. He airballed a wing three, yikes. He attacked and missed a floater at the end of the half. He had 5 points on 2-8 shooting and 4 assists. Second Half: He no-looked to Black filling the lane on the break for the slam. He curled into the paint off the handoff and kicked to the open Sacre for the jumper. He was blocked in the paint after losing his man. He missed a pull-up jumper at the wing. He probed off the screen and whipped a bullet pass to Boozer for a layup. He probed again off the screen, elevated and hit the floater.
Black -- -- Good job changing ends. He was there to finish at the rim on the break, but also back to challenge on D. Nice to see. He couldn’t hit his FTs tonight. Scott didn’t bring him or Sacre back to close the game. We probably would have been better off with Black out there vs. Boozer on that end, but that would have been tough for our two rookies, for sure. Faried was a non-factor (2 points on 1-5 shooting and 5 boards). The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-2 shooting (1-4 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 3 assists, 1 block and 3 fouls in 18 minutes. He was a -4. The Action: He dug a loose ball out in a crowd and drew FTs on a dunk attempt, he missed both. He crashed the glass on the break and regained the possession drawing another foul. Nice challenge on the dunk attempt to get a miss and then control it. He missed a flat jumphook. He was called for a blocking foul in the restricted circle (that’s when you need to jump straight up with both hands to prevent that call). Second Half: He was fouled as Ellington set him up for a dunk, he made one FT. Great job changing ends and Clarkson fed him for the dunk filling the lane.
Ellington -- -- He opened the game on fire, going 5-5 in the first quarter and the Lakers pushed out to an early 10-point lead. He had 13 points in the first half, but just 5 in the second half. They didn’t do a good job freeing him up for shots in that second half. Good game from Ellington. He was one of the reasons the Lakers had a double-digit lead. We just need a consistent scoring threat all game and we don’t have it. “They decided to be more aggressive on the defensive end and they got us on our heels,” Ellington said. The Nuggets would trap aggressively off the screens, backing the Lakers up and unable to exploit it. The Stats: He scored 18 points on 8-13 shooting (2-5 from three) to go with 4 boards, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 30 minutes. He was a -4. The Action: He swished a 17-footer above the left elbow off a brush screen for the Lakers first score. He sank another one from the other side of the key working off the screen. He swished a wing three coming off the screen for a catch and shoot jumper this time. He filled the lane and took the pass for the breakaway layup. He faced up and hit the wing jumper. Not close on a three, layup the other way. He lost his man on the fly by, moved in a dribble and hit the long jumper. He led the team with 13 points on 6-7 shooting. Second Half: He hesitated and hit the baseline pull-up to start the half. He took a kickout, let the man fly by and hit the wing three next time down. He attacked the paint and dumped it off to Black for FTs. He missed a wing three off a dribble. He attacked the paint and missed a scoop. He missed a forced wing jumper. He was blocked on an up-and-under. He iso’d, broke his man down and got tapped on the layup.
Kelly -- -- Drives me a little nuts how poor he looks in the post against guards when he gets a switch. A lot of bad looking turnarounds seem to be the result. Nothing out there was very pretty. Even the FTs he manufactured were on ugly sequences. Defensively, it looked like his feet were nailed to the ground against Chandler at times. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 1-7 shooting (1-3 from three, 3-4 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 1 assist and 3 fouls in 20 minutes. He was a -4. The Action: He hit a three trailing the break. He missed an open wing jumper, got it back and missed the more open three. He badly bricked a very flat turnaround in the paint against a smaller man, wow. He missed a turnaround against a double team. He had 3 points on 1-5 shooting. Second Half: He attacked and drew FTs on a foul, he made both. He got bailed out on a foul on an awkward attack (looked like he wanted to pass but couldn’t), he made one FT. He was rejected badly on a slow baseline drive. We got it back to him on an inbounds and he was blocked on the three.
