Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2024 11:05 pm Post subject: BUCKS -at- LAKERS - 3-8-24 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings
D’lo and the D by Dinwiddie... The Lakers find a way to be competitive against some of the top teams when down a superstar.
Tonight, it was the Bucks in town, and tonight, with LeBron out, it was D’Angelo Russell’s house.
Russell was bombing threes all game, making all four he took in the first half as the Lakers edge out a small lead.
It was in the fourth quarter, when the real battle took place. With AD catching an elbow to the shoulder that had him limited, the Lakers put the ball in Russell’s hands.
He continued to bomb threes, but the Bucks were able to take advantage of an injured AD (and Rui struggling with his shot) and they edged out to a late lead despite Russell’s best efforts.
Russell scored 21 of the Lakers 27 points in the fourth, none bigger than his final two buckets as he dug the Lakers out of a hole. He attacked for an And-1 layup to cut the lead to 1 point. The Lakers got the stop on the other end after a great challenge by Rui and had the ball with 23 seconds left.
Russell hunted the matchups, got Dame switched on him, attacked and hit a floater to go up by a point with 5.9 seconds left.
Ham brought in his defensive lineup of AD, Hayes, Rui, Cam and Dinwiddie.
As the ball got to Lillard as you’d expect, Dinwiddie shaded him to go right, stayed on him, elevated on the pull-up jumper and blocked the shot. The arena went nuts. Who gets a stop on Dame in those kinds of situations? Huge play by the new guy.
The Lakers secured the ball as time ran out and took the 123-122 win. Great work on both ends in that final minute to take this one.
Davis -- -- That’s the more active AD we need. Without LeBron, we saw those second and third efforts and hustle play on the glass. He had one sequence where he blocked a Lopez drive out of bounds. Then followed that up on the inbounds to block Giannis and force a shotclock violation. The midrange jumper was falling, so the pick and pop was there with the pick and rolls. All of that was nearly derailed in the fourth quarter. He took an elbow to the shoulder on a drive by Giannis. For the rest of the game, he was playing with his left arm dangling by his side at times. Even one-handing a defensive board. This changed what the Lakers could do on the offensive end. The Russell/AD two-man game was switched out as they looked at the Rui/Russell combo. The Lakers had the lead slip away as a result of some of this. He did hit a couple of freethrows despite the injury issue with 4 minutes left. I’m sure he’ll be good to go for the next one. The Stats: He scored 22 points on 10-21 shooting (0-1 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 13 boards, 5 assists, 3 blocks and 3 fouls in 41 minutes. He was a -3.
Russell -- -- “Public humiliation has done nothing but molded me into the killer y’all see here today,” Russell said afterward. "I never lack confidence. I never fear confrontation. I want all the smoke." He was an assassin tonight. Hell of a game. He was on fire from three, making 9-12…three after three finding the bottom of the net. A couple of those misses were very difficult heatchecks. Anytime he could plant his feet, that ball was going down. We needed every one of those season-high 44 points. He had 21 of those in the fourth quarter, putting this team on his shoulders with Bron out and AD with an injured shoulder. Down the stretch as we fell behind, he came up huge with an And-1 finger roll. Then after getting a stop and down 1, we put the ball in his hands, he got Dame on a switch, then put him in jail and the floater to take the lead. This was his W. What a warrior tonight. Loved seeing the animation in the huddles and on the sideline. Loved seeing his teammates going nuts for him and the L.A. crowd behind him. No Dame Time tonight. This was an “Ice in his Veins” kind of night for Russell. The Stats: He scored 44 points on 17-25 shooting (9-12 from three, 1-1 from the line) to go with 6 boards, 9 assists, 1 block, 2 turnovers and 5 fouls in 38 minutes. He was a +1.
Reaves -- -- “In those moments, it’s pure joy,” Reaves said of watching his teammates do something spectacular. He’s had some of those moments when LeBron has been out. Tonight, Russell going off, they let the ball go through him. Reaves did his scoring the first three quarters. He sank a couple of threes and had an And-1 runner off the glass on the sideline pick and roll. He scored a layup to start the second half when Lillard didn’t keep his eye on the ball and Russell zipped a pass over his head. He sank a pull-up working off the double drag. Defensively, he took a charge from Giannis in the post. I swear, it’s in these big games where he pulls out the charges. With 3.6 seconds left in the third quarter, Giannis tried to do one of those don’t-touch-the-inbounds-pass-to-save-clock things and Reaves pounced on it, swiped the ball and scored a layup (should have been an And-1). The Stats: He scored 18 points on 7-12 shooting (2-5 from three, 2-4 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 7 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 37 minutes. He was a -1.
