LAKERS -at- KINGS – 2-24-18 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

 
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 10:40 pm    Post subject: LAKERS -at- KINGS – 2-24-18 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

Staples North… Laker fans seemingly took over the arena in Sacramento tonight. The Lakers have been playing great at home, so getting that support anywhere you can is a good thing for a young team.

The Lakers struggled to get into a rhythm early on. The starters have tried to run more offense through Randle in the absence of Lonzo. The Kings put the longer, more mobile Willie Cauley-Stein on him defensively and that limited our effectiveness in the half court early on as Randle deferred. Meanwhile, our bench couldn’t hold their own, getting outscored 30-16 in the first half as the Lakers trailed by 8 at halftime.

The Lakers would erase a 10-point third quarter Kings lead behind the scorching hot shooting of KCP. He was in the zone.

As they got stops, got out in transition and found him, he drained three after three on his way to career night with eight threes and 34 points. The Lakers would win the third quarter 37-25.

The Kings wouldn’t go away without a fight. Both teams battled back and forth, the Lakers edging out a lead in crunch time, getting a huge breakaway dunk by Randle after a scramble for a loose ball.

We don’t close games without an adventure. A 4-point play given up by KCP, a turnover by Isaiah, and the Kings had a shot to tie things up. The Lakers would get their stops and make their freethrows, however, to hold on to the 113-108 road win over the Kings.


Randle -- -- The Kings put WCS on Randle defensively to try to take away his postgame and slid Randolph onto our C’s. Julius had just 4 points on 2-7 shooting, missing all four attempts from the line in the first half. He did pull down 8 boards. “I told him this is not how you’ve been playing. You’re our physical enforcer,” Luke said. That physicality and aggressiveness picked up and he didn’t care who was on him. If it was a big, he’d attack with speed. A smaller player, he’d try to overpower them. He got caught for a couple of charges in the process. After the second of those, he was a bit ticked and took it out on the rim a few seconds later. We got a stop and Isaiah immediately outlet to him and Julius threw down a massive And-1 dunk. Unfortunately, he missed his FT and all five he took tonight. That nearly came to play in the final possessions of the game. Luke, for some reason, left him in on the offensive end. Julius took the pass in the backcourt. The Kings gambled that we would get a backcourt violation instead of fouling him. Julius beat the pressure and passed the ball off to just get over the halfcourt line just in time to IT, who was then fouled. Huge mistake by both coaches in that sequence with Julius 0-5 from the line. He makes those and his stat like looks a lot better tonight with 16 or 17 points. He led the team in +/- tonight. Luke cracked on him about missing those FTs and said he better be practicing them somewhere right now. Apparently, Julius then left the locker room to go practice them after the game. The Stats: He scored 12 points on 6-12 shooting (0-5 from the line) to go with 13 boards (5 offensive), 6 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 4 turnovers and 5 fouls in 38 minutes. He was a +20. The Action: He blew a layup with his offhand. He was called for a travel in the post. He cut, took the pass, missed, got it back and was fouled, he missed both FTs. He leaked out, took the advance pass and dunked. He attacked, missed but got it back. He attacked the paint with speed, spun and scored over WCS. He overpowered a smaller defender and drew FTs at the rim, he missed both but got back his miss. He overpowered Randolph but missed the reverse and wanted the foul. He tapped a jumpball out of bounds. Second Half: Nice help D to get a stop. He stripped Randolph under the hoop, pushed it out and hit KCP for a three. He scored a putback off Lopez’s missed drive. He scored a layup off the screen-roll with KCP. He was called for a charge (got to be careful of guys baiting him into that). He attacked with speed to his left and scored a layup. He spun baseline and hit the cutting KCP for a layup. Called for a charge again in the paint. Angry, he hammered a massive And-1 dunk in transition a few seconds later, he missed the FT again.

Ingram -- -- Steady first half with 9 points and 4 assists. Not a lot of room for him to work early on, but he scratched out those points. Not much scoring in the second half. We tried to give him a couple shots to close the game on iso in the final minutes. He drew FTs on one of those drives into traffic (and made both with 1:32 left). Just 3 boards and 2 assists shy of a triple-double. I thought his lack of strength or maybe base came to play a couple times tonight. He got pushed to give up both open looks and offensive boards. Also think he would have fared better on one of those later drives if he could absorb like Hart. Those were really the only situations where he pounded the dribble as we were running clock. Remember earlier in the season it was just about every time he got the ball. But now the ball is moving. The Stats: He scored 13 points on 5-12 shooting (1-3 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 7 boards, 8 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 38 minutes. He was a +6. The Action: He scored a putback layup on our first possession. He orchestrated the offense, attacked and kicked to KCP for the three. He tried to split defenders in the paint but was blocked. He attacked baseline and reversed. He found Randle on the hit ahead for a dunk. He attacked and missed a layup, but we cleaned it up. He rattled down a long wing pull-up jumper. He couldn’t finish a layup after cutting to take a pass. He stepped into a three straight away and knocked it down. He shutdown WCS on D in the post with a block. Second Half: He swished a pull-up wing jumper. He attacked baseline, missed the layup, got it back and was stripped. Great pushout and he hit KCP for a three. He fired a pass to KCP cutting for the score. He missed a long three trying to beat the shotclock (should have passed it to an open Kuzma in transition earlier). He missed a wing three on a kickout. He got lost on D and gave up a three. He attacked with the shotclock low and earned FTs with a second on the clock and 1:32 left, he made both. He attacked on iso and missed the tough one-hander (might have gotten knocked off balance).

