LAKERS -at- HAWKS - 12/15 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

 
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DancingBarry
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 15, 2019 8:00 pm    Post subject: LAKERS -at- HAWKS - 12/15 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

Winning Ugly... The Lakers played one of their worst games of the season tonight. It was uninspired, turnover prone and unfocused defensively. No one outside of LeBron could hit a three in the first three quarters.

Somehow, they lead by 4 points heading into the fourth despite shooting 3-22 from three with 19 turnovers up to that point.

The Lakers only allow 22.4 points in the fourth quarter, which leads the league. The game got choppy and slow as the pressure built up. It was ugly for L.A. but might have been too much for the Hawks. The Lakers would make just one field goal in the final 7:30 of action, but they held the Hawks to just 18 points in the fourth.

Up 2 with 15 seconds left, LeBron was fouled intentionally for freethrows and only made one to go up by 3. He then fell asleep on defense and gave up a wide open look at a corner three. Thankfully, the Hawks missed. Green grabbed the board, was fouled and went to the line to ice the game.

The Lakers were able to brick away from three, turn the ball over at a high rate all game, make defensive mistakes consistently ... and still pull out the 101-96 road win.

They extended their road win streak to 14 games in a row. They'll have to play much, much better in these next games to keep that streak alive.


LeBron -- -- He’s third in the league in fastbreak points with 5.1 per game (Giannis, Lowry ahead of him). He had that by the early second quarter as we got out in transition early on. His first couple of buckets were on the break, spinning around a defender for a layup and then next time down he had a breakaway dunk off a Lakers steal. In the second quarter, he threw down a double-pumping dunk off a Dwight block to ignite the break. Then some more FTs off a Dwight steal that ignited another break. Best play of the night on the break was an assist to Dwight on the break going between his legs to Dwight dunk. That was his only assist in the first half but he had 23 points (17 in that second quarter). He’d dish 5 assists in the third quarter. A couple big plays early in the fourth where he stripped a big, pushed it out and hit Rondo for a three. Then, he got a switch and hit a three over a big to force a timeout. Things really slowed down in that fourth quarter. “We had some really careless turnovers...I thought when we did execute, we had some great shots,” LeBron said. Too many turnovers again tonight. We need to clean that up and quick. I’m sure I was like most of you, not thrilled to see him go to the line with 15 seconds left. He short-armed that first one badly. The Stats: He scored 32 points on 12-21 shooting (4-10 from three, 4-7 from the line) to go with 13 boards, 7 assists, 1 steal, 3 blocks, 4 turnovers and 1 foul in 37 minutes. He was a +10.

Davis -- -- He turned an ankle on a screen-roll finish late in the fourth quarter. He was hobbling around the next couple of minutes after that before we finally had a stoppage. After that timeout, he stayed on the floor up 3. Not sure if that came into play, but he was in on a couple of coach’s challenges in the final minute. First, he was driving to the hoop and was blocked (called a foul, after a review it was overturned...might have been fouled with off hand). Then he had a recovery under the hoop where he blocked a layup, came off the ball and hit the arm. We challenged but didn’t win that. He had three fouls in the first half and we sat him a little early. He scored half his points in the third quarter. He didn’t have it from distance and fired away, going 0-6 from three. Our starting from court tonight had 14 of the Lakers 22 turnovers. That really limited their impact and the team’s ability to get separation. The Stats: He scored 27 points on 11-23 shooting (0-6 from three, 5-7 from the line) to go with 13 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks, 5 turnovers and 5 fouls in 35 minutes. He was a -3.

Green -- -- I’m not sure if his NY trip and not bringing his A game in the first half got him the early hook from Vogel in the third quarter, but he had an awful shooting first half, going 1-5 (the one make was a dunk after a nice steal). Then we started the second half very poor, so Vogel pulled him. We’d bring him back late in the fourth and he’d come up with some big plays. He’d swish a leaner curling into the paint. He’d pull down a couple big rebounds in traffic. The last of which resulted in two freethrows, which he nailed to ice the game. That three shooting, though? First, he needs to knock down those wide open threes, especially from the corner. But second, we aren’t doing him any favors having him come off screens to shoot threes. He bricked on an ATO we set up for him coming off a screen to his right, so we’re purposely calling his number on these sometimes. That’s just not his skillset. (That play, by the way, was another variation of our stagger screen actions we’ve been running lately.) Still, he had some feisty D and rebounding out there tonight. Always good at getting challenges in (he’s 7th among guards in contesting threes per 36 minutes). The Stats: He scored 10 points on 2-8 shooting (0-5 from three, 6-6 from the line) to go with 7 boards, 2 steals and 1 foul in 21 minutes. He was a +5.

