BLAZERS -at- LAKERS - 11-22-15 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

2-11… The Lakers are piling up the losses. Tonight, it was against Blazers, 107-93.

Scott put the ball more in Russell’s hands to run the point and gave him the minutes. With the losses piling up and pure math of making the playoffs up against them (already in November), the Lakers may be thinking about the future more.

“What he’s conveying to us is that, yeah, we are interested in winning, but this is a developmental year. I’m trying to play him as much as possible,” Worthy said of Scott’s postgame comments about Russell, and the Lakers putting more responsibility on him now.

Russell was motoring along well in this game before tweaking his ankle in the third quarter. That seemed to slow him down some. Still, he and Clarkson put together decent games. They were outgunned by the more experienced and high powered Lillard/McCollum combo that scored about half of the Blazers points. Those two showed consistent aggression and command of the game for their team.

“Our guards did what we asked them to do,” Scott said of Russell and Clarkson meeting the energy and challenge of their opposition.

For the first few minutes of the game, Kobe got off to a hot start. He cooled off quickly and would finish with just 18 points on 22 shots in 31 minutes. Down the stretch, that cost them as they faded instead of reeling in the Blazers in closing time. Bad teams can’t close.


Kobe -- -- Ugly. Kobe had 10 of the Lakers first 12 points, then went stone cold the rest of the first half, putting up 14 shots. He continued to chuck in the second half. Just not a good game. The offense was clunky in this one and the bulk misses were something the Lakers can’t afford from anyone. The final nail in the coffin was when Kobe returned in the fourth with the Lakers down just 5. A make here and they cut it to 3 or 2. Kobe missed the three badly, then chased his offensive board, once the Blazers got control, they easily outlet to Kobe’s man for the score. That did them in for good. The three shooting from Kobe has been awful. One of our worst shots this season. That’s the shot we take at the critical point in the game. “All of us, not just Kobe, have to do a better job trusting each other,” Scott said. The Stats: He scored 18 points on 6-22 shooting (0-5 from three, 6-7 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 block and 1 foul in 31 minutes. He was a -6. The Action: He missed a wing three. He posted up and swished the baseline turnaround. He cut off of Russell’s baseline probe, took the no-looker and drew FTs on the layup attempt, he made both. He faced up from the midpost and banked. He missed a wing three. He probed baseline, reversed directions and scored the layup. He drew contact on a jumper with no call and missed. Change of speeds, he attacked and drew FTs, he made both. He was blocked on a turnaround. He missed a wing three, his man beat him down court and dunked (no help from teammates). He missed a wing jumper. He missed a post turnaround. Not close on a wing three after entering. He attacked, spun and banked in the midrange jumper. He missed a turnaround in the post. He missed turnaround chuck from 16 feet out. He had 12 points on 4-14 shooting (0-4 from three). Second Half: He missed a step-back sideline jumper on on iso. He drew FTs on a drive and made one. He spun to lose his man and scored the layup. He airballed a jumper in iso. Aminu tried to post him up and Kobe rejected him. He made a tech FT. He sank a jumper from the top of the key on a face up. He missed a turnaround in the post. Short on an 18-footer. Huge missed three out of a timeout, but he compounded that by trying to go for the offensive board and his man dunked on the other end (he had plenty of time to recover to his man on this one). He missed a runner across the lane.

Clarkson -- -- A change in the rotation to pull Clarkson early so we have one of Russell and Clarkson on the floor at all times. Welcome to what should have happened 12 games ago. He didn’t start shooting until that second quarter when he scored all 12 of his first half points. In the second half, Russell tweaked an ankle so they swapped out the rotation and had Russell with the second unit. Good offensive game from Clarkson, but he had too many long stretches where he was an afterthought. Kobe’s 22 shots really hurt our chances. Defensively, we had our hands full with the Portland guards, second best guard scoring duo in the league. It’s definitely a team effort with all the ways they can beat you. Jordan learned quick not to go under the screen after getting burned early. The Stats: He scored 19 points on 8-14 shooting (3-5 from three) to go with 4 boards, 1 assist, 3 turnovers and 1 foul in 35 minutes. He was a -5. The Action: He attacked down the lane and scored a layup. He sank a sideline three off the pass from Kobe. He probed off the high screen and banked in the one-hander. He swished a wing three behind the Kobe handoff. He threw a pass away for an uncontested score the other way. He weaved through traffic off the dribble, elevated and hung on Plumlee, then scored the tricky layup. He threw a post entry pass right out of bounds. He bricked a forced three on a two-for-one. He had 12 points on 5-6 shooting. Second Half: He missed a somewhat forced elbow jumper. He probed, missed a short one, got it back and missed the easy floater. Quick head and shoulder fake, and he attacked for a layup. Pressuring the passing lane, he deflected a pass off a man. He attacked right, slammed on the brakes and swished the pull-up jumper. He threw a pass away, dunk the other way. He drained a wing three. He missed an easy floater he should have had. He missed a pull-up three in transition.

