LAKERS -at- SPURS - 11/25 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings
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DancingBarry
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 9:38 pm    Post subject: LAKERS -at- SPURS - 11/25 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

Eight Straight... The Lakers and Spurs kept things close most of the night. Then came the fourth quarter and it was time to get down to the business of winning.

LeBron knows a bit about this. He took over those first several minutes, hitting threes and orchestrating the offense. And just like that, he had the Spurs bleeding.

“That deflates the other team,” Vogel said of LeBron’s offense to start the fourth quarter.

Sometimes all you need is to just put shooters and defenders around him and let him go to work. If you look at the play-by-play for the fourth quarter, it was essentially LeBron scoring or assisting on score after score. That had the Spurs on their heels and the Lakers won the game 114-104, taking their eighth straight win.


LeBron -- -- Big scoring first half with 19 points. In the second half, particularly the fourth quarter, this reminded me of those Cleveland playoff games where he’d just carry the squad. His fingerprints were all over everything. He accounted for just about every point in that quarter whether scoring himself or setting up teammates. The game changed in that quarter when he drilled three threes. That’s when the Lakers took over and gained separation. “It’s just about read and reacting, trusting the game plan that our coaches put together,” he said. He imposed his will and Laker fans in San Antonio gave him the “M-V-P” chants after the game. He played like it in this one. It’s a huge advantage having him start the fourth quarter to establish the tone. As Vogel mentioned, when he goes off like he did in this one, that deflates the other team. They staggered trying to solve him and now you go for the kill. You’d like to see lower minutes, but he’s still at a career low pace this season. Hopefully, we can slip a blow out or two in the mix where we don’t need him to be the man like tonight in the fourth. Defensively, I swear last year he only had a couple track down blocks at most. It’s just a consistent thing this season from him. These numbers are ridiculous. Don’t look at the freethrow shooting...but at least he got to the line tonight. Vogel said he was going to force the issue a little with the attacks to make them blow the whistle. The Stats: He scored 33 points on 13-24 shooting (4-7 from three, 3-8 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 14 assists, 1 block, 3 turnovers and 2 fouls in 35 minutes. He was a +6.

Davis -- -- How beastly was that block on Forbes at the end of the game? That was kind of the exclamation point on this one. He recovered at the rim and swatted him off glass with a scream and stared at the crowd. Fierce. “Just make sure my presence is still felt out there on the floor,” Davis said of playing tough on D when the offense is struggling.That’s how we want to get back to playing defensively. Just dominate, intimidate and any other ate His rebounding in a crowd is pretty amazing. It’s like if he wants it, it’s his no matter who he’s against. Any time LeBron can get middle with AD rolling from the wing, it’s trouble. Vogel wants him to put up the three balls on this road trip. Tonight, he got them up (1-6) but wasn’t as successful. Still, he sank probably the dagger with a three with 3:49 left. That was kind of the back breaker. He had 15 points in the second half after a sleepy first half. “Bron carried us tonight,” Davis said. It was a one-two punch to close the game. Lakers K.O.’d the Spurs. The press sure can’t wait for AD’s return to New Orleans. “I’m pretty sure every time I catch the ball it’s probably going to be boo’s,” he said. He said he got used to it in the last 7 or 8 games of last year. Ouch, lol. Hey, 15-2 and a contender. “We know what our main goal is, the bigger picture, and the next game is just the next game,” he said. The Stats: He scored 19 points on 7-19 (1-6 from three, 4-4 from the line) to go with 12 boards (6 offensive), 6 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks and 3 fouls in 33 minutes. He was a +10.

Green -- -- He had a double screen he was going to curl around and his man tried to jump the lane. Green cut between the two screeners to take a pass from LeBron for a layup. These are the little chemistry plays that you love to see them flesh out in the ever-growing playbook. The three ball may have nights like tonight where you just can’t knock them down. So you’ve got to find other ways to make things happen. He did that with a play like that and another short one in the paint as well as a tip in. But, he also hit the glass pulling down 9 boards. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 3-7 shooting (0-4 from three) to go with 9 boards (2 offensive), 1 assist, 1 block and 1 foul in 28 minutes. He was a +6.