McGee -- -- Three turnovers to start the second half. One an awful handoff/pass between KCPs legs, then he followed that with a travel in the post. Later he tried to take off the horns set and traveled again. Felt like this might be a game where you give Dwight an extra stint early in place of McGee before bringing him back later. The focus, energy and effort was not there like that last game that’s for sure. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-2 shooting (1-2 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 5 turnovers and 1 foul in 15 minutes. He was a +0.

Caldwell-Pope -- -- Some good defensive pressure from KCP that helped the Lakers get some easy ones in transition. He threw down on one breakaway and then also tapped a loose ball ahead to Green for a breakaway dunk. Later in the game, he also had a steal in the corner that he saved behind his back to a teammate to push out another break. He also had some attempts to finish around the rim in the half court. That got him to the line a little bit in this one. Good energy (even getting to a couple of offensive boards). The Stats: He scored 11 points on 4-11 shooting (0-2 from three, 3-5 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 27 minutes. He was a +0.

Caruso -- -- His minutes are getting a bit screwy with Bradley back and Rondo healthy. He had a very short stint in the first quarter before going to the bench as Bradley/Rondo played. He then had a short stint at the end of the first half. Then, we mixed things up and brought him back in early in the third quarter for Green, who couldn’t hit a shot. Finally, he was going to get back back in with 3 minutes left in the fourth, but we didn’t check him in until 1:28 later for Dwight (despite having a deadball and while leaving Rondo in). That’s not easy to get any kind of offensive rhythm or flow to your game. But he can always bring the defense, scrap for steals, take charges (he’s 7th among guards in taking charges per 36), make proper rotations. He’d score his only points on a couple of freethrows. LeBron had him wide open for a three but didn’t give it to him late, probably because that’s a tough situation being cold. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 0-2 shooting (0-2 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal and 2 fouls in 15 minutes. He was a +2.

Bradley -- -- He had 3 of the Lakers 14 first half turnovers in his 11 minutes. The pressure D is nice, but with as low usage as he has, he can’t be contributing to the turnovers at that kind of rate. He missed both his threes tonight (doesn’t look like he has his legs back yet.) He’s shooting 25% from three this season. His only hoop was on an ATO set up for him to get to his strong hand and he sank the floater. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-6 shooting (0-2 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 1 assist, 3 steals, 3 turnovers and 4 fouls in 24 minutes. He was a +3.

Howard -- -- Thought he should have had more minutes. With McGee floundering, we didn’t change up our rotation, but throwing Dwight in the mix early would have probably made a big difference. He was bringing it tonight and very disruptive defensively in the paint. His D led to a number of transition opportunities. Great sequence with a block on one end, he then trailed the break, took a between-the-legs pass from LeBron and threw down a soaring dunk. He did a great job in that first half challenging and blocking shots to get the Lakers into transition. That dunk would be his only points as he’d go just 1-2 (which would hurt his shooting percentage numbers...he’s third in the league in FG% in the restricted area at 79%). Again, excellent work on the boards, pulling down 8 in 23 minutes. Fun Fact: Dwight is the active leader in rebounding in the NBA with 13,375 in his career. He had a huge block on a dunk attempt, but we couldn’t recover it and gave up a score. Good footwork at times defensively, including cutting of the baseline to force a turnover. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-2 shooting to go with 8 boards (3 offensive), 1 assist, 1 steal, 3 blocks, 2 turnovers and 4 fouls in 23 minutes. He was a +8.

Rondo -- -- Offensively, he and AD teamed up for the usual backdoor spin alleyoop. Rondo was attacking a little more that usual. He was catching the defense by rejecting screens for straight-line drives. He scored a layup off a great ball fake on one drive to send the D the other way. (LeBron was going up for a lob on that, didn’t get it as Rondo ball-faked and pretended to try to block Rondo’s layup as a joke...never seen that before.) “He hit me with the fake pass, so I hit him with the fake block,” LeBron said. Rondo sank 1-4 from three, making a wing three on a kickout in the fourth. Not really a great fourth and we should probably be playing some other guys versus giving Rondo 26 minutes. But I think this is again trying to take the load off LeBron. Still, he sure didn’t help the offense much in that fourth when things went south. Defensively, he’s been having a few moments lately. He’s hustling a bit more and getting more hands on balls. Good to see him flying around the court just a little bit more. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 4-10 shooting (1-4 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 7 boards, 5 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 26 minutes. He was a +0.

