LAKERS -at- CLIPPERS - 4/4 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

 
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DancingBarry
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:34 pm    Post subject: LAKERS -at- CLIPPERS - 4/4 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

No Offense, No Chance... Against the better teams in the league, the Lakers offense just dies for long stretches. Today, it was dead on arrival.

The Lakers scored just 38 points in the first half, missing their first 9 threes to start the game. They trimmed a 20-point lead down to 15 by halftime, but without any consistent scoring they were in trouble. Even their good defense didn’t turn into offense as they scored just 2 points on 10 Clipper turnovers in the first half.

Two double dribbles today by Lakers. So obviously the offense wasn’t clicking at even a reasonable level.

In the third quarter, the Lakers managed just 17 points and Marc Gasol was the only Laker player in double digits as they headed to the fourth down 22.

Once the game transitioned to garbage time they couldn’t come up with enough points to keep this one from their lowest offensive outing of the season. They fell 104-86.


Schröder -- -- I’m not sure why they weren’t running more Gasol/Schroder pick and pop in this game early on. You get a switch of Zubac or Gasol for an open three. We saw Schröder blow past Zubac for a layup in the first half. Our first three in the half was Gasol wide open with Zu having to close. In the second half, we saw them run the two-man action for Gasol threes twice and that forced a timeout. Most annoying play of the game might have been Dennis’s double dribble on the ATO out of that timeout. Wow. The Clippers then put Batum on him and he didn’t do anything with that. This is the kind of game that fans will think of right now when talking about his contract. None of that matters. The playoffs will determine everything. Floor spacing helps open his game up. He and the team need to do a better job of making teams pay when they pack the the point. Find a hot hand, exploit it. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 3-12 shooting (0-3 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 7 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and 2 fouls in 33 minutes. He was a -19.

Kuzma -- -- Just 3 points on 1-6 shooting in the first half and his one bucket was our only points on the break. In the second half, we called his number on a curl cut to take a pass from Gasol for an And-1 layup. Vogel trying to get him going because we have to put points on the board. Never happened. That freehthrow shooting...yikes. He airballed one of those high arching ones today. In the second half he changed the arc. So he’s a mess. What did he do to his freethrow shooting this year? I just don’t understand it. He’s shooting 65% when he was in the 70s all his career. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-10 shooting (0-4 from three, 2-5 from the line) to go with 7 boards, 1 assist, 2 blocks, 4 turnovers and 1 foul in 33 minutes. He was a -25.

Caldwell-Pope -- -- He airballed a great look from the corner to start the game. I like that we purposely ran a play to get him going. But, man, KCP, you can’t do that. Some really awful passing by KCP, as well, today. He killed some momentum early in the fourth with a bad pass. I know Vogel said he wanted KCP to be more aggressive and KCP pretended like, okay, I’m glad he said that...here I go. But nothing is working right now to get him on track except maybe playing some garbage teams. Even that isn’t carrying over. Only time he showed a pulse was in garbage time. We need to keep searching for some pet plays for KCP to make it easy to see the ball go through the hoop. Only thing you can do. He did lead the team with 3 steals, but we didn’t see that transition game where he usually gets a runout or two. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 3-9 shooting (2-6 from three) to go with 3 boards, 1 assist, 3 steals, 3 turnovers and 2 fouls in 33 minutes. He was a -20.

Gasol -- -- He hit the Lakers first three of the game with 2 minutes left in the first half. The Lakers were 1-10 from three at that point and down 20. He picked up a tech right after that for a no call on that shot. In the second half we started to use him a little more and he sank a couple more open threes against the drop coverage. Early in the game he also had a dunk, so he was in double digits today by the mid third quarter. Unfortunately, the only Laker to do that after the first three quarters. They should have milked that Gasol two-man action early on. The Clipper gradually just packed the paint and weren’t even covering some guys at times. “Sometimes you need a smack in the face to wake you up,” Horry said after this game in regards to Marc and Drummond coming in. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 4-7 shooting (3-3 from three) to go with 3 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 4 turnovers and 2 fouls in 18 minutes. He was a -17.

Morris -- -- He had nearly half the Lakers points in the first quarter with 9 points on 4-5 shooting (his brother had 11, so they combined for 20 of the 47 total points). He had that midrange action going early. Last game, he did all his damage early, then nothing later. Today? Similar sort of story. Hot start, quiet later. Defensively, we put him on Kawhi quite a bit to use his length to slow him down (versus matching him up against his brother...who was defending Kieff). In the ongoing story of offensive rebounding from the freethrow line, he and Zu had some battles there. Twice Morris shed Zu to get open at the front of the rim, but we made those FTs. He sometimes plants his hand onto his knee and uses his legs to power into the rebounder, then sheds the hands and the grabbing to get open. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 4-10 shooting (0-3 from three, 1-1 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 1 assist, 1 block and 1 foul in 28 minutes. He was a -14.

Harrell -- -- Early on, we struggled a bit to get him the ball in the post against smaller defenders who would front or partial front the post. Against, Zu he had to deal with his size. We hit a baseline jumper over Zu (he’d knock down another jumper over another defender later). To start the fourth we tried to get him into open space off screens with potential mismatches. So an adjustment to deal with the coverages. We got him more involved as our guards were able to get a little penetration and he started putting points on the board like he does. The Stats: He scored 19 points on 7-12 shooting (5-6 from the line) to go with 6 boards, 2 assists, 2 blocks, 1 turnover and no fouls in 27 minutes. He was a -4.

