MAVS -at- LAKERS - 4-4-14 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Slowly Toward the Finish Line… The Lakers don’t want to be the Dallas Mavericks – a team on the playoff bubble and first-round fodder for the real contenders.

The injuries prevented that from happening this season. It will be up to Mitch and company to prevent that from happening this offseason.

The Lakers hung around in this game until late in the third and early in the fourth when Dirk Nowitzki took over. A series of Maverick scores and the Lakers were down double digits and buried for good. They fell to Dirk and the Mavs 107-95, swept by Dallas for the first time ever in a season series.

“That’s what great players do,” Jodie Meeks said of Dirk. “They just kind of will their team to victory.”

Meanwhile, the silver lining for this game is the Lakers making up some ground against the Jazz in the lottery positioning.


Meeks -- -- Big minutes for Meeks tonight, going 41. He leads the Lakers in minutes, somehow avoiding the injury bug and proving to be a consistent producer. “I just try to go out there and play hard every night,” Meeks said. He led the Lakers in scoring. I don’t know how many points he gets off that baseline backdoor play, but he’s always good for a couple hoops it seems. Through in the inevitable transition basket or two and a couple of threes and that how you get the 15-point average this season. The Stats: He scored 25 points on 10-17 shooting (4-10 from three, 1-1 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers and 2 fouls in 41 minutes. He was a -9. The Action: He swished a wing three on a kickout. He missed another one on the next trip down. He sank a corner three off the drive and dish from Kelly. He swished a baseline pull-up after moving in off a fly by. He drained a wing three off a scramble and kickout. He missed an open three at the end of the quarter. Quick bounce pass to Marshall on the break for the layup. He swiped the flat pass and took it for the uncontested, two-footed dunk. He backdoored his man who fell asleep, took the pass and jammed. He had 15 points on 6-8 shooting (3-5 from three). Second Half: He missed a corner three on a drive and kick. He curled from the corner, took the pass and scored the layup. He was stripped on a rare curl from the other side, usually we set that up for his strong hand. He missed a reverse on the break and later a three on the same possession. He forced a baseline attack and was stripped, turnover. He got it back on the other end, knocking a ball away. He took the pass from Nash on the baseline cut in transition and scored the And-1 layup, he made the FT. He poked a ball loose on a reach around to ignite a break on the other end, then hit Nick for the And-1. He swished a corner three off the Nash kickout. He airballed a challenged three on the break. He cut under the hoop and Marshall found him for the layup. He missed a three in early offense.

Hill -- -- Another double-double for Jordan. He’s playing through injury out there but still getting the numbers. Our interior struggled to hold the line defensively. Once we got a little bit scrambled, it was an easy hoop. The Mavs scored 64 points in the paint. (Wright with a 23-point, 10-10 shooting game on nothing but easy dunks with no rotations, mismatches on rotations or easy scores in transition.) As soon as the first point of attack broke down the Laker D, it was over. The Stats: He scored 14 points on 5-10 shooting (4-6 from the line) to go with 10 boards (4 offensive), 1 assist, 1 steal, 2 blocks, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 31 minutes. He was a -9. The Action: He bricked a jumphook. He cleaned up the missed layup by Bazemore. He was stripped in the post out of a timeout. He had a short one at the rim goaltended. He blocked a shot and controlled it. On the other end, he drew FTs on the jumphook, he made both. Huge slam off the two-man game with Marshall. He missed a 17-footer. He reverse jammed off the two-man game with Marshall. He had 10 points on 4-6 shooting and 5 boards. Second Half: He grabbed a missed three, worked a series of post moves and drew FTs, he made one. He couldn’t finish a putback after a battle under the glass. He missed a floater in the lane. He hit the short pull-up off the two-man game with Marshall. He missed a 20-footer. He drew FTs working the post on iso, he made one.