Dudley -- -- He’s still coming in for the Kuzma minutes. Nothing going on in that first stint. He had a nice steal in the fourth, swiping a kickout on good anticipation to ignite a break. This is the kind of game that Dudley should have had a lot of minutes and we could have gotten Antetokounmpo some run. They definitely missed Kuzma proving the team some spark. Dudley was a bit too much of a non-factor in decent minutes. The Stats: He didn’t score or shoot, had 1 steal and 4 fouls in 17 minutes. He was a +0.

Vogel -- -- Key Moment: Let’s go with the Hawks missing a wide open corner three to tie the game up in the final seconds. That might be one of LeBron’s worst defensive moments of the season. He stood nailed to the ground as the Hawks attacked, his back turned to his man and allowed a pass to the corner and wide open three that, thankfully, was missed. Good teams find ways to win. Bad teams find ways to lose. The Hawks did that from beyond the arc in those final possessions of the game.

Key Substitution: Dwight was the best bench player for the Lakers tonight, despite Rondo having a reasonable game. But let’s go with the late game sub to bring back in Green. Vogel really mixed up the rotations with Caruso and Green in the second half. He pulled Green early for Caruso and brought Green in with about 7 minutes left. Green would hit a leaning jumper and sink a couple of freethrows. He’d grab a couple of key rebounds in a crowd including one with 5.5 seconds left where he was fouled and then iced the game from the line. If he could have just hit his one open three in that quarter that would have been a very strong stint, especially when we were struggling to score.

Key Stats: The Lakers had 14 turnovers in the first half (with just 8 assists). They led 55-48 at the half, but you can’t have a game’s worth of turnovers by halftime on the road. They coughed the ball up 3 more times in 2 minutes to start the second half and the score was tied. Just awful basketball with 17 turnovers in 26 minutes. Thankfully, they were playing Atlanta. They’d finish with 22 turnovers. (They had just 21 assists...the 5-31 shooting from three helped that number stay low.)

Coach Challenges: The Lakers have had some benefits on calls or non-calls in the final seconds of games this year. Tonight, the challenges worked in the Hawks’ favor. They overturned a foul call when the refs said AD was hit on a layup attempt. The Lakers challenged with 19.8 on AD blocked attempt where he came off the ball onto the arm.


Last edited by DancingBarry on Mon Dec 16, 2019 11:50 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Annihilator
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 15, 2019 8:03 pm    Post subject:

These games reviews are always very nice and much appreciated. Thanks again.
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Last edited by Annihilator on Sun Dec 15, 2019 8:27 pm; edited 2 times in total
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 15, 2019 8:18 pm    Post subject:

I’m pretty sure you put the same stats for AD and Lebron (except points). Copy and paste maybe? I believe Lebron had 7 assists, not sure about the rest.
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 15, 2019 8:23 pm    Post subject:

Everyone who played tonight recorded a steal.
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 15, 2019 9:39 pm    Post subject:

Thanks DB! Missed the game, sounds like it wasn't pretty, at least on offense.

Still 24 wins for the first third of the season, it doesn't get much prettier than that. I'll take entering mid-season on a 73 win pace any day.
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 15, 2019 10:17 pm    Post subject:

These are the type of games very good teams just lose. Becomes an L in the loss column and they move to the next game. Lakers are consistently winning them so far.

Their next 4 games, however, will be difficult and I am a little concerned with AD's ankle coming at the "here's the real test" time...

Lakers play the Pacers (18-9), Bucks (24-3), Nuggets (17-8), and Clippers (20-8). If they play like they did tonight, they will lose at least one game. Frankly, if they dont play at least as well as they did when they revved it up versus the Heat, they will lose. If AD doesnt play it will be incredibly difficult to even split these 4.

In fantasy land I am hoping for the sweep, but with a healthy AD I can realistically see a 3-1 run. All comes down to their focus and energy.
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 15, 2019 10:18 pm    Post subject:

Thanks, DB!
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 15, 2019 10:21 pm    Post subject:

Startrout wrote:
I’m pretty sure you put the same stats for AD and Lebron (except points). Copy and paste maybe? I believe Lebron had 7 assists, not sure about the rest.


Thanks. Fixed.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2019 2:21 am    Post subject:

Thanks DB. DH was a major disruptor and challenged everything and anything.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2019 2:56 am    Post subject:

Thanks DB !!1
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:43 am    Post subject:

Thanks DB. Sloppy game. Too many TOs. Defense was good enough to eek out another W.