McGee -- -- With foul trouble for Howard, we slid McGee into the starting big role in the fourth quarter. These are big minutes for him as we’ve leaned heavily on Howard in the fourth and down the stretch. He brought the effort. Aldridge was scoreless in the fourth. “We were like just make him dribble,” McGee said, instead of letting him fire away from the perimeter. McGee had a nice lob finish on the offense end and we didn’t skip a beat. On that lob, he set a screen for a guard who was clearing out, then set the screen for LeBron, who got middle and it was over from there. McGee had one of the highlight scores in the first half with a spin off the dribble to lose a defender and then a dunk. This was off that horns stagger screen sequence we set up for KCP and Bradley. Instead of waiting for the guard to come off the screens, he just took the pass and went after his man with some room to work. Very nice. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 4-5 shooting to go with 6 boards, 1 block and 2 fouls in 22 minutes. He was a +5.

Caldwell-Pope -- -- After this game, he’s up to 44% shooting from three for the season. He sank another three threes tonight and has hit 13 of his last 19. From the end of the first half to the start of the third quarter, he was sinking shots. He sank a big one at half that he got to measure and bury to close the half. In the third, he forced a timeout with a transition three, capping off a series of scores. His confidence is growing and when he’s rolling like that, teammates are looking for him. That’s huge for this team. The Stats: He scored 14 points on 5-7 shooting (3-5 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 1 board, 1 assist, 2 steals, 1 block, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 28 minutes. He was a -2.

Kuzma -- -- His defense has been getting better. He’s on his toes more. He’s able to stay in front of his man with a little more consistency. “I feel like a lot of time when I’m physical I’m moving my feet,” Kuzma said after this one. He also seems like he’s getting in on a few more contests at the rim lately, as well. Offensively, some scoring right after he entered the game in his first stint. Then, he was a bit quiet from there. I like seeing the speed cuts off ball. Our passers are looking for him on those (half the time it doesn’t amount to anything, but it does keep the defense honest when others are drawing attention.) He couldn’t connect from three tonight. Why are you trying to throw down a dunk to end the game when it’s over? Just take the turnover. The basketball gods made him pay the price. He missed the dunk and banged his hand/wrist in the process. Use your head, Kuz. No goggles/glasses tonight. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 3-10 shooting (0-3 from three, 4-4 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 2 assists, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 23 minutes. He was a +10.

Howard -- -- He had 5 fouls before the end of the third and had to sit. Thus, he didn’t return to play in the fourth. I think the fouls are getting him a little frustrated. The statline was almost a bunch of donuts. The Lakers as a team had 6 blocks tonight. None from Dwight. The Stats: He didn’t score or shoot and had 1 board, 1 steal and 5 fouls in 18 minutes. He was +0.

Caruso -- -- Defensively reliable. At his worst, that’s at least what you get. Even if you go back to my writeups in the preseason where he was awful on offense, I wrote he was actually playing really, really well defensively. So tonight, while he didn’t have much on offense (he missed both threes he took), he at least provided that reliable defense. If there’s a rotation that has to be made, a box out, a 50-50 ball he’s near, you know what you are going to get from AC every time. They kept his minutes low tonight. They rested him on the second night of the back to back to go easy on the calf injury in the previous one. Hard to say to what extent that is bothering him but glad to have him back in case you need to help slow someone down a little. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-2 shooting to go with 1 assist and 1 foul in 13 minutes. He was a -5.

Rondo -- -- The Lakers had four guys who hit three or more threes tonight. Rondo was one of them. If you want to see how not taking your open threes can kill an offense, don’t look at Rondo in this one but DeRozan. Tonight he passed up on a wide open one to try to attack a crowd instead and just killed the flow. There’s always a few plays where you think Rondo probably should have shot, but he kept the flow in the offense. Not a lot of assists tonight, but he did a fair amount of ball handling to take some load of LeBron. His best pass was a great full-court chuck to LeBron running the post pattern for a touchdown. At the end of the night, Rajon led the team in +/-. The Stats: He scored 13 points on 5-9 shooting (3-3 from three) to go with 5 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers and 2 fouls in 25 minutes. He was a +13.

Daniels -- -- He’s got to hit shots. Honestly, if he wants to keep his roster spot, he’s got to hit shots like he did tonight. Because if he continued on the pace he was going, he’d be the odd man out (easily) with any buyout/pickups the Lakers might happen upon. He’s just struggled all season, so great to see him pop back up on the radar, knocking down 3-3 from beyond the arc tonight. That also gives the coaches confidence to call his number on ATOs. (He missed on one of those tonight as he came off a double pindown to get into the midrange...but hit your shots and you build trust and get your number called for those.) Defensively, at the very least you just want to do the fundamental stuff (like box out...he had a nice one of those on a sequence), just don’t stand out because of stupidity. Rotate when needed, follow the coach’s plans, hustle. If he can hit his shots like tonight and just not stand out for stupidity on defense, he can carve out a role. Between he and Cook, neither have provided any consistency. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 4-6 shooting (3-3 from three) to go with 1 steal and no fouls in 15 minutes. He was a +7.