Kelly -- -- Ouch. Some foul troubles in the first half kept him on the bench. D’Antoni switched it up in the second half, giving Wes the start at PF. Dirk’s a tough cover for anyone, let alone a rookie. Good experience for Kelly, for sure, but he wasn’t up for the challenge tonight. Too many easy scores for Dirk. Offensively, Kelly wasn’t making it up any way so eventually, D’Antoni parked him again early in the fourth quarter. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-6 shooting (0-2 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 1 board, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 15 minutes. He was a -5. The Action: He missed a runner over Dirk. He missed a corner three. He crossed over and was hit on a pull-up jumper with no call. He attacked baseline and hit Meeks in the corner for the three. He missed a turnaround in the post. He flashed to the ball, took the pass and hit the short jumper. Second Half: He drew FTs off the long bounce pass on the break from Nash, he made one. Not close on a wing three.

Marshall -- -- He took Marion defensively and the Mavs went to the post to exploit it right out of the gates. We decided to switch that up and put him back on a guard. Not sure what we were thinking there. He mentioned the combo of having to deal with Dirk’s shooting on one side and Wright’s length and Monta’s speed on the cuts was tricky for the Lakers to handle. Offensively, he struggled from three. He had just 1 turnover with his 8 assists. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 4-9 shooting (1-5 from three) to go with 2 boards, 8 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 29 minutes. He was a -5. The Action: He drained a three off a swing pass. He missed a three. He scored a layup off the break with Meeks and Bazemore. He whipped a pass to Hill off the two-man game for the slam. He forced a pass instead of trying to score, turnover. He missed a pull-up wing jumper. He hit Meeks cutting baseline for the dunk. He hit Hill with an interior bounce pass for the jam. He blocked a jumper. Second Half: He hit Meeks on a curl for the layup. He dished to Hill on the two-man game for the short jumper. Left open, he sank the hesitating wing jumper. Not close on a wing three out of a timeout. He missed a wing three on the inbounds. He hit Wes on the lob play set up out of an inbounds pass. Quick first step and he scored a layup around his man. He spotted Meeks wide open for the layup. He missed a chuck from three straight away.

Bazemore -- -- He was shooting blanks from three, missing all five he took. He was able to get the rim with speed off the dribble. Defensively, it’s fun watching his rotations. If we had some halfway decent defenders and a defensive scheme around him that would allow his energy to make a much bigger impact. “Anytime we rotate, if a team does a great job moving the basketball they are going to get cuts to the basket, easy layups, easy putbacks,” Bazemore said. He was a little irked a couple of the foul calls he got on help rotations. He doesn’t have the respect of refs yet. If that was Artest, for example, they’d have swallowed the whistles. The Stats: He scored 13 points on 4-11 shooting (0-5 from three, 5-5 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 2 assists, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 37 minutes. He was a -8 The Action: He attacked with speed in transition and missed the layup, but Hill cleaned it up. He stepped on the sideline pushing off, turnover. He blew past Carter for FTs, he made both. He swished a pull-up wing jumper. He attacked the paint and finger rolled in a layup. He missed a step-back three. High speed in transition, he blew past his man, elevated and flipped in the pretty layup. He had 8 points on 3-5 shooting and 2 assists. Second Half: He missed a wing three. He missed another three on a kickout. He and Wes double teamed Dirk to force a turnover. He missed a wing three. He attacked with speed from the corner and drew FTs, he made both. He blew past several defenders down the lane and scored an And-1 at the rim, he made the FT. He missed a long chuck from three.