Hope AD's ankle is okay.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2019 6:23 am    Post subject:

Recaps are always my go to when I can't watch a game. Sounds like the Lakers played down to their opponent. Hopefully they'll bring in Indy, always a tough place to play, on Tuesday.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2019 6:44 am    Post subject:

Thanks again DB!
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2019 7:06 am    Post subject:

Was an ugly win. We are fortunate that we have the 4th Q defense we do. Can send in Dwight, Caruso, Bradley. Then bring in AD on top of that. Bring back Green. A lot of defenders there who will not let you get anything easy - and still the Hawks missed some easy wide open 3s.

Think the Lakers are mentally a bit tired. Hard to get up for every minute and every game especially teams that are not that good. The fact that they still pull out wins playing average to bad, is pretty cool.

Now it is time to shift gears with playing Indiana and then Milwaukee.

I am hoping we make some adjustments to the offense. Too many sets last few games where the offense comes down to Lebron handling the ball too much of the shot clock. Think teams are starting to run some defensive zones or defensive schemes where Lebron can not get a pass off to an open man easily. They are taking away some of those passing and driving lanes. I know Lebron feels good about his 3 ball this year. But even if Lebron makes those 3s when he runs out the shot clock and shoots a 3 (Harden style), it keeps other players uninvolved. When the opposing defense does that to Lebron, we should keep trusting the wing pick and roll and that at some point we will get a quality look for someone, and not just let Lebron isolate out there.

Even so, it just comes down to making open shots. Make or miss league. We shot 5-31 from 3. Lots of talk about not wanting us to take mid-range shots. But I feel the team has a lot of good mid-range and in scorers with Bradley, AD, Dwight, McGee, Lebron etc. A lot of the players on this team are good at making a close range jumpshot than a distant range one. 5-31 on 3s means we got 15 points on 31 three pointers. Just not going to get it done, if you shoot that volume of 3s and not make them.

Danny Green 0-5, KCP 0-2, Bradley 0-2, Caruso 0-2. AD 0-6. That is why it looked bad. A lot of those 3s were good to great looks.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2019 7:16 am    Post subject:

Team stats

Points 101 (+5) Lakers
FGs 36 for 84 (+5) Lakers
3PTs 5 for 31 (-7)
Points in the paint 54 (+20) Lakers
Fastbreak points 18 (-1)
Rebounds 56 (+14) Lakers
Turnovers 22 (+3) Lakers

21 point swing for the Hawks with the 3 point shooting. The TOs. Thats why the game was ugly and close.

Lakers dominated the glass and the paint.

Have said it a couple of times, when we make our 3 pointers at a good rate, we are pretty much unbeatable. We consistently win or play well in the paint. It is our outside game that can be inconsistent. We have to find ways to get more sets involving Dwight, McGee. Getting Bradley, Caruso, Rondo, to the basket. Kuzma when he gets back. Our mindset on offense can sometimes lean too much on living by Lebron-AD or the 3 pointer. Because through a playoff season, we are not going to hit 3s at an elite level, because we are not that great a shooting team. So we are going to need to dominate the paint, and Frank and co. will need to get creative with how they can set players up with more and more opportunities in the paint.

Example - McGee last game. Thought he should have gotten more touches-chances. In this game thought more chances for Dwight. Gotta get some screens for Caruso so he can get to the basket on offense, he has the speed to get to the basket and finish. These little things need to start to develop by playoffs for the offense.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2019 7:55 am    Post subject:

wolfpaclaker wrote:
Think the Lakers are mentally a bit tired.


Can't wait for this month to be over. Brutal stretch of games.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2019 8:13 am    Post subject:

wolfpaclaker wrote:
Team stats

Points 101 (+5) Lakers
FGs 36 for 84 (+5) Lakers
3PTs 5 for 31 (-7)
Points in the paint 54 (+20) Lakers
Fastbreak points 18 (-1)
Rebounds 56 (+14) Lakers
Turnovers 22 (+3) Lakers

21 point swing for the Hawks with the 3 point shooting. The TOs. Thats why the game was ugly and close.

Lakers dominated the glass and the paint.