Vogel -- -- Key Moment: This game was won at the start of the fourth quarter. LeBron can make a lot of coaches look good, for sure (didn’t seem to be the case last year, of course). He had enough rest. He was ready to go. His legs were under him and sank several threes and orchestrated the offense around a balanced roster.

Key Sub: We’ll stick with that same moment. McGee in for Howard to start the fourth. Seems simple with Howard in foul trouble, but you know last year this is when Luke would have gotten cute and gone small with LeBron/Kuzma as our bigs. (Feel the rage for a moment just thinking about it.) Vogel doesn’t get too cute. He didn’t stack the deck against us. He brought McGee in and let LeBron go to work. No mad scientist experimenting, no leaving guys on an island to get scorched. The Lakers were able to impose their will and take over. After LeBron got a couple threes going, he found McGee for a lob dunk that had the Spurs reeling.

Key Stat: Hmmm. The Lakers shot 42% from three (and have been smoking from there, lately). But let’s go with the 9 turnovers as the key stat. The Lakers kept it clean, were moving the ball with 28 assists tonight. The Spurs would score just 6 points on the break as we weren’t shooting ourselves in the foot with poor execution and self-inflicted wounds. On the road, you want to keep those turnovers down, keep the fastbreaks out of the mix and keep the home town crowd from feeling themselves. Clean execution by the team tonight. That makes a coach happy.


Last edited by DancingBarry on Tue Nov 26, 2019 10:07 am; edited 1 time in total
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akgolf
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 9:38 pm    Post subject:

First!

Thanks DB!
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 9:48 pm    Post subject:

akgolf wrote:


Thanks DB!


+1

Spurs bucked the trend and didn't throw a lot of zone at us.
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 9:58 pm    Post subject:

Thanks DB. Go Lakers
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waterman40
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 9:58 pm    Post subject:

Great, now on to the Big Easy!
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unleasHell
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 10:17 pm    Post subject:

Another great win, love it - that everyone is no sticking it to the Spurs and that azz Pops, he was always so smug and condescending, where's your righteousness now old man?
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 10:50 pm    Post subject:

Terrific write up as always DB.

So happy for you to be able to do this watching enjoyable Lakers basketball again.

I know it is early, but best record in the league so far? That's good!
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 10:56 pm    Post subject:

Actually a solid win. Spurs played well and have talent. Lakers stayed with them and then pulled away late.
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 10:58 pm    Post subject:

Btw DB agree re great to not have nutty professor “hey let’s be GS...without the HoF talent!” Lineups used anymore!
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 10:58 pm    Post subject:

Thanks DB, nice win!
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 11:43 pm    Post subject:

I wonder what luke could have done with this lineup. Probably just above 500 with hockey sub, no 2nd half adjustments, no ota plays
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 11:55 pm    Post subject:

Thanks DB! I always appreciate your T&R's!

Wow. 15-2. Amazing! Keep it up Lakers!

LeBron kinda showing he's not done here, not even close.
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JerryMagicKobe
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 12:24 am    Post subject:

Nice write up and really like the new Vogel format.
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 12:30 am    Post subject:

Great win, and great road trip - championship teams win the games they're supposed to, and we've done just that. Finally something to look forward to after so many years of hell. We are back.

Let's keep it rolling.
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 2:39 am    Post subject:

Wow, what a win. I also thought this was a trap game and braced for the inevitable disappointment. Glad I was wrong. 15-2, baby!

