LAKERS -at- BLAZERS – 1-23-16 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Another Day, Another Blowout… The Lakers are filling up that loss column fast again.

The starters got drilled in the first and third quarters and the blowout was in session.

“Our guards didn’t do a good job getting through the screens and our bigs did a horrible job being up and ready to trap them,” Scott said. If that was the game plan defensively, yeah, there was very little effort to do that from the bigs.

The Lakers got killed 121-103.

At one point in the fourth quarter, Kobe got into the huddle and had some animated words for his young teammates, trying to get them to defend the way they wanted. We haven’t seen a lot of that, but it seemed to spark some better effort on the defensive end for a stretch.


Kobe -- -- A lot of Kobe fans in attendance tonight. They chanted his name quite a bit in the fourth while he sat. Quiet game from Kobe. He hit some jumpers and tried to set up teammates. He had quite a few passes that were off the mark, so not real pretty. Still, that jumper in the midrange looked like vintage Kobe, if nothing else did, so fans got to see a little something from him. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 5-9 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 2 boards, 1 assist, 5 turnovers and 1 foul in 25 minutes. He was a -17. The Action: Bad pass on the two-man game, turnover. Another pass thrown away. He missed along wing three. He pumped a man and hit the wing turnaround. He was blindsided and stripped. He pumped and drained the 16-foot pull-up. He had 4 points on 2-3 shooting. Second Half: He missed a good look at a 20-footer. He posted up, spun baseline and hit the jumper. He probed the paint, pumped a couple of times, spun and missed a hook. Another pass deflected, turnover. He attacked and banked in a leaning pull-up. He probed off the screen and swished the fade at the FT line.

Clarkson -- -- Not a good shooting, which would be fine if we could look down on our opposing guards. The Lakers got lit by Lillard as he went off for 36 points, making 14-19. The starters were just getting drilled. We made for a good slump buster for Lillard tonight. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 2-8 shooting (1-3 from three, 5-5 from the line) to go with 1 board, 3 assists, 1 turnover and 4 fouls in 25 minutes. He was a -25. The Action: He somehow avoided a travel and hit Hibbert with an interior feed for the And-1. He missed a layup, but Hibbert cleaned it up easily. He worked off the screen and scored a layup. He missed a corner three. He took his eye off the perimeter pass and dropped it out of bounds. He threw a post entry off Kobe’s feet. He broke down the D and drew FTs, he made both. Nice bounce pass as he attacked across the lane, hitting a Russell cutting for the layup. He missed a runner in early offense, not a great look. He missed a corner three on a kickout. He missed a tough leaning pull-up. He attacked the paint, elevated to get a shot off and missed. Second Half: He made a tech FT. He drew FTs under the hoop, he made both. He drained a wing three, squaring up nicely.

Williams -- -- There was a point early on in this game where he had 5 points on no shot attempts. His ability to get to the line helped the offense early on. He and Kobe had 8 of the Lakers 18 turnovers, however, making for some easy scores the other way. Defensively, we were getting destroyed. Lillard and McCollum combined for 64 points. Ouch. “They’ll be good for a long time,” Lou said of that duo. One nice defensive play by Lou was a hustle to recover on the perimeter and block a shot. Rare we see that. The Stats: He scored 16 points on 4-10 shooting (2-4 from three, 6-6 from the line) to go with 1 board, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 3 turnovers and 2 fouls in 20 minutes. He was a -19. The Action: He drew a whistle and chucked from three to draw FTs, he made all three. He had a ball stripped off him. He drew more FTs on a reach, he made both. He attacked left and swished the fading jumper. He missed a layup trying to flip it in after getting past the D. He missed a baseline fade. He got it back and hit the three getting hit with no call. He attacked off the screen, got his man on his hip, took contact and hit the And-1 pull-up at the FT line, he made the FT. He missed the baseline fade. He swished a corner three. He missed a three at the buzzer. He had 16 points on 4-8 shooting. Second Half: He hit Randle in the lane on a drive for an And-1. He blocked a three on a nice recovery. He missed a runner in transition. He missed a wing three.

Hibbert -- -- If they wanted some trapping and aggressive perimeter D on the screens, Roy was having little of that. Or at least little impact. The starters were getting killed. He can’t try to sit back and plug the lane if the opponent is going to fire open jumpers off the screens. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 3-4 shooting (3-3 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 1 assist, 2 blocks, 2 turnovers and 2 fouls in 24 minutes. He was a -25. The Action: He scored an And-1 reverse on the Clarkson interior feed, he made the FT. He tipped in an easy one at the front of the rim. He drew FTs on a layup, he made both. He missed a hook. He had 7 points and 2 blocks. Second Half: Illegal screen, turnover.