Sacre -- -- Good job on the offensive glass. The Lakers had 11 offensive boards in the first half, but just 3 in the second half. That was one of the things that kept he Lakers in this game in the first half. We weren’t shooting great but we were getting a lot of second chances. That disappeared in the second half. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-4 shooting (0-2 from the line) to go with 7 boards (4 offensive) and 4 fouls in 19 minutes. He was a -1. The Action: He swished a turnaround in the middle of the paint. He missed a turnaround but got it back. We found him again, he attacked and drew FTs off the dribble but missed both of those. He missed a jumper creating against the shotclock. He had 6 boards (3 offensive). Second Half: He sank an open wing jumper off the kickout from Clarkson.
Lin -- -- “Bad decisions, simple as that,” Scott said. Some more sloppy ball from Lin, this time some costly turnovers in the fourth quarter. The nail in the coffin was after Scott subbed him back in for the final minute and he telegraphed a bad pass to Nick, which was stolen and taken the other way for a score. The Lakers went from a possible 2- or 3-point hole (one possession) to down 7 in a blink of the eye. That was that. Nice stint in the first half by Lin, attacking the paint for scores (either on the pull-ups or finishing at the rim). In the second half Lawson just picked him and Boozer apart and the Nuggets feasted on our turnovers. Wasn’t pretty. “Obviously, I’ve got to take care of the ball better,” Lin said. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 3-5 shooting (0-1 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 4 assists, 1 steal, 5 turnovers and 3 fouls in 21 minutes. He was a -13. The Action: He sank an elbow jumper, stopping on the drive, hesitating and hitting. He attacked the paint and scored the layup over the help D. He attacked with speed, stopped on a dime and hit the short one in the paint. He swiped a ball a few seconds later with a nice reach and was fouled on the breakaway (clear-path foul), he made one FT. Nice hustle to crash the glass and throw a ball off the Nuggets to regain a possession. He coughed it up seconds later on the drive. He had 7 points on 3-3 shooting to lead the bench. Second Half: He worked the two-man game to Boozer for the And-1. Ugly, slow pass to the corner, easily picked off for a layup the other way (“I can intercept that pass,” Scott said afterward). He attacked baseline, drew the D and whipped it to Boozer for the score. He forced a pass, turnover, next time down. He was trapped in the corner but spotted Wes free under the hoop for a layup. He hit Boozer rolling for a layup. He gave up an uncontested layup on iso on the other end to Lawson (no screen on this one). Then got stripped and then he fouled on the offensive end, not a good sequence. That got him sidelined, although that might have come anyway as it was the timeout midway through the quarter. Back in, horrible turnover with 46 seconds left, a telegraphed, slow pass to Young, taken the other way. He attacked and missed a reverse layup. He missed a three.
Young -- -- He was better when we let him bring the ball up court and go right into creating for himself. Those seemed to be his best sequences offensively and he looked more like himself. He hit a couple of big threes in the fourth, before a series of misses and miscues. Slightly better game and Scott dared to use him in the close. “He did a better job defensively,” Scott said. He still mentioned that Nick doesn’t have his confidence. On every make, you can see how much the crowd feeds off Nick when he gets going. He had some charity work going on with kids this game. “I got to do what I got to do to help the youth be as Swaggy as they can,” Nick said. The Stats: He scored 12 points on 4-13 shooting (2-6 from three, 2-3 from the line) to go with 4 boards and 4 fouls in 27 minutes. He was a -9. The Action: He sank a baseline jumper off the inbounds. He lost a dribble, got it back and missed the short one. He missed the turnaround jumper on the baseline. He missed an open wing three. He airballed a sideline three. Just 1-5 in the half for 2 points. Second Half: He missed a long baseline jumper on the inbounds. He sank a wing pull-up jumper in early offense. He iso’d next time down and ran clock, then drew FTs on a quick first step, he made both. Nice D on Lawson on the other end to force a brick. He iso’d and airballed a wild jumper to start the fourth. He swished an And-1 wing three as he got undercut from the side, taking his legs out in legit fashion, he missed the FT to blow the 4-point play. He brought it up and sank the big three to cut it to 5. Bad foul 40 feet from the hoop for FTs. He missed a big wing three with 4 minutes left. He missed a step-back jumper working off the split play. He missed a wing three.