Hachimura -- -- Man, that fourth quarter tonight did not start out good. Things went downhill all quarter until the very end. He missed a good look at a three. He was tapped on a pull-up. He missed a corner three. He helped off the strong side shooter and gave up a three that had Handy irate. He was then blocked on a dunk attempt on the other end. Missed another wide open three. All of that in the fourth. Then he came up with a couple big plays late. He hit a big wing three, finally, on a kickout. The Lakers needed that one was the Bucks took the lead. The Lakers went big defensively for a stand just prior to the last defensive stand. As we switched things up, he was off ball on a smaller man. He scrammed one of his guards off Giannis under the hoop just before Dame came driving down the lane. He jumped out and got a great challenge on Dame’s drive to disrupt it and we secured the defensive board. Huge play prior to Russell taking the lead on the other end. The Stats: He scored 12 points on 5-16 shooting (1-6 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 2 assists and 1 foul in 38 minutes. He was a -2.
Dinwiddie -- -- Play of the game. The Lakers took the lead back from the Bucks with 5.9 left. They needed one more stop and you knew the ball was going to Lillard for some Dame Time. “We wanted to get Dame going right because his step-back from the left is impossible,” Dinwiddie said. Dinwiddie shaded him to go right, stayed tight on him, pounced when the shot went up and blocked the jumper. Time ran out and the crowd went nuts. When we signed Dinwiddie, you hoped that the D would pick up as he wasn’t going to be relied upon as much to drive the offense. He came up with one of the defensive plays of the year for the team. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 1-3 shooting (1-2 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks and 3 fouls in 34 minutes. He was a -5.
Prince -- -- Ham finally … finally… decided to avoid the Prince at PF lineups (and this was down LeBron!). It’s a bit absurd it took this long. We had bigger lineups out there. Even on our final defensive stands, we went with AD, Rui, Hayes and our best guard defenders. So no Prince in small lineups. No Prince trying to stop point of attack players. Crazy it took this long to see the madness stop. Prince had a nice stretch in the second half where he buried a three, followed that up a couple minutes later for another three, then attacked off the three line on the next possession and banked in a runner. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 3-7 shooting (2-5 from three) to go with 6 boards, 1 assist and no fouls in 16 minutes. He was a +2.
Reddish -- -- Good to have him back in the mix. We missed it badly in the last one. That helped the Lakers in those final defensive stands, too. Just having some better point of attack D and no one to easily hunt makes a big difference. Reddish hit a corner three and also had a backdoor cut the Russell found him on for a reverse. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-4 shooting (1-3 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 1 block and no fouls in 15 minutes. He was a +0.
Hayes -- -- That team-high +7 was a result of a really good stretch of ball in the first half when AD sat. The Lakers were able to build a lead and integrate him into the offense. Russell found him cutting from the corner for a dunk. He had another dunk rolling to the hoop where Russell threaded a bullet to him. We ran him a little at PF so we could have size out there. Late in the game, we went to him during our final two defensive stands. You can switch everything with him and also get some size on the floor. He’s earned the trust of the staff by not fouling like he had been earlier in the season (he did have 3 tonight). On one of those late game stops, he crashed the defensive glass to keep the ball from Giannis and AD recovered. That’s what playing with size can do. No stat on that play for Hayes, but it’s the difference between a stop and a putback in a close game. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 2-2 shooting (4-6 from the line) to go with 1 board, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 17 minutes. He was a +7.
Christie -- -- Very short situational minutes tonight. Nothing to report. The Stats: He had no stats in 3 minutes. He was a +6.
Ham -- -- Key Moment: The Lakers got the ball to Russell down a point. He got the switch of Dame on him. Dame got scrambled on a screen and Russell put him in jail for a floater to take the lead. Before and after that play, some great defensive stops. I really like the defensive subs going with AD/Hayes/Rui/Reddish/Dinwiddie. We did that before Russell’s score and then after and got stops on both to pull out the win. The big moment, of course, was Dinwiddie’s block.
Key Substitution: I am hopeful that the Prince at PF subs with those super small lineups are finally over. We avoided that tonight. The Bucks are bigger, but I am hopeful this was finally seeing the light there.
Key Stats: Russell with 21 of the Lakers 27 points in the fourth quarter. With no LeBron and AD limited with the injury, we put the ball in his hands and he did not disappoint.
First!
Giannis elbow into AD was dirty as hell, and If AD is out at all...The league really needs to look into the Giannis strategy of just bowling into players...It's NOT basketball. _________________ Creatures crawl in search of blood, To terrorize y'alls neighborhood.
Ham is learning how to use his Triple Threat (No Defense, No Offense, No Rebounds/Effort) Prince to eat up minutes to give rest for the starting lineup/players that are producing - short minutes against the subs. It has been comical seeing him shoot - noting that he made a couple shots. He played 16 minutes in this game. During the playoffs, hopefully his pt will be around 10 minutes or less - especially if Vanderbilt, CWood and/or Prince are playing
AR was great during clutch time. He did make some unforced errors but his steady play and production during crunch time clearly was strategic to this win
Great relief to have Cam in instead of Prince
Hayes is learning how to play that defintively impact gains (like what Vanderbilt was learning to do before he got injured). He understand that the need to always play with max energy that allows him opportunities for his dives to the hole for great slam dunks
DLo was DLo was DLo - He was Da Man!!!