Randle -- -- “We just weren’t defending,” Randle said about what Kobe got in them for. Early on, Randle had some moments of not challenging the dribble penetration. Kind of watching as guards drove by for scores. As the game went along, he got aggressive challenging and showed a bit of a presence. Rare we see that, but it’s certainly something we need a ton more from him. He seems like he’s too worried about foul trouble or something…or at least he defends that way at times. So I’m glad we saw some better moments as the game went along. Offensively, he knocked down a jumper and also hit a jumphook with his right hand. Keep that up. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 4-7 shooting (3-5 from the line) to go with 9 boards, 1 block, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 24 minutes. He was a -21. The Action: He sank a 17-footer on the weakside on the Lakers first possession. He airballed on a step-back baseline jumper on iso on his next touch. He couldn’t handle a pass from Lou in the paint, probably a turnover on Lou even though he had a hand on it. He attacked left and missed a fade. No challenge to prevent a drive. No challenge on dribble penetration again. He attacked to his right, bumped his man off and hit the right-handed jumphook (holding up the right hand afterward). He challenged a dunk and got the stop. He missed the short bank off the offensive board. He grabbed a board, pushed it out and tried to throw a pass to Hibbert on the move, instant turnover. He scooped up a loose ball and drew FTs, he made one. Second Half: Weak foul on a challenge that looked like a lot of ball. He took the pass from Lou and powered in an And-1, he made the FT. He crossed over, attacked and drew FTs at the rim, he made one. He tipped in the missed runner by Lou in transition. Great hustle back in transition and he rejected a layup attempt out of bounds.

Russell -- -- I liked the aggressiveness from him in this game. He had a mix of speedy attacks into the paint along with some slow, crafty one using his body well to shield off defenders and some subtle fakes. Some excellent hoop IQ on those. Seriously. That was some crafty stuff from a 19-year-old. He led the Lakers in scoring with 21 points in just 23 minutes. No idea why he’s playing just 23 minutes in a blowout. Another 12 minutes in this one and he’s probably hitting 30. The Stats: He scored 21 points on 8-12 shooting (1-2 from three, 4-5 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and no fouls in 23 minutes. He was a -2. The Action: He sank a pull-up 12-footer. He cut baseline as Clarkson attacked, took the bounce pass from him and reversed. He ball faked and missed the baseline runner. His pass was deflected, turnover. He bit on an upfake and gave up a layup. He sank an elbow pull-up off the high screen. He posted up and drew FTs on a Duncan-like swing through, he made both. He kicked to Brown for the three. He missed an off-balance pull-up in the lane. Second Half: Aggressive attack from the wing and he hit the short runner. He missed a pull-up wing jumper. He missed a three on a pass thrown at his feet. He attacked down the middle of the lane and hit the floater. He worked off the wing screen, got his man behind him, lost the help big with an inside-out dribble, then used his body well to shield him off from recovering as he scored the layup. Another attack off the high screen, he had the helping big bite on a pass fake and took it for the layup. Great help D, pouncing on a double team to swipe the ball (more please). He iso’d with the shotclock low and drained the And-1 three like Lou, he made the FT for the 4-point play. He drew another couple FTs on a jumper, selling it a little, he made one.

Bass -- – The team played better with him on the floor. We needed mobility on D (and could have used Nance). He didn’t have a big scoring game, but had a lot of the little stuff going on. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 1-3 shooting (2-2 from the line) to go with 6 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block and 1 foul in 21 minutes. He was a +5. The Action: He scooped up a loose ball and scored in the paint. He denied dribble penetration to get the stop. He deflected a lob pass to get shotclock violation. Second Half: He was stripped on a drive. He attacked Davis in the post to draw FTs, he made both. He missed a face-up jumper on iso. He tied up Davis as he tried to work the post.

Kelly -- -- Kind of a standard Kelly game. He was supposed to be making a better effort on the defensive glass this year. He had 3 boards. The Blazers killed us on the offensive glass 14-4. So not only are they hitting 50% of their shots, they got 10 more turnovers from us and 10 more offensive boards. No way you can win games like that. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-7 shooting (1-3 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 1 assist, 1 turnover and 4 fouls in 24 minutes. He was a +3. The Action: He missed an elbow pull-up. He sank a wing three on a kickout. He couldn’t finish a layup with his left. Second Half: He blocked Davis. He couldn’t finish a drive. He didn’t hit iron on a three. He missed a three straight away. Drew FTs on a pull-up at the FT line. He trailed the break and Huertas no-looked to him for the score.

Brown -- – Quietly made it to double figures, hitting both of his threes. He also had a nice floater, as well. He had a couple of sloppy moments with the ball for turnovers. Good to see the offense again. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 3-4 shooting (2-2 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 1 board, 2 turnovers and 2 fouls in 23 minutes. He was a -1. The Action: He sank a wing three on the kickout from Russell. Second Half: He missed a layup on the break. He hit a floater in the lane a few seconds later. He threw a pass away. He scooped up a loose ball and swished the three. He threw a pass away trying to thread it.

Huertas -- -- He kind of let DLO run things for a while and then got more aggressive later when Russell sat. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 1-2 shooting (2-2 from the line) to go with 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 12 minutes. He was a +7. The Action: Second Half: He lost the ball in transition, dunk the other way. He was fouled on a reach 35 feet from the hoop, he made both. He scored a layup on a cut to lose his man. He missed a baseline pull-up. He swiped a bad pass, pushed it up and no-looked behind him to Kelly for the score.

