Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2020 10:40 pm Post subject: BLAZERS -at- LAKERS - 12/28 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings
Work in Progress... “I just tried to fit in,” AD said after the Lakers 115-107 loss to the Blazers.
Perhaps, that was the problem as AD returned to the lineup after sitting out of the last one. Yes, the team was cooking in the previous one, but he’s still a superstar and he still needs to impose himself on the game.
The Lakers got off to a hot start behind LeBron’s strong first stint, then went scoreless as soon as he hit the bench. They squandered an early 20-7 lead and found themselves trailing as Gary Trent Jr. had 16 points in the first half, sinking four threes in the half. Meanwhile, Anthony Davis chipped in with a sluggish 2 points in the first half.
They regrouped at halftime down 4 and pulled out to a 8-point lead in the third behind Dennis Schröder’s relentless attack during a 15-0 Laker run.
But it was Trent Jr again causing problems, knocking down several threes early in the fourth as the Lakers defense could not consistently get stops down the stretch.
Some sloppy ball by the Lakers as they had turnovers on at least three ATOs. That just shows even the plays we try to draw up are still a work in progress. In one of those timeouts late in the game, the Blazers scored a layup and the Lakers threw the ball