AD was up for this game, missed him at the last game
Rui is learning how to be Da Man - consistently and playing with purpose with mean intentions
Spencer made key plays and had the great block - happen because he was a savvy veteran
Maybe Ham will use an option if the team isn't playing with the necessary energy and effort which is to take LBJ & AD off the court. Players on the court know that hey need to play with great effort with no pressure of trying to play with AD/LBJ. In the Sac Game, it couldn't be worse - lol!!!
Last edited by A Mad Chinaman on Sat Mar 09, 2024 1:43 am; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 13 Sep 2008 Posts: 5737 Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2024 1:28 am Post subject:
What a game by DLO and his supporting cast, wow. I'm really glad he got the game-winner after all those heroics. Would've sucked mightily had they lost after all of that.
Thanks, DB! _________________ On Lakersground, a concern troll is someone who is a fan of another team, but pretends to be a Lakers fan with "concerns".
First!
Giannis elbow into AD was dirty as hell, and If AD is out at all...The league really needs to look into the Giannis strategy of just bowling into players...It's NOT basketball.
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-- “In those moments, it’s pure joy,” Reaves said of watching his teammates do something spectacular. He’s had some of those moments when LeBron has been out. Tonight, Russell going off, they let the ball go through him. Reaves did his scoring the first three quarters. He sank a couple of threes and had an And-1 runner off the glass on the sideline pick and roll. He scored a layup to start the second half when Lillard didn’t keep his eye on the ball and Russell zipped a pass over his head. He sank a pull-up working off the double drag. Defensively, he took a charge from Giannis in the post. I swear, it’s in these big games where he pulls out the charges. With 3.6 seconds left in the third quarter, Giannis tried to do one of those don’t-touch-the-inbounds-pass-to-save-clock things and Reaves pounced on it, swiped the ball and scored a layup (should have been an And-1). 
-- Man, that fourth quarter tonight did not start out good. Things went downhill all quarter until the very end. He missed a good look at a three. He was tapped on a pull-up. He missed a corner three. He helped off the strong side shooter and gave up a three that had Handy irate. He was then blocked on a dunk attempt on the other end. Missed another wide open three. All of that in the fourth. Then he came up with a couple big plays late. He hit a big wing three, finally, on a kickout. The Lakers needed that one was the Bucks took the lead. The Lakers went big defensively for a stand just prior to the last defensive stand. As we switched things up, he was off ball on a smaller man. He scrammed one of his guards off Giannis under the hoop just before Dame came driving down the lane. He jumped out and got a great challenge on Dame’s drive to disrupt it and we secured the defensive board. Huge play prior to Russell taking the lead on the other end. 
-- Ham finally … finally… decided to avoid the Prince at PF lineups (and this was down LeBron!). It’s a bit absurd it took this long. We had bigger lineups out there. Even on our final defensive stands, we went with AD, Rui, Hayes and our best guard defenders. So no Prince in small lineups. No Prince trying to stop point of attack players. Crazy it took this long to see the madness stop. Prince had a nice stretch in the second half where he buried a three, followed that up a couple minutes later for another three, then attacked off the three line on the next possession and banked in a runner. 
-- Good to have him back in the mix. We missed it badly in the last one. That helped the Lakers in those final defensive stands, too. Just having some better point of attack D and no one to easily hunt makes a big difference. Reddish hit a corner three and also had a backdoor cut the Russell found him on for a reverse. 
-- That team-high +7 was a result of a really good stretch of ball in the first half when AD sat. The Lakers were able to build a lead and integrate him into the offense. Russell found him cutting from the corner for a dunk. He had another dunk rolling to the hoop where Russell threaded a bullet to him. We ran him a little at PF so we could have size out there. Late in the game, we went to him during our final two defensive stands. You can switch everything with him and also get some size on the floor. He’s earned the trust of the staff by not fouling like he had been earlier in the season (he did have 3 tonight). On one of those late game stops, he crashed the defensive glass to keep the ball from Giannis and AD recovered. That’s what playing with size can do. No stat on that play for Hayes, but it’s the difference between a stop and a putback in a close game. 
-- Very short situational minutes tonight. Nothing to report. 
-- Key Moment: The Lakers got the ball to Russell down a point. He got the switch of Dame on him. Dame got scrambled on a screen and Russell put him in jail for a floater to take the lead. Before and after that play, some great defensive stops. I really like the defensive subs going with AD/Hayes/Rui/Reddish/Dinwiddie. We did that before Russell’s score and then after and got stops on both to pull out the win. The big moment, of course, was Dinwiddie’s block.