Caruso -- -- He was the only Laker with a positive in the +/- in the first half (and finished the game with a +7 in a blowout). BBall Index’s all-encompassing defensive metric has Caruso in its first team all-defense rank. The reason is not only is he a good defender, but he’s a versatile defender. Taking on the point of attack, chaser, helper and wing stopper responsibilities. In his first stint today, he guarded Rondo, Batum and PG13, (add Morris and Kennard in the third quarter) all different types of players and varying in size. When you don’t need to rely on everyone for some scoring output, this is what makes a difference around superstars. The Lakers, however, are just struggling bad to get points on the board and he’s a guy that plays off others. He knocked down a couple threes tonight, one on a kickout, one he created. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 2-6 shooting (2-3 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 1 board, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 2 turnovers and no fouls in 26 minutes. He was a +7.

Horton-Tucker -- -- He was feeling a little confident with his hsot early on as he swished a fade in the post against Rondo, then hit an iso wing jumper. That second shot, the wing jumper on iso, is what will take his game to the next level. If guys have to play tight on him his superb attacking and finishing ability opens up further. He swished another jumper off a spin in the third, stepping back to fade from the elbow. Nice game from him with moments on both ends. Loved seeing he and Kuz talking about the game on the floor and also them teaming up when Kuz denied his man penetration and THT finished him off for a steal. The Stats: He scored 16 points on 7-14 shooting (0-1 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 2 steals and 3 fouls in 26 minutes. He was a -3.

McKinnie -- -- With Matthews joining the injured, McKinnie stayed in the rotation. He came in late in the first quarter. He had a nice block to prevent a drive, but nothing else. Buyout market for the playoffs will be decided in a few days. Right now, the Lakers could use someone who can put the ball in the hoop with McKinnie’s minutes. Do they think short term like that? Or do they think long term and another defender type that can give them some length at the wing? Let’s see what options shake out before Friday. The Stats: He didn’t score or shoot, had 1 board and was a -1 in 9 minutes.

Cacok -- -- He got in with 3:21 for the bad side of garbage time, when we’re down. The Stats: He scored 1 point on 1-2 shooting from the line to go with 1 board, 1 steal and no fouls in 3 minutes. He was a +3.

Antetokounmpo -- -- In for late garbage time. He iso’d and fumbled the ball away, for his second turnover in 3 minutes. Not good. The Stats: He didn’t score, had 1 board and 2 turnovers with no fouls in 3 minutes. He was a +3.

Vogel -- -- Key Moment: This game was trouble from the start. We were down 10-2 when Vogel took his first timeout. The team struggled to score all game.

Key Substitution: No LeBron, no AD, no Drummond yet, and now no Matthews. Our bigs led their units in scoring. Gasol with 11 for the starters (sheesh) and Trezz with 19 off the bench. Thinking about this matchup later, the Clippers will have Ibaka in the mix (possibly Cousins). I like the Zubac vs. Gasol match up as Marc can space the floor and pull him out like today, instead of seeing the Trezz vs. Zubac combo. With Gasol coming off the bench later, I’ll be curious to see how they deploy him in relation to Zu’s usage if the teams meet each other.

Key Stats: The 0-9 start from three. The Lakers would go 7-14 after that, but the Clippers were still just leaving guys and packing the paint. We didn’t establish the three ball as a threat early.

Coach’s Challenge: The Clippers used theirs midway through the second quarter on a block/charge call against Paul George.
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DrDent
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:39 pm    Post subject:

Thanks for the summary DB.

Just a meh game. Not unexpected, but I was hoping to be wrong.

Hopefully AD, LBJ and Dre come back sooner, than later. Hoping we are no less than the sixth seed when that happens.

Let's just forget this one and move to the next.

And yea...the obligatory "first"
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anth2000
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2021 4:30 pm    Post subject:

Schroder, Kuzma, KCP - Pathetic effort. My teenage boys could have done better.

All three guys chalked this up as a loss before they even arrived.

Management should address. This was bullsh*t effort out of these three clowns.
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A Mad Chinaman
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2021 5:21 pm    Post subject:

Lakers have many truly "Not Ready for Primetime Players" on the floor

Matthews' play was awful - oh, he was injured and really didn't play - lol!

KCP needs some time management on his PT

With Gasol being the most consistent offensive threat, hopefully there will be a greater focus on using him given that Schroeder isn't igniting the offense
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TDRock
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2021 5:58 pm    Post subject:

I saw the first quarter and a half or so and that was definitely enough on this fine Sunday.

Thanks DB
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akgolf
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 4:53 am    Post subject:

Thanks DB!
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danzag
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 4:59 am    Post subject:

Thanks, DB.

On to the next one...
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Laker7
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 5:42 am    Post subject:

Missed the game due to spending Easter with my grandson. Recorded it to watch later. After reading this, I will pass.
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TooMuchMajicBuss
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 7:13 am    Post subject:

Thanks DB. Here's hoping for a healthy team come playoff time.
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ElginBaylor
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 7:31 am    Post subject:

It would have been nice if they had just kept it close. Pretty depressing to watch. The only reason I bothered with DB's thoughts and ratings was out of morbid curiosity. Thanks anyway, DB.
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