Randle -- -- The offense was choppy in this game, unlike the last one. Julius’s game looked choppy, as well. He did put in a good effort, particularly on the offensive glass where he had 7 of his 13 boards. A double-double for Julius, but nothing came easy. The effort seems to be getting better game by game. If he can get his motor fulling running he’ll get numbers like this no matter how choppy the team’s offense is. “For me to reach the level I want to, playing hard every possession [is something he and Scott talked about] and we’ll see good results.” The Stats: He scored 13 points on 5-15 shooting (3-3 from the line) to go with 13 boards (7 offensive), 1 assist and no fouls in 32 minutes. He was a -16. The Action: He missed a 17-footer coming off a screen. Great D on his man, he then grabbed the board and pushed it out. He missed a jumphook after battling for the offensive board. He attacked left, muscled his man backward and hit the short one-hander. He missed a jumphook, Bass kept it alive and Randle follow-tipped it in. Lazy D, relaxed just a beat and he got backdoored for a score. He posted up and drew FTs, he made both. He attacked the paint, spun and was swatted. He airballed a jumphook, looked like he was bumped on the shot. He had 6 points on 2-8 shooting and 7 boards. Second Half: He got tapped on a short bank in the paint but was able to help regain the possession. He allowed the double to get split for a score. Good hustle back in transition with Hibbert to get a stop. He missed a post attempt, crashed the glass as Roy kept it alive and tipped it in. He attacked to his right and hit the pull-up 10-footer. He missed a tip in. Nice hustle to challenge a three, may have gotten a piece of it. He bullied his way baseline and missed. He grabbed a board and scored the And-1, he made the FT.

Russell -- -- “Tonight, we made a concerted effort to put it in DR’s hands 90 percent of the time and let him facilitate and run the offense. I thought he did a good job,” Scott said. A mild left ankle sprain forced him into the locker room midway through the third quarter. His game lost a little steam after that, but still some good numbers with nearly the double-double and the 36 minutes. I thought he deferred to Kobe a little too much. Hard not to. Really happy to see the boards. He needs to get the big rebounding numbers as it helps the team when we’ve got Hibbert challenging shots and then that small ball that needs team rebounding every possession. Keep that up. The Stats: He scored 13 points on 4-10 shooting (2-4 from three, 3-4 from the line) to go with 9 boards, 6 assists, 3 turnovers and no fouls in 36 minutes. He was a -17. The Action: He probed baseline and no-looked to Kobe cutting for the FTs. He lost the handle trying to push it out through a crowd in transition. He probed off the double high screen, a man fell and he fed Hibbert for the dunk. He worked off the Randle screen and drew FTs on the pull-up attempt, he made both. He hit Hibbert on the two-man sequence for the jumper. He sank a wing three off the split play. He missed a high arching wing three. He missed a short fade in the middle of the lane. He drained a wing three with the shotclock about to expire. He worked off the wing screen and was fouled on the 21-footer with 2 seconds left, he made one FT. He had 9 points on 2-4 shooting, 4 boards and 4 assists. Second Half: He curled off the screen, took the inbounds, up-faked and banked the sweet jumper from the left side, very nice. Tight D on his man and he forced a turnover. He came off the pindown and instead of forcing the three, he moved back in and hit the leaning wing jumper next time down. Nice job staying on his man’s shoulder and helping to force a travel. He hit Hibbert who had low position in early offense for the easy post score. He was picked trying to orchestrate the offense, but hustled back on D to get a stop with a nice challenge, but came up with the mild sprain. He missed the FT pull-up jumper. He missed a pull-up short at the FT line. He lost the ball on a spin move. He missed a quick release jab at a three. He missed a floater.