Young -- -- He had a minor ankle tweak in the second half and Vitti jumped all over that, pulling Nick into the locker room. That sealed the Lakers fate as no one was likely to get hot enough like Nick can to turn a game around. D’Antoni thought he’d be fine. Not quite the same Nash/Young chemistry going tonight. Seemed like others (Wes Johnson) were mucking that up a little not getting the ball back to Nash to operate with more purpose. Nick was ticked again with the refs. The Stats: He scored 14 points on 5-8 shooting (2-4 from three, 2-3 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 20 minutes. He was a -9. The Action: He iso’d, took a bump with no call and hit the 18-footer. He sank an elbow jumper coming off the screen. He missed a wing three. He swished the corner three off the Nash drive and kick. He missed a wing three. Second Half: He had the ball stripped off him for a turnover. He drew FTs and made one. He scored an And-1 layup off the dish from Meeks on the break, he made the FT. He missed a quick-fire baseline jumper. He got hit on a wing three, sank it and wondered where the foul was.

Johnson -- -- He was clearly the better defender on Dirk tonight. Kelly was getting schooled. Offensively, however, not much from either Kelly or Wes. They combined for a 4-19 shooting night from our PF spot. Dirk would have turned 19 attempts into 35 points. Lakers needed to be a little more physical and tighter on Dirk. Wes had a great block in transition where he got up to the top of the square to block a shot. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 3-13 shooting (0-2 from three, 0-1 from the line) to go with 11 boards, 2 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks, 2 turnovers and no fouls in 32 minutes. He was a -5. The Action: He missed a pull-up elbow jumper. He missed a turnaround in the post. He blocked a shot and it led to a Laker score in transition. Horrible pass right to the Mavs and they threw it right back to him. He took the Nash pass, hung after contact and made the And-1 layup, he missed the FT. He missed an open wing three. Great D in transition to reject a layup at the top of the square (he got up). He battled for an offensive board and had the putback goaltended. Second Half: He missed a wing jumper to start the second half. He was blocked on a jam attempt. He forced up a sideline jumper and missed. He missed a short one trying to finesse it up. He couldn’t one-hand a missed Marshall three back in. He guided in a lob from Marshall set up off a deadball. He missed an open three, trailing the break.

Nash -- -- He needed 12 assists to pass Mark Jackson for third all-time in assists. He didn’t quite make it. “They should have gave me the ball a little more, man,” Nick said about Nash being 5 assists short. No telling whether he’ll be back to get that this season, but D’Antoni suggested he’d have room for him. His buddy Dirk passed Dominique for 11th in the all-time scoring list. The offense ran a bit more fluidly when Nash was out there and he helped them with a comeback in the second half. Then, the Lakers got killed and that was that. The offense really needed a bigman who could finish for Nash tonight. Aside from that baseline backdoor play, the Lakers really didn’t have any kind of bread-and-butter or go-to play because of that. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-3 shooting to go with 1 board, 7 assists, 4 turnovers and no fouls in 19 minutes. He was a -7. The Action: He set up Sacre for FTs off the two-man game. He attacked baseline and lost the ball, dunk the other way. He threw the ball out of bounds next time down expecting Sacre to keep cutting when he stopped instead. He hit Young coming off the screen for the elbow jumper. Nice bounce pass to Wes off the two-man game and Wes scored the And-1 out of the timeout. He attacked and kicked out to Nick for the corner three. He set up Sacre for more FTs off the two-man game. He probed the lane and hit Hill at the last second for the score. He threw a bounce pass away. He had 4 assists. Second Half: He missed a lefty hook attempt across the lane. He threaded a sweet pass to Meeks on the baseline backdoor play in transition for the And-1 (left-handed, off-the dribble, not a bounce pass, right on the money). He hit Kelly on the break with about a 40-foot bounce pass for FTs. He attacked and muscled up a bank layup after shedding his man. He attacked and hit Meeks in the corner for the three. He motored through the D, no one stopped him so he took it for the layup.