Have said it a couple of times, when we make our 3 pointers at a good rate, we are pretty much unbeatable. We consistently win or play well in the paint. It is our outside game that can be inconsistent. We have to find ways to get more sets involving Dwight, McGee. Getting Bradley, Caruso, Rondo, to the basket. Kuzma when he gets back. Our mindset on offense can sometimes lean too much on living by Lebron-AD or the 3 pointer. Because through a playoff season, we are not going to hit 3s at an elite level, because we are not that great a shooting team. So we are going to need to dominate the paint, and Frank and co. will need to get creative with how they can set players up with more and more opportunities in the paint.

Example - McGee last game. Thought he should have gotten more touches-chances. In this game thought more chances for Dwight. Gotta get some screens for Caruso so he can get to the basket on offense, he has the speed to get to the basket and finish. These little things need to start to develop by playoffs for the offense.


Agree with almost all of it.

Green at least helps in other ways when his 3 is not falling . . . but dude is 10-37 from beyond the arc in December (27%) and has had some GREAT looks. Take away his 7/9 against the Clips and he's at 33% for the season.

AD & LeBron are taking too many threes in my book. Calling plays for AD to shoot the 3 are wasting possessions.

Early in the season, some team threw a zone at the Lakers and our response was to get the ball to AD either at the FT line or on the left low block and we absolutely SHREDDED them with passes/cuts/lobs from those spots. I want to see more of that and less step-back 30 footers over the top of zones.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2019 3:23 pm    Post subject:

Thanks DB!
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2019 11:55 pm    Post subject:

Dang looks like Google docs reverted to an older version of my write up when my internet went out. Some stuff ant the end there was completely screwed up. Fixed it.
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 17, 2019 12:09 am    Post subject:

DrDent wrote:
These are the type of games very good teams just lose. Becomes an L in the loss column and they move to the next game. Lakers are consistently winning them so far.


Seems we’ve said this a lot this year and I agree.

We have been very good at closing. And I don’t think our offense has been particularly great. It’s that fourth quarter D and teams having to always go through AD in the final couple of minutes. Last night was a little luck with LeBron’s miscue at the end, but what a difference it’s been this season. Two years ago this team was a disaster in the final minutes.
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 17, 2019 11:17 am    Post subject:

DancingBarry wrote:
DrDent wrote:
These are the type of games very good teams just lose. Becomes an L in the loss column and they move to the next game. Lakers are consistently winning them so far.


Seems we’ve said this a lot this year and I agree.

We have been very good at closing. And I don’t think our offense has been particularly great. It’s that fourth quarter D and teams having to always go through AD in the final couple of minutes. Last night was a little luck with LeBron’s miscue at the end, but what a difference it’s been this season. Two years ago this team was a disaster in the final minutes.

Our offense has been up and down this season, even though it is rated with the elites in the top 5. I think we can get lazy on O, sort of like how teams get lazy on D, we get lazy and coast on O. We begin to do a lot of iso feeds with the isolation player holding the ball too long, or Lebron just dribbling out the possession. Or even just initiating the offense way too slow. This is why I value Rondo and will continue do so. When he comes in, this happens a lot less. Sure Rondo makes some poor passes and plays at time, or some screw ups, but he also gets the ball moving and players begin to look to be play finishers. You see him get the ball to AD or Lebron in the post the moment they are in there, as opposed to what Lebron as QB can do, which is get the ball in to the post much later. I see these little things that Rondo does as QB that Lebron does not as consistently. Lebron makes the best plays and creates the most, but he also is the reason usually the offense begins to stall and slow down. If he can get the offense started quicker, especially when he is going to go to AD or go to work himself, it would help. It would also help if we can get Rondo and Kuzma healthy for a few weeks so they can establish some chemistry with AD-Lebron. There has been no consistency with the Lakers 2nd unit best playmakers coming in and making our offense better. This is because Rondo and Kuzma have been in-out of the lineup. Hope by playoffs we get some consecutive weeks of them playing with Lebron-AD. It will go a long way, IMO.

How many times have we really had 4-5 games in a row where one could say they could go to a 2nd unit of Dwight, AD or Lebron, Kuzma, a sniper like Green or Bradley, and Rondo? That's a really talented 2nd unit if we can get them healthy and to play together for a few weeks. Dwight, LBJ/AD, Kuzma, Bradley/Green, Rondo. Once the offense has some flow, then switch Rondo out for Caruso, and just go for the TKO using defense - Caruso, Bradley, Dwight around Lebron/AD. Maybe subbing out Dwight for Kuzma or Green to close out. We're gonna TKO teams with that group, if we can get some consistent reps for Rondo and Kuzma. Won't be right away. With patience.
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 17, 2019 11:34 am    Post subject:

DB
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