Hibbert -- -- He anchored the paint well with 4 blocks in the first half, including one on a jumper. All the blocks came in that half. He missed some chippies around the rim, but he and Randle did a good job keeping possessions alive on the offensive glass. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 3-7 shooting (1-2 from the line) to go with 8 boards, 4 blocks, 1 turnover and 4 fouls in 25 minutes. He was a -11. The Action: He missed a 17-footer out of the triangle (should have stepped into it more). He dunked working off the screen-roll with Russell. He swatted a jumper. He spiked a layup attempt out of bounds. He swished a floater from 12 feet out working off the two-man game with Russell. Looked like another shotblock off the glass, which he controlled. He rejected Lillard and controlled it. He had 4 blocks and 5 boards. Second Half: Short on a long wing jumper. Low position in early offense and Russell found him for the short hook. He kept a Randle miss alive with a missed tip and Randle cleaned it up. He missed a jumphook. He drew FTs after pulling down a Clarkson miss, he made one. He was stripped on a slow developing hook.

Williams -- -- Finally, no Lou running the point as we kept one of Clarkson or Russell on court. “Not initiating the offense kind of freed him up,” Scott said. Good job drawing FTs/fouls early in the fourth quarter by Lou. That helped the team get into the bonus early and trimmed the lead down some. Better game for Lou because of that fourth quarter stretch. Hopefully, he can get back to looking like himself again. He did in the fourth tonight. “We just got to play better coming down the stretch,” Lou said. The Stats: He scored 14 points on 3-8 shooting (1-3 from three, 7-7 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 1 turnover and no fouls in 25 minutes. He was a -6. The Action: He missed a layup in transition. He swished a wing jumper moving left off the screen. He threw a pass away trying to run the screen-roll with Bass, dunk the other way. He sank a wing three going to his left off the double high screen. Second Half: He missed a fading baseline jumper. He was blocked on a long jumper. He drew FTs on the sideline jumper in early offense, he made both. He missed a three in transition. He drew a foul on a three, his man reached and Lou caught him, he made all three FTs. He attacked and swished the floater at high speed. He swiped a ball, pushed it out against Davis and drew FTs, he made both. He missed a wing pull-up jumper.

Bass -- -- We saw Bass close this game with Randle at the C spot and we ran him with Metta and an even smaller Kobe or Young at PF at times. The Blazers had their big C out there or Ed Davis, but did run a small PF at times. We may have lost the game in that first stint by the second unit. That’s where the lead was first built and we never recovered from that. The second unit held the line in the fourth and Bass had some of his better moments there. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 2-3 shooting (3-4 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 1 assist, 1 block and 3 fouls in 23 minutes. He was a -3. The Action: He dunked off the screen-roll pass from Nick. No help on Randle’s man to give up a dunk. He missed a couple of tip-ins before Randle cleaned it up. Second Half: He drew FTs getting yanked down under the hoop, he made both. He attacked the paint on an ugly offensive sequence and drew FTs, he made one. Next time down, quick face up out of the triangle to get around Plumlee, then he jammed on him (probably his best play of the year). He missed a turnaround.

Young -- -- “We got to buckle down at the end on defense,” Nick said. He also said they need to play smart and share the ball down the stretch. There was a moment in Scott’s rotations when we went with Kobe or Nick at PF with Bass. Not much of an offensive game from Nick. We didn’t have the flow like the last game and Nick’s shots weren’t as clean of looks. Some nice extra passes in this one. Defensively, he’s put in a good effort all year. More of the same in this one. He and Kobe shot a combined 7-28. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-6 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 3 boards, 3 assists, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 20 minutes. He was a -6. The Action: He missed a forced wing jumper in transition. He hit Bass rolling for a dunk. He took an inbounds and swished the baseline jumper. He was stripped on a reach. He missed a wing three. Nice swing pass to Russell for the three up against the shotclock. Second Half: Not close on a wing jumper. He missed another wing jumper. He got tapped on a 20-footer. XXX

World Peace -- -- I don’t mind Metta at the PF. In theory, that should work well. Across from Bass, maybe not so much. Defensively, guards blew past him with speed tonight and we didn’t get any good challenges. That’s kind of the problem with him at PF. Also, if he can’t space the floor, then that hurts, as well. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-3 shooting to go with 2 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 13 minutes. He had a +/- of 0. The Action: Lillard blew past him for a layup. He gave up an And-1 to Davis trying to rotate and challenge in the paint. More traffic cone D as CJ blew right around his help D for a layup at the end of the quarter. He drove baseline and was swatted out of bounds. Second Half: He missed a sideline three on iso up against the shotclock. He probed and missed the fade (had Lou open). He traveled on an offensive board. He gave up an And-1 to Davis.