Thanks, DB!
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 4:23 am    Post subject:

Thanks, DB!
15-2 is... very good

We already played 20% of the season. This team is legit.
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 4:27 am    Post subject:

Team Stats

Points +10

Lakers 114
Spurs 104

Rebounds -1
Lakers 40
Spurs 41

FG% +2.8%
Lakers 49.4%
Spurs 46.6

3PT% +2.4%
Lakers 42.4%
Spurs 40%

Assists +6
Lakers 29
Spurs 23

Turnovers -4
Lakers 9
Spurs 13

Points in the Paint +20
Lakers 48
Spurs 28

FastBreak Points +6
Lakers 12
Spurs 6

Summary:
Lakers shot better from the field, shot better from 3, moved the ball better, made less turnovers, scored in the paint much more. That gets it done on the road.
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wolfpaclaker
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 4:28 am    Post subject:

DB, I think the key SUB/adjustment was bringing in Dwight and Rondo, in the 3rd, allowing the Lakers to stay big with AD at the 4, then bringing in Kuzma for Lebron. All in the 3rd. Allowed the Lakers to mantain the same strengths they had with the starters who were doing well. In the first half, Vogel brought in Kumza first for McGee. The 3rd Q was when we made a run to take a little lead and then carried it into the 4th. Key was even when Lebron sat, we did not lose the lead and could go into the 4th Q with a rested Lebron and a lead.

It could be alot to do with LMA, as he was killing us - even AD. But I thought staying big with McGee going out for Howard, then McGee coming back in for Howard with FT, was a very smart move by Vogel. The Lakers need to use their size advantage as much as they can, as AD is a stretch 4 who can post up and play inside, and their bigs at 5 are very hard to match up with.
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 5:09 am    Post subject:

K-C-P!
R-O-N-D-O!

There, I said it.
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 5:42 am    Post subject:

Thanks DB! Kudos for the Vogel analysis, too. Vogel has been impressive, a pleasant surprise.

LBJ had this game in the palm of his hand. Despite AD''s slow start and LMA and Demar taking turns hitting numerous midrange shots, LBJ kept the team close until unleashing the total package in the 4th. His chasedown block and subsequent KCP 3 to end the 1st half was the turning point for me. Huge, huge play.

Speaking of KCP, he''s found a nice groove of late. The Lakers D has really missed AB, but KCP has been really solid. Cool that the role players have had each other's backs. Dwight has had a quiet stretch of late, but JaVale has kept the C position in place. Rondo has been a nice spark while Kuz is recovering. Props to the bench guys.

AD, I thought, was looking ahead to NO next and started slow, but finished strong.
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LandsbergerRules
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 6:07 am    Post subject: Re: LAKERS -at- SPURS - 11/25 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

DancingBarry wrote:
McGee in for Howard to start the fourth. Seems simple with Howard in foul trouble, but you know last year this is when Luke would have gotten cute and gone small with LeBron/Kuzma as our bigs. (Feel the rage for a moment just thinking about it.) Vogel doesn’t get too cute. He didn’t stack the deck against us. He brought McGee in and let LeBron go to work. No mad scientist experimenting, no leaving guys on an island to get scorched.


Vogel has been solid and steady.
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Al13
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 6:25 am    Post subject:

Lots of people in here who should be ashamed of themselves for calling out KCP the way they did...you know who you are....maybe the basketball knowledge is just good for the couch.....not for real debate
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 7:41 am    Post subject:

"Just dominate, intimidate and any other ate " Thats right DB, any other "ate". What I love about Davis is that if you see he went 1-6 from 3pt land, you'd think the boxscore told most, if not all the story.

What it doesn't tell is that he goes down to the other end and, on maybe 3 or 4 of the opponents possessions, he changes their shot, or blocks their shot, or just simply make them miss, thus negating or minimizing the impact of his misses.

On another note, I've had an affinity for Daniels for years because of how he'd light it up every time I saw him play. His shooting is coming around. What I think he needed most is coaching to emphasize other aspects of his game. I've concluded at this point Vogel and his staff are the right guys.

Thanks so much DB. We appreciate your work. Now if we can get some QFTOS's we'll be fine.
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wolfpaclaker
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 7:51 am    Post subject:

Rondo was a big positive in this game.
KCP was huge when we were struggling.

A lot of people have criticized Rondo and KCP and us bringing them back, but right now these 2 dudes are balling and playing their roles well.

You look at the amount of shots AD and Lebron create, it is ridiculous. However KCP and Rondo are making shots on their own accord now, and that is huge.

Since Kuzma has been very inconsistent this season and is still figuring it out, we need this from KCP and Rondo. On the bright side, Kuzma is playing better defense than last season, and we see less situations where he is a defensive weakness on the floor.
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JM
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 7:54 am    Post subject:

DB .. missed game, appreciate to your thoughts. Hope the new format you adopted is more fun for you and less time consuming. Great,always, to read your stuff.
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