Sacre -- -- A little more chemistry again between Nash and Sacre tonight. Sacre got the line quite a bit in this one, none of those will go as assists, but Nash was setting them up. You wish he could finish stronger at the rim over defenders on some of these, but he just can’t play above the rim like that. Pretty solid D at times, but the Lakers had nothing around him helping or nothing when he was out of the game. D’Antoni praised his D afterward but said the offense is improving but needs to get better. He said Sacre has all the tools. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 1-6 shooting (5-6 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 17 minutes. He was a -3. The Action: He drew FTs on the screen-roll with Nash, he made one. Nice double with Wes to force a travel on VC on the sideline. His jumphook was rejected by Carter. Nice help D to swat a layup, he was blocked on a dunk on the other end. He missed a short one in the post. He missed a jumper when he should have attacked the rim right in front of him. Next time, he went after it trying to rip down the rim and he drew the foul for FTs, he made both. Second Half: He hit the jumphook on the corner sequence. He was hacked to prevent a putback attempt, he made both FTs. He missed a 16-footer.

D’Antoni -- -- He had Marshall on Marion defensively to start the game. They got burned on some easy hoops in the post… Quick timeout trailing 9-5… Horribly executed double teams by the Lakers early on, giving up dunks when the rotations didn’t happen… He brought in Wes for Kelly, who had issues trying to cover Dirk… The Mavs 10-point lead was trimmed to 6 when the next timeout came. He brought in Nash, Young and Sacre for Hill, Marshall and Bazemore… They cut a once 10-point hole down to a 27-23 Mavs lead after the first quarter… He brought in Bazemore for Meeks… He sat Sacre for Hill down by 3 after 4 minutes… Down 6, he brought back in his starters midway through the quarter… A 10-0 run and the Lakers led by 2 with 4 minutes left… The Lakers led 54-52 at the half. The Lakers shot 49% (21-43, 5-13 3PT, 7-9 FT). They had 8 steals. The Mavs shot 46% (22-48, 3-13 3PT, 5-6 FT)… He sat Kelly for Johnson to start the half… Down 5, he brought back in Kelly along with Young and Sacre midway through the quarter for Hill, Wes and Bazemore… He brought in Nash for Marshall down 7… The Lakers got a couple of And-1s on the break and took the lead. Just a much different flow when Nash is out there… The Lakers trailed 82-78 heading into the fourth… Same unit to start the fourth. Dirk chewing the Lakers up the last couple minutes. The Mavs pushed out to a double-digit lead… Wes back in for Kelly and Bazemore for Meeks… He sat Wes for Meeks to matchup with the Mavs’ small ball… Down 14, he sat Nash for Marshall midway through the quarter… The Mavs sweep the Lakers for the first time in their franchise history.

[ksmgf]

first. Thanks DB

[SweetP]

Thanks
_________________
“There is always light if only we're brave enough to see it, if only we're brave enough to be it.” --Amanda Gorman

[Shaber]

Six more games of this misery.
_________________
.

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

[PLATNUM]

There was a play (among many others) about 3:30 left in the game that left me completely beside myself. Off a Mavs turnover, Marshall, Wes Johnson and Meeks were on a fast break with Calderon and Crowder defending. Instead of trying to ram it down their throat.. Meeks fades back to the 3 point line and Wes has a hand up, POINTING TO MEEKS so Marshall can pass to him.

Of course, Marshall passes it to Wes, who is caught off guard -- he gets it to Meeks who fires up a 3, that gets blocked since the DEF had time to recover. Freaking ridiculous.

Wesley has insane athleticism and potential to be a solid player. But he is too soft and has no edge to him. He should have looked to throw down on that play and put the Mavs on their heels. Embarrassing. Meeks should have filled the lane and taken advantage of the 3 on 2 break. Horrible.


_________________
"Dread it, run from it... destiny arrives all the same."

[KeepItRealOrElse]

[magicdays]

MDA says Sacre has all the tools

Yeah, sure, keep telling yourself that coach...
_________________
Ahhhh, those were the days...time for a new beginning!

[LakerLanny]

This season is pure pain, I am happy it will be ending soon. What a disgusting product on the floor this year for the Lakers.

I doubt next year is much better either.
_________________
Love, Laker Lanny

[TheBlackMamba]