Scott -- -- Kobe starting out strong with the 10 of the Lakers first 12 points (score tied 12-12)… Scott brought in Lou for Clarkson midway through the quarter, Lakers up 2… Kobe started cooling off, but still shooting and the Lakers trailed by 3 with 3 left in the quarter… Bass, Young and Metta in for Hibbert, Kobe and Randle. So small ball Bass/Metta duo because Nance was the clearly the problem, right?… Predictable no interior D, a poor close to the quarter and the Lakers trailed 32-23 after the first. Well, done again, Scott, with the second unit… So Clarkson in for Russell to start the second quarter. Same small ball unit. Clarkson was quiet in the first, let’s see if he can light it up here… He brought in Kobe for Metta. So now even smaller. Young or Kobe as PF? Might be Kobe. Lakers down 5... Several offensive boards for putbacks by the Blazers… Randle in for Young down 3. They tied it up… The Lakers trailed by 2 when the timeout came with 5 minutes left… Russell and the rest of the starters in… They sat Kobe for Young with 3 minutes left… The Lakers trailed 56-52 at the half. Blazers had a 10-0 advantage on the break… The Lakers trailed by 6 when the timeout came midway through the quarter. He sat Russell who went to the locker room. Lou in for him… An iso airball out of the timeout… He sat Kobe for Young, Lakers down 5 with 4 minutes left… Randle out for Metta, Lakers down 8 with 2 minutes left… The Lakers trailed 84-74 heading into the fourth… This time Russell in with the Bass/Metta, Kobe, Lou lineup. They played better… Kobe out for Young with 7 minutes left, Lakers down 6… Clarkson in for Lou, down 8… Randle back in for Metta… They cut it to 3 and had a chance to cut it to 1 but Nick got tapped on an iso jumper… Scott called timeout down 5 with 3:39 left and brought in Kobe for Young. The nail in the coffin right here. Kobe missed a three out of that, dunk the other way when he chased his offensive board. Big switch to take us out of striking range… He later sat Kobe for Nick during garbage time…

[limchrc]

Thanks!

[Lakersneuron]

Thanks DB.Spot on as usual. The Brandon Bass center experiment continues. No Larry Nance? At least Lou wasn't running the point and Clarkson/ DLo was staggered.

Scott is 5 moves behind what everyone else has already realized.
_________________
"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."

[Goldenwest]

[A Mad Chinaman]

DB - good to read your breakdowns since I cannot get the broadcasts in China

Strange that with Clarkson at PG, along with his inherent aggressiveness, that he was forgotten for minutes in the first half.

Wondering if this conversation has occurred between Byron and Kobe
"I want people that can be trusted to produce in crunch time" (since Kobe rarely passes to players that are not getting it done)
Hopefully, this will be seen in action where Kobe is in the free throw line extended or in the post during crunch time where he is a triple threat with Clarkson and DLO as the shooters

If MWP is not able to space the floor, he has been a smart enough player to go backdoor to free himself under the paint to get rebounds/layups

When we meet Lillard/McCollum again, we will witness how far Clarkson/DLO has developed since they are one model they can be transformed into.

Lou Williams is not a PG, hopefully this will translate into better shooting (this game hopefully will be indicative of an upward trend)

Swag has proven again that he cannot be depended on being a consistent producer on offense, despite his apparent skills.

[OregonLakerGuy]

Thanks DB

[TDRock]

Yep...yepyepyepyep....

Thanks DB.

[H0B0]

THX DB. GO LAKERS

[jjangx27]

thanks!

[Chronicle]

It's sickening that the entire franchise from the ground up is aiming for this team to lose games

They are not going to fire Byron

Byron is not going to make adjustments

We will have three losing seasons in a row

We do not deserve Clarkson, Randle and Russell. They should be on a different team

The Lakers right now are disgusting. Everything about them and what they stand for is disgusting. Everyone should be fired. New ownership is needed. New players are needed. Everything needs to be rebuilt from the ground up because this is going no where and building on any kind of legacy is no longer possible because it's no longer there. The only thing still there are records, but they will be broken.