Lopez -- -- Just 2 points and 1 board in the first half. We didn’t let him go to work against Randolph like we should have. In the second half, we went right to that and that seemed to get Lopez on track. He would make just one three tonight. He was trailing the break and got to step into it. The others drove me crazy because he’s stepping back or leaning back on them. He should always be on balance because he has bigs sagging off him and doesn’t need to get cute with it. Defensively, he did a decent job protecting the rim with several blocks. Just 1 defensive board, though. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 5-12 shooting (1-5 from three) to go with 2 boards, 1 steal, 4 blocks and 3 fouls in 24 minutes. He was a +11. The Action: He couldn’t finish the high-low lob from Randle. He missed a wing three. He missed a jumphook a bit far out. He blocked a shot at the rim. Not close on a three straight away as he was backing up (hate those). He blocked WCS’s reverse attempt. He swished an elbow runner taking contact with no call. He blocked a layup or lob out of bounds. Great D on the perimeter on a switch to force a pass. Second Half: He hit a jumphook over Randolph on the first possession. He attacked Randolph and hit the easy one in the middle of the paint. He knocked a pass loose. He drained a deep three trailing the break. He attacked off the three line and missed but Randle cleaned it up. He missed a wing three, short on a kickout (looked like he was fading back for some reason). He took the inbounds, up-faked and attacked for the dunk to beat the shotclock. He missed an open three at the end of the quarter.

Caldwell-Pope -- -- Let’s get this quickly out of the way and talk about the good stuff. But he nearly…nearly… made a major mistake to cost the Lakers this one by giving up that 4-point play with 11 seconds left. Laid off his man for some reason, then tried to hustle back to recover and got into the body. You got to be up on him prior to that when protecting the three line. Thankfully, we survived that and will move on because he had his best offensive game of the year. He killed it. He led the Lakers with 13 points in the first half, sinking three threes in the first quarter. One of the few things working offensively early on, but he was just getting warmed up. “I kept telling myself, ‘just keep shooting,’” he said. In the third quarter, he was in the zone and went off from three. We got out in transition and found him again and again on the wings for threes. He would sink five more threes to finish with eight on the night, a career high. Good job by his teammates finding him. Ingram found him a couple times, Hart, Randle twice. Just a team effort. KCP had 17 points in the third quarter and that dug the Lakers out of a 10-point hole. His last game was excellent, this was through the roof. Amazing. The Stats: He scored 34 points on 12-20 shooting (8-14 from three, 2-3 from the line) to go with 7 boards, 2 assists and 3 fouls in 38 minutes. He was a +10. The Action: He missed a midrange wing jumper to start the game. He swished a wing three off a kickout. He drained a wing three on the catch and shoot out of a timeout. He missed a pull-up three in transition. He came off a screen, took the pass and hit another three. He tried to lean in and draw contact on a three and missed badly with no call. He attacked across the lane, created contact and went down for FTs, he made both. He curled around a screen and missed the three. He attacked off the three line and hit the And-1 15-footer, he missed the FT. Second Half: He airballed a deep three trying to beat the shotclock. He sank a wing three off a skip pass from Ingram. He swished a wing three in transition. Julius found him for another three in transition. He sank another wing three in transition. He curled off a screen and we lobbed to him for a layup out of a timeout. He swished a step-back three straight away, on fire. He missed a deep wing three on an inbounds. He probed and bounced to Julius for a layup. He missed a wing three. He missed a wing three after returning to the game. Great cut as Julius spun baseline and Randle fed him for the layup. He crossed over between the legs, stepped back and swished the wing jumper. Wow, he fouled and gave up an And-1 three up 5, so we gave up 4 points with 11 seconds left to cut it to 1.