Boozer -- -- Scott left him in to run at the center spot down the stretch. This gave our guards a better target bigman to work with in crunch time. Adding Wes at PF gave them better floor spacing. The Lakers were able to score with much more consistency in the final minutes. It didn’t help the D any, of course. “He took the game over. Give him credit,” Boozer said. Actually, some good hands on D by Boozer in this one to create some Nugget turnovers. He didn’t get credit for as active as his hands were. The Nuggets, however, did pick on him and our guards for a number of scores. So that’s the stealthy tank move by Scott. The Stats: He scored 21 points on 8-15 shooting (5-8 from the line) to go with 10 boards (4 offensive), 4 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 30 minutes. He was a -6. The Action: He drained a 17-footer from above the elbow. He missed a baseline jumper and got it back. He was blocked on a drive. He stripped a man to get a stop. He missed an 18-footer. He knocked another ball loose, but was blocked on a layup in transition. He was rejected badly but it was fumbled right back to him for a layup. He strip-blocked his man. He grabbed an offensive board and scored an And-1 in the paint, he missed the FT. He missed a wide open jumper on a nice kickout from Clarkson. He had 6 points and 6 boards (4 offensive). Second Half: He was knocked over for FTs, he made both. More FTs on a loose ball foul on D, he made one. He scored an And-1 layup off the drop pass from Lin, he made the FT. Not close on a long wing jumper against the shotclock. He hit Davis for the throwdown. Wow, horrible two-man D with Lin to give up an uncontested score. Wow, Lawson made him look foolish again off the dribble to get to the rim. He scored a layup off the drive and dish from Lin. He drew a foul with 0.1 on the shotclock, he made one FT. He scored a layup rolling to the hoop for Lin to find him. He scored a layup off the bullet feed from Clarkson. He faked the split play, spun quickly from the elbow and scored the layup.
Davis -- -- Davis needs to work on his counters and off-hand shots. It’s not a very convincing fake when he’s going right. You know it will come back to his left hand at some point. He had a couple of slams in the game, one off a nice feed from Boozer, the other cleaning up a Boozer miss. Boozer got the close with the 21 and 10 game he put up. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 3-7 shooting to go with 5 boards (3 offensive), 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block and 1 foul in 22 minutes. He was a -6. The Action: He missed a short one around a couple defenders. He deflected a pass to get a stop. He missed the very predictable lefty jumphook. He missed a layup rolling down the lane, but he hustled back and blocked a jumper in transition D on the other end. He cleaned up a Boozer miss on the break with a slam. He missed a short one in the paint off the pass from Lin. He tipped in a missed jumper in a crowd. Second Half: He slammed on an interior feed from Boozer.
Johnson -- -- We ran him at PF some with Boozer at center in the fourth quarter. That was a D’Antoni-esque moment from Scott, giving the Lakers some rare floor spacing and going small. Wes hit a couple of big jumpers and the Lakers were sparked back to life. He then airballed a step-back wing jumper, almost like he was feeling it, and the Lakers found themselves down by 5 with under a minute left. That was a huge, huge miss. Prior to all that, he was very quiet at the SF spot. The Stats: He scored 12 points on 4-8 shooting (0-1 from three, 4-4 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 1 assist, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 26 minutes. He was a -6. The Action: He probed from the wing and scored a layup on a defensive breakdown. He drew FTs on a hesitation move in transition, he made both. He missed a baseline jumper. He drew FTs trying to create, he made both. Second Half: He coughed up a handoff. He missed a wing three. He lost a dribble again for a score the other way. He missed a long wing chuck, then fouled in transition. He scored a layup off the corner feed from Lin. He sank an elbow jumper off fumble from Nick. He got a nice bounce on a turnaround from the wing against the shotclock next time down. Feeling it, he faked the split play handoff and promptly airballed the big wing jumper with 1:11, that was big.