Lakers have lived in the past for too long. It's one huge joke

I have never been more disappointed with the Lakers than this season. And in the end it all comes down to stubbornness and egoism


_________________
Kobe

[Annihilator]

[smoothazsilk]

[yinoma2001]

What's really killing us are the long leakouts off of Kobe's man when he takes long contested shots. He's often arguing with the refs while guys like Mo Harkless sprint uncontested. That really hurt the team a lot in transition defense.
_________________
From 2-10 to the Western Conference Finals

[MJST]

Anyone have any clue why Scott benched hibbert in the 4th for the 2nd straight game...

[oaktown_dimond]

Well said chronicle!

Every year, I have hopes for at least some progress, only to be disappointed yet again.

The buss kids have trashed their father's legacy in 4 short years. Absolutely disgusting.

And despite living in Oakland , I can't get into the warriors thanks to arrogant new ownership that have done everything in their power to erease any connection between the warriors and the city they've played in for the last 45 years.

Back to the Lakers. It's an embarrassment to this once perennially great franchise. And a horrible send off to Kobe. A man who essentially ended his own career trying to will the Lakers to the post season in 2013.

[DrumR]

"Defensive balance and the wrong rotation here and there,
that's really been caving the roof in on us in the last five minutes of the ballgame.
Our rotations weren't up to snuff, and they just killed us all night."

Kobe with the quote of the season so far. Byron makes the worse substitution decisions I've ever seen. Then doubles down on them later in the game. Every game. Ugh. I think were a .500 club with Mark Madsen lol.

[fiendishoc]

^I didn't see the interview, but in that quote it seems like he's referring to defensive rotations, not lineup rotations.

[A Mad Chinaman]

[Shaber]

Talentwise these Lakers should be way higher in the standings. But we have Scott as a head coach...

Kobe just killed us this game. I don't mind at all him taking shots from low post or in the paint. But he should just give up shooting threes. Especially because he never recovers and is too slow to run back. Almost half of his three attempts lead to fast break points by the Blazers.

Metta came back to Earth after a surprising start. This game, he was just useless. All his minutes should have been given to Brown. At least we would have had a threat from three.

It's good to see Clarkson and DLO battling. DLO is improving with every game. Wish the same could be said about Randle. I think Randle's stats are misleading. His offensive rebounds were mostly tip-and-miss. He is having a surprisingly little effect out there. He shuould be cutting all the time, setting good screens. He could be tremendous pick and roll player with his speed. But I see none of that. I see him just standing there and demanding the ball high on the elbow and then going iso. Very onedimensional.

DLO directing the offense and pointing the others where to be or go was the best part for me in this game. He is getting there.
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.

Lakers depth chart

PG Johnson / Goodrich
SG Bryant / West / Scott
SF Baylor / Worthy / Cooper
PF Mikkelsen / Hairston / McAdoo / Gasol
C Chamberlain / Abdul-Jabbar / O'Neal / Mikan

[Megaton]

[jab]

Kobe is just awful this year. He gives good lip service, but backs none of it up. Lots of negative points to make, but this glaring stat...starting PG 9 rebs, starting center,8rebs

[Andre2K]

Randle has been disappointing to be honest. The effort is there but the progress in his game is not there and I don't how much of a positive impact he can have on games, but he is essentially a rookie so I'm willing to be patient.

Russell is developing nicely, still deferring to Kobe a lot more than I'd like but he's been aggressive in the past couple of games and which has been nice to see.

Clarkson is a stud nothing more to say here, hopefully he and Russell look at Lillard and McCollum and see where they could be in a couple of years with hard work, they could even be a better 2 way players than those two, they have the tools.

A defensive minded coach doesn't sit his best defensive player in the 4th quarter of a game we are trying to win unless we are tanking but that's just my opinion.

Also where is Nance? I didn't see him in your write up. Thanks DB
_________________
My Dream Starting 5 next Season

Pg Lonzo
Sg Kawhi
Sf Ingram
Pf Lebron
C Dedmon

Bench: Caruso, Hart, Bullock, Kuzma, McGee etc

[GoldenThroat]

[LakerEric]

[DrumR]