Hart -- -- Defensively, he warmed up a bit as the game went along. Early on, we were letting shooters get loose. I love when we switch and a big tries to go at him in the post. I don’t know what the percentage is, but I know teams shoot very, very poorly in those scenarios. There was one sequence where Lopez switched out on the perimeter with him (and did a great job hounding Hart’s man until he was forced to give it up). When the Kings then tried to go at Hart with the big in the post, they came up empty. Hart nearly had a miscue late. He didn’t box out but somehow got the defensive rebound anyway with 5 seconds left after the Kings missed the putback. Hart was fouled. He then iced the game making both FTs on the other end. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 3-10 shooting (2-4 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 6 boards (3 offensive), 5 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 31 minutes. He was a +4. The Action: He drained a deep wing three with the shotclock low. He missed a tough turnaround jumper on the baseline. He missed a three in early offense. He sank a wing three on a swing pass. He picked up his dribble in the paint then threw it away. He got tapped on a layup in transition. Second Half: He missed a wing three. He was blocked on a reverse. He pushed a rebound coast-to-coast for a layup. He attacked, spun and was blocked.

Kuzma -- -- I needed more from him defensively early on. He let Skal Labissiere get the better of him in the first half. He picked it up in the second half. Some good switches and staying in front of smaller players and he was battling in the paint, as well. That allowed Luke to stay with him for stops down the stretch. He said the most important thing for the team is to get back to the defensive mindset. He’s got to keep focusing on that. Offensively, he sank a couple of threes. Some quick attacks to try to get to the rim with speed, as well. Maybe a couple of forces early on, but he let the game come to him better as it went along. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 3-9 shooting (2-5 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 1 assist, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 31 minutes. He was a -8. The Action: He was called for an illegal screen. He attacked, spun and missed the 13-footer. He missed a wide open sideline three on an inbounds. He attacked and drew FTs on the tough one-hander, he made both. He pushed up a rebound and hit the pull-up three. He attacked and was blocked out of bounds. He got overwhelmed on a drive and gave up the putback dunk. He missed a three at the buzzer. Second Half: He missed a sideline three. He curled into the paint to take a pass and scored the layup leaving his feet quickly to finish. Quick first step but he rushed the finished too hard and missed the layup. He sank a wing three on a kickout. Great hands to strip the ball off his man on the other end.

Thomas -- -- The three shooting was looking better tonight. He worked off the screens better in that regard than the previous game. He’s still not himself when he gets into the paint. Teams are just eating that up quite a bit. As I mentioned in the last one, love that we’ve got someone who is money from the line down the stretch. “I’m always willing to be that guy and take the big freethrows,” Isaiah said. That was a key part of the Lakers preventing anything crazy from happening. However, he also contributed to our late-game madness with a huge turnover after beating the pressure D. He let the ball get poked away from him in what should have been an automatic foul situation and that led to an easy score for the Kings. But he made all four of his FTs in the final seconds. He had 9 points in the fourth quarter. The Stats: He scored 17 points on 4-11 shooting (3-7 from three, 6-6 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 4 assists, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 23 minutes. He was a -1. The Action: He missed a three straight away. Not close on a pull-up, baseline fade. He sank a three with a second left in the quarter. He missed a wide open 14-footer, that’s got to be automatic. The D went under and he missed an open three straight away. He attacked from the corner and reversed. He setup Zubac for a score at the rim on the screen-roll. Second Half: The D went under the screen and he knocked down the three. He missed a three next time down. He got swarmed in the paint for a turnover to start the fourth. He sank a sideline three right over his man. He attacked to his left off a screen and drew FTs, he made both. He couldn’t hit rim having to force up a shot off an inbounds with a second on the clock. He kicked to Kuzma for the three. He tried to attack the pressure D and was swatted in the middle of the paint. Great outlet to Randle for an And-1 dunk. He pushed the ball up court and had it poked away with under half a minute left. He was intentionally fouled with 17 seconds left up 3, he made both clutch ones. Intentionally fouled again with 11.7 left, he made both clutch ones again.

Brewer -- -- His crappy closeout allowed Vince Carter to get a throwdown on us again. Not to be outdone, old man Brewer crossed over his man and reverse dunked on the other end. A couple nice help D plays from Brewer, but generally we weren’t good with him out there. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-1 shooting to go with 1 steal and 1 foul in 13 minutes. He was a -8. The Action: Great job to take a charge on help D to erase a lob dunk. He gave up a dunk on one end, but crossed over his man and reverse dunked on the other. Second Half: He deflected a pass to get a stop.