Scott -- -- The Lakers led 7-0 early, forcing a timeout… They pushed out to an 18-8 lead with Ellington going 5-5 to start… He brought in Davis for Sacre out of that timeout and came out in a zone to get a stop… Boozer and Wes in for Kelly and Black, Lakers up 6… Young in for Ellington, Lakers up 9… Lin in for Clarkson with a little over a couple minutes left… The Lakers led 29-24 after the first quarter, shooting 54%... Same unit to start the second quarter… They quickly lost their lead… They caused a couple of turnovers and got out in transition for scores. With a 5-point lead they forced a timeout after a little over 3 minutes… The lead extended to 10 points when the timeout came midway through the quarter… Sacre and Ellington back in… Lakers up 10 when Black, Clarkson and Kelly returned with 4 minutes left… Black picked up a couple fouls and had to sit for Boozer. Lakers up just 5 with 2 minutes left… The Lakers led 48-45 at the half. They had just 3 turnovers and gave up only 2 points off those. The Lakers had 11 offensive boards, Nuggets just 3… The Nuggets nearly tied it up before the Lakers went on a little run to force a timeout, leading by 8… Nuggets now on a run to pull back even. Lakers offense looking clunky and guys starting to iso… Lakers down 2 when Boozer and Davis came in… Clarkson, Ellington and Kelly out for Lin, Johnson and Young. Lakers down 2… Scott called a timeout as the Nugget lead grew to 6… The Lakers were tied 71-71 heading into the fourth… Same unit to start the fourth… More turnovers from L.A… Predictable zone out of the deadball and the Nuggets exploited it for FTs on a dunk attempt… He sat Davis for Ellington, going with Boozer at center. Sneaky tank sub, down 7 with 7 minutes to go… He sat Lin for Clarkson midway through the quarter, Lakers down by 10 as Lawson was dominating… The Lakers rallied back to cut it to 2 and force a timeout a couple minutes later… He sat Clarkson for Lin with 1:11 left down 3 after a couple jumpers by Lawson on Clarkson. It didn’t matter, Nuggets still scored a big one to lead by 5 with under a minute left. Timeout. Lin coughed it up on the other end to seal the deal…
"He sat Lin for Clarkson midway through the quarter, Lakers down by 10 as Lawson was dominating… The Lakers rallied back to cut it to 2 and force a timeout a couple minutes later… He sat Clarkson for Lin with 1:11 left "
why? scott suddenly not a robot with the rotation in the last minute of this game after never doing this ever?
He didn't like Clarkson's D, so he pulled him and let him know what he was doing wrong. Scott also mixed up his closers more than usual in this one with Boozer at C and Wes at PF.
He didn't like Clarkson's D, so he pulled him and let him know what he was doing wrong. Scott also mixed up his closers more than usual in this one with Boozer at C and Wes at PF.
He didn't like clarkson's D? clarkson plays D the same way on other team's starting pg for game after game, minutes after minutes. and finally coach let him know what he was doing wrong at the last minute of this game? lol
of course the rookie gets destroyed, why can't he wait until after the game to pull him.
he didn't even make a sub in all those OT games.
this sub makes no sense whether he's trying to win or lose.
I saw this comment written by a Lin fan on another forum who I believe is a coach at a lower level of non-professional basketball:
Quote:
"Most of LINs time in second half was called sets for SWAG... Hardly the same feel of say the Bucks game... where LIN received a lot of PnR opps and had the ball in his hands a lot to make plays. No excuse for the poor plays he did make tho...
its just another example of Byron seeing SWAG as THE ENGINE and not understanding that LIN should be THE ENGINE."
fiendishoc and others: would you agree or disagree with that observation (offense just degenerated into too many called sets for Swaggy whole second half)?