Young -- -- I would have preferred seeing several more minutes of Russell in the fourth quarter. Nick came in with 7 minutes left for DLO. The interest in the game left with that. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-2 shooting from three in 7 minutes. He was a +3. The Action: Second Half: He missed a wing three. He missed a three straight away.

Sacre -- -- Some late garbage time minutes against Kaman, his old teammate. He made a jumper, as did Kaman. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-1 shooting to go with 1 board in 4 minutes. He was a +2. The Action: He did not play in the first half. Second Half: He up-faked, took a dribble and hit the pull-up jumper from the left side.

Scott -- -- The Lakers had 6 turnovers halfway through the first quarter… The Lakers trailed 24-14 when Kelly and Russell came in for Randle and Lou… Kobe sat for Brown, Lakers down 13 with a minute left… Lakers trailed 37-22 after the first… Bass, Kelly, Brown, Clarkson, Russell… Then Lou in for JC… They trimmed down the lead some, Russell getting aggressive… They cut the 19-point lead to 11 when the timeout came… The lead was 10 when Kobe came in for Brown, Clarkson for Russell, Hibbert for Bass… They trimmed it to 7… The Lakers trailed 62-52 at the half… Starters fading again to start the third… Russell in for Clarkson, Lakers down 19 once again... Bass in for Hibbert… Lakers down 14 when Kobe sat for Brown… Kelly in for Randle, Lakers down 22… The Lakers trailed 101-76 heading into the fourth… He went with the Bass, Kelly, Brown, Russell, Huertas lineup… Russell forcing a timeout after scoring a couple of layups… With 7 minutes left, he sat Russell for Nick. Really?... Sacre in for Bass… Lakers got their first fastbreak hoop with just over a minute left…

[DancingBarry]

Sorry for the delay. I was a few hours behind tonight with some other things going on...pounded it out as quick as I could.

[Megaton]

First....technically.
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Darvin Scam: https://media.tenor.com/images/3c15249955860a4b16b59e8ae035fb75/tenor.gif

[OregonLakerGuy]

Thanks DB

[CannonBrown]

All good here...the fact that you are able to actually write these up is amazing....these games have been horrendous to watch outside of DLO

[H0B0]

THX DB. GO LAKERS

[67ShelbyGT]

Anyone else get the vibe that we were showcasing Hibbert a bit to the Blazers? Like, he still can defend a little. Maybe it's wishful thinking.
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Alltime lineup: Magic | Kobe | MJ | Hakeem | KAJ

[KeepItRealOrElse]

Thx DB, didn't watch much of the second half. had to get filled in on Brown, verrrr niiiice. And ya I agree with you about Randle, he avoided driving guards a couple times in the first quarter, didn't want to pick up his second foul - wish he could have contested better though still, it was literally matador D

[Laker's Fan]

Didn't see the highlights thread. Looks line here here

http://lakersmedia.com/highlights/streaming/5675-lakers-at-blazers-1-23-hd-highlights.html
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Austin Reaves keeps his game tight, like Kobe Bryant on game night.

[A Mad Chinaman]

Anytime we have the opportunity to read DB's breakdowns, all of us are privileged

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"What kind of students do we have with our young players - very young ones":

When DLO was asked about his points, his reply was that they were useless because many of them came during garbage time - hence playing more garbage time would be needless

[Lakers#1Team]

Thanks DB!

[TooMuchMajicBuss]

Thanks DB. Excellent summary as always. I'm getting more frustrated with Byron Scott than I am with the losses themselves. He's not building anything the Lakers can take into the future and succeed with.

Let's take Young coming in for DLO with 7 minutes left in the game. Why keep Russell out of the starting lineup AND refuse to let him finish games? Scott picks at DLO's defense, but Williams and Clarkson were eaten alive by the Lillard/McCollum combination out there. So much so the Portland analysts were having a field day highlighting Williams getting burned over and over and over during their halftime break.

Seven minutes left is too early to throw in the white flag, and Scott either doesn't notice or doesn't care that DLO keys comebacks better than Williams or Young. Those guys iso, where DLO gets the whole team going. Getting DLO more experience actually means something long term, and for most fans, if the Lakers are down 15, when Scott yanks DLO off the floor there's nothing left to watch. Scott's favored end of game lineups just don't play great basketball.

To make matters worse, when DLO does play, he's often paired up with either Williams or Huertas instead of Clarkson. So what's the end result? Russell led the team in scoring, and still he only gets the grudging "he played ok" comments from Scott who acts as if DLO's defense is keeping him out of the starting lineup.

So I can't see from a competitive standpoint, a development standpoint, a chemistry standpoint, OR a fan standpoint how Byron's choices regarding DLO make any sense. The only other standpoints I can think of are an ego standpoint or a concerted effort to finish this season at the bottom no matter what.