Zubac -- -- Some troubles defensively on iso in the post with the Kings bigs (both Koufos and WCS) going at him early on. He came in with 5 minutes left in the first quarter to run alongside Randle. They only ran that for a couple minutes before bringing in Kuzma. Luke gave Zubac the hook early in the fourth. Randle had said he felt good and was available to go if the coach needed him, so Luke went to small ball at the C. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-4 shooting to go with 2 boards, 1 turnover and no fouls in 11 minutes. He was a -9. The Action: He was called for a travel in the post, not sure about that one (Luke was ticked). He tipped in a missed Ingram drive (some help from the Kings). He missed a jumphook on the baseline. He scored at the rim on the screen-roll with IT. Second Half: He fumbled a pass then was blocked at the rim.

Walton -- -- Down 9-5 after 3 minutes Luke called a timeout... Zubac and IT came in with 5 minutes left for Lopez and Hart, score tied. So Randle and Zubac out there together… Kuzma in for Randle, so only 2 minutes with the two bigs, Lakers up 4… Lakers gave up a couple threes and Luke called a timeout… Brewer in for Ingram… Lakers doing a poor job defending the three line again… They trailed 29-25 after the first quarter… He started the Zubac, Kuzma, Brewer, Hart, IT lineup… Down 5 he changed up the lineups midway through the quarter. Going with Lopez, Kuzma, Ingram, Hart and KCP… Randle in for Kuzma down 7… Lakers players getting frustrated with the lack of calls… They cut it back down to 3, then gave up some scores… Kuzma in for Lopez with 1 minute left and the Lakers couldn’t get a rebound… The Lakers trailed 58-50 at the half. Neither team controlling their defensive glass. The Kings with a 10-8 advantage on offensive boards… The Lakers trimmed a 10-point lead down to 2 off a series of threes by KCP (a couple of those as they got out in transition) to force a timeout… Great play call out of a timeout to get KCP a layup coming off a screen when we forced the D to go over the top to prevent his three shooting. Nice change up… Up 2, he sat Ingram for IT with 3 minutes left… Brewer in for Hart… The Lakers led 87-83 heading into the fourth… He started a Zubac, Kuzma, Brewer, Ingram, IT lineup… Immediate timeout by Luke as the Lakers gave up the lead not even a minute into the quarter… He sat Zubac for Randle out of that… KCP back in with 8 minutes left, score tied. We purposely took a foul and sat IT. IT’s shoe falling apart… IT back in for Brewer a minute later… Foul situation with 23 second left. Why have Randle in? He should have been fouled when he got the ball but he pushed it up court and gave it up to IT for the intentional foul. Wow. Lucky... Kuzma out for Hart while IT shot FTs… Up 3, he went with Randle, Kuzma, Ingram, Hart and KCP. They got the final stop… “It’s nice knowing we got a guy who can knock down freethrows consistently in the fourth because we’ve struggled with that all year,” Luke said of Isaiah afterward…


Last edited by DancingBarry on Sat Feb 24, 2018 10:41 pm; edited 1 time in total
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japanesebeef1
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 10:41 pm    Post subject:

First - Thanks so much for the run down. I alway enjoy these!
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 10:44 pm    Post subject:

Nice win tonight. We were low energy in the first half but turned things up in the second half and won an ugly game. Sac might not have many wins but they aren’t a bad team.
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LakerSD
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 10:58 pm    Post subject:

“We don’t close games without an adventure” is spot on...

Agree with VLF, 2nd half energy was good.
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OregonLakerGuy
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 11:12 pm    Post subject:

Thanks DB
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Arbitrary
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 11:24 pm    Post subject:

Thanks, DB!
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TooMuchMajicBuss
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 25, 2018 12:37 am    Post subject:

Thanks DB - good read, good game! Ugly at times, but the Lakers fought through it!

KCP on another planet tonight! Wow I didn't expect him to be the one to carry the Lakers through this when they were down.

Here's hoping Ball can start soon!
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durden-tyler
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 25, 2018 3:23 am    Post subject:

Advanced numbers for the game...

http://on.nba.com/2GItNa5
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 25, 2018 3:46 am    Post subject:

Thanks DB! Ugly, but good, win against a team always saving their best for us.

Kind of a mixed bag with some of our players, JR, IT, KCP but they proved their worth in helping us get the win.
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 25, 2018 3:50 am    Post subject:

durden-tyler wrote:
Advanced numbers for the game...

http://on.nba.com/2GItNa5


Wow, thanks for that illuminating stat page, hadn't seen that before. That's a must see after every game.

What I get out of looking at the "net rating" for Randle and Thomas is that the only thing Randle did wrong was missing free throws and the only thing Thomas did right was making free throws.
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 25, 2018 4:19 am    Post subject:

Wax Lyrical, DB!
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 25, 2018 6:30 am    Post subject:

Thanks, DB!
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deal
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 25, 2018 6:36 am    Post subject:

Thanks DB !
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 25, 2018 7:55 am    Post subject:

Thanks DB!
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