(I agree that Lin did not play a particularly good game (he was shooting so well early in game, and then in second half, either by his decision or instructions from Byron Scott, he seemed to go back into distribute the ball mode again), but I wonder if some of that is because he wasn't allowed / didn't choose to continue to establish his own jump shot and force defense to adjust to him?
Defense seemed packed in and didn't have to move at all for whole game.
And especially with him shooting so crisply right from start of game, this seemed like game where Byron Scott should have given Lin green light to put up 15 shot attempts like Jordan Clarkson gets all the time, because then defense would have to react to Lin (rather than just waiting to pick off passes they know are coming) and open up the court for himself and his teammates). Hawks game Lin seemed like he wasn't pre-determined what he was going to do from before opening tip (earlier Portland game he started off game like he was just going to slash and score himself and didn't establish offensive flow for others on court), was reading how defense chose to defend him, then attacked and got on a roll and became very hard to stop (his jump shot was on that game): ). Very start of this game reminded me of that earlier Portland game (wasn't feeling out how defense chose to defend him before deciding how to attack), kind of like how Patrick Beverley last year made statement he doesn't watch film on opposing point guards and defends everyone the same way.
Unlike Wes Johnson and Jordan Clarkson, when Lin really gets on a roll, seems like whole opposing team locks in on him (respect his ability to slash to basket and create for others), so it really does open up court for everyone:
(Lin wasn't even pushing ball aggressively in transition, and defense was not on it's heels, yet whole defense was still locked in on Lin with ball). Same thing kind of happens, at times, when Lin over dribbles with ball and then finds cutting Tarik Black under basket for a slam dunk. That failed alley oop at beginning of game yesterday I suspect was because Lin didn't have defenseoff balance when he attempted pass (they were set and waiting for any pass he made then). Lin doesn't have a Colin Kapernick cannon arm where ball stings so much that his receivers don't want to catch the ball in practice; he casually tosses ball downfield precisely, but defense has to be off balance or else his passes are very easy to pick off. If he is not pushing the ball aggressively in transition off of rebound he got himself, that, to me, means Lin has got to represent a true triple threat (drive, shoot, or pass) where Lin gets on a roll and dictates how he will be guarded, not other way around (typically, good coaches like seem to take away Lin's ability to create for others and dare him to beat them with his jump shot. Yet that is hard to do when Byron Scott seems to limit him to 6 shot attempts per game and even after Lin gets on a roll attacking out of pnr, go back to telling him to just distribute the ball and get out of the way).
Last edited by JLinfanJoe on Wed Feb 11, 2015 7:53 am; edited 3 times in total
Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 8488 Location: The (real) short corner
Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2015 7:55 am Post subject:
^Honestly I wasn't paying that much attention to the offense and didn't notice. (I was more trying to figure out what the heck was going on with that PnR defense.) Looking at the box score and re-watching some game reels he had zero assists in the 1st half and all four in the 2nd, and all four came on PnR. However, out of his four turnovers in the second half, the first three came on PnR plays. I would say it was just a bad game for him.
Tanks DB!! _________________ Jeremy Lin: "In terms of my career, the only thing that's really been consistent is the amount of inconsistency that I've had in my life."
^Honestly I wasn't paying that much attention to the offense and didn't notice. (I was more trying to figure out what the heck was going on with that PnR defense.) Looking at the box score and re-watching some game reels he had zero assists in the 1st half and all four in the 2nd, and all four came on PnR. However, out of his four turnovers in the second half, the first three came on PnR plays. I would say it was just a bad game for him.
He was actually good in the first half. I think his 1 TO came on what could have been a foul and he was 3-3 from the feild. He scored all of his points in the first half and looked like he was on his way to a decent game.
Then he just totally lost any semblance of playing well in the 2nd half. He didn't look like he wanted to shoot, he forced passes, he dribbled into traffic, his defense slackened (he had a nice steal on Lawson and a clear path foul in the first half), and he just played without the decisiveness that he played with in the first.
I think Lin plays best when he looks for his shot and plays worse when he tries to force-facilitate or defer and then over-compensate for it. He also needs to learn to move off the ball better. But why at times he dribbles into traffic is a head-scratcher whereas other times he can be elusive and use his speed to an advantage. A major thing he needs to learn is hesitation, turning on the speed and dialing it back and using his speed laterally, because straight line, he's one of the fastest guards in the NBA.
Thanks, DB. And yeah, the tanks are now multiplying for Scott's assessment.
He didn't like Clarkson's D, so he pulled him and let him know what he was doing wrong. Scott also mixed up his closers more than usual in this one with Boozer at C and Wes at PF.
He didn't like clarkson's D? clarkson plays D the same way on other team's starting pg for game after game, minutes after minutes. and finally coach let him know what he was doing wrong at the last minute of this game? lol
of course the rookie gets destroyed, why can't he wait until after the game to pull him.
he didn't even make a sub in all those OT games.
this sub makes no sense whether he's trying to win or lose.
If Clarkson gets "destroyed" by being taken out and being corrected so that he will learn, he doesn't belong in the NBA.
He didn't like Clarkson's D, so he pulled him and let him know what he was doing wrong. Scott also mixed up his closers more than usual in this one with Boozer at C and Wes at PF.
He didn't like clarkson's D? clarkson plays D the same way on other team's starting pg for game after game, minutes after minutes. and finally coach let him know what he was doing wrong at the last minute of this game? lol
of course the rookie gets destroyed, why can't he wait until after the game to pull him.
he didn't even make a sub in all those OT games.
this sub makes no sense whether he's trying to win or lose.
If Clarkson gets "destroyed" by being taken out and being corrected so that he will learn, he doesn't belong in the NBA.
I don't know why you think that I meant clarkson got destroyed by scott.
I meant that clarkson gets destroyed by opposing pg's on defense for all these games he started because he's a rookie. there is no need for scott to pull him in the last minute of this game.
He didn't like Clarkson's D, so he pulled him and let him know what he was doing wrong. Scott also mixed up his closers more than usual in this one with Boozer at C and Wes at PF.
He didn't like clarkson's D? clarkson plays D the same way on other team's starting pg for game after game, minutes after minutes. and finally coach let him know what he was doing wrong at the last minute of this game? lol
of course the rookie gets destroyed, why can't he wait until after the game to pull him.
he didn't even make a sub in all those OT games.
this sub makes no sense whether he's trying to win or lose.
If Clarkson gets "destroyed" by being taken out and being corrected so that he will learn, he doesn't belong in the NBA.
I don't know why you think that I meant clarkson got destroyed by scott.
I meant that clarkson gets destroyed by opposing pg's on defense for all these games he started because he's a rookie. there is no need for scott to pull him in the last minute of this game.
Your phrasing gives a strong impression (imho) of personally being "destroyed" (maybe like how LO got "destroyed" when he was traded - lmao
In the Nuggets game, he was giving definitely more space than when he was guarding others like Lillard, DRose and others.
Thanks as always DB. _________________ "I don’t give a [expletive] what you say. If I go out there and miss game winners, and people say, 'Kobe choked, or Kobe is seven for whatever in pressure situations.' Well, [expletive] you. Because I don’t play for your [expletive] approval."
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-- On the good side, a career high in assists tonight with 7. He was moving the ball well and only had 1 turnover off those. On the bad side, he struggled to finish around the rim early on. It seemed like a lot of his shots were getting blocked or challenged well tonight. In fourth, he was looking better at orchestrating that offense in crunch time with our more offensive friendly lineup we had out there (no Black/Sacre/Kelly). But defensively, he had issues with Lawson. “He was giving him way too much space, way too much respect,” Scott said. Clarkson: “Just know, that ain’t going to happen again,” Clarkson said. Scott eventually sat Clarkson with a minute left for Lin, which didn’t help the cause, but it was a good teaching moment for the defensive side of things. That’s the hardest area for any rookie. “I was terrible on defense today,” Clarkson said afterward. Love the ownership on that end of the floor. 
-- Good job changing ends. He was there to finish at the rim on the break, but also back to challenge on D. Nice to see. He couldn’t hit his FTs tonight. Scott didn’t bring him or Sacre back to close the game. We probably would have been better off with Black out there vs. Boozer on that end, but that would have been tough for our two rookies, for sure. Faried was a non-factor (2 points on 1-5 shooting and 5 boards). 
-- He opened the game on fire, going 5-5 in the first quarter and the Lakers pushed out to an early 10-point lead. He had 13 points in the first half, but just 5 in the second half. They didn’t do a good job freeing him up for shots in that second half. Good game from Ellington. He was one of the reasons the Lakers had a double-digit lead. We just need a consistent scoring threat all game and we don’t have it. “They decided to be more aggressive on the defensive end and they got us on our heels,” Ellington said. The Nuggets would trap aggressively off the screens, backing the Lakers up and unable to exploit it. 
-- Drives me a little nuts how poor he looks in the post against guards when he gets a switch. A lot of bad looking turnarounds seem to be the result. Nothing out there was very pretty. Even the FTs he manufactured were on ugly sequences. Defensively, it looked like his feet were nailed to the ground against Chandler at times. 
-- Good job on the offensive glass. The Lakers had 11 offensive boards in the first half, but just 3 in the second half. That was one of the things that kept he Lakers in this game in the first half. We weren’t shooting great but we were getting a lot of second chances. That disappeared in the second half. 
-- “Bad decisions, simple as that,” Scott said. Some more sloppy ball from Lin, this time some costly turnovers in the fourth quarter. The nail in the coffin was after Scott subbed him back in for the final minute and he telegraphed a bad pass to Nick, which was stolen and taken the other way for a score. The Lakers went from a possible 2- or 3-point hole (one possession) to down 7 in a blink of the eye. That was that. Nice stint in the first half by Lin, attacking the paint for scores (either on the pull-ups or finishing at the rim). In the second half Lawson just picked him and Boozer apart and the Nuggets feasted on our turnovers. Wasn’t pretty. “Obviously, I’ve got to take care of the ball better,” Lin said. 
-- He was better when we let him bring the ball up court and go right into creating for himself. Those seemed to be his best sequences offensively and he looked more like himself. He hit a couple of big threes in the fourth, before a series of misses and miscues. Slightly better game and Scott dared to use him in the close. “He did a better job defensively,” Scott said. He still mentioned that Nick doesn’t have his confidence. On every make, you can see how much the crowd feeds off Nick when he gets going. He had some charity work going on with kids this game. “I got to do what I got to do to help the youth be as Swaggy as they can,” Nick said. 
-- Scott left him in to run at the center spot down the stretch. This gave our guards a better target bigman to work with in crunch time. Adding Wes at PF gave them better floor spacing. The Lakers were able to score with much more consistency in the final minutes. It didn’t help the D any, of course. “He took the game over. Give him credit,” Boozer said. Actually, some good hands on D by Boozer in this one to create some Nugget turnovers. He didn’t get credit for as active as his hands were. The Nuggets, however, did pick on him and our guards for a number of scores. So that’s the stealthy tank move by Scott. 
-- Davis needs to work on his counters and off-hand shots. It’s not a very convincing fake when he’s going right. You know it will come back to his left hand at some point. He had a couple of slams in the game, one off a nice feed from Boozer, the other cleaning up a Boozer miss. Boozer got the close with the 21 and 10 game he put up. 
-- We ran him at PF some with Boozer at center in the fourth quarter. That was a D’Antoni-esque moment from Scott, giving the Lakers some rare floor spacing and going small. Wes hit a couple of big jumpers and the Lakers were sparked back to life. He then airballed a step-back wing jumper, almost like he was feeling it, and the Lakers found themselves down by 5 with under a minute left. That was a huge, huge miss. Prior to all that, he was very quiet at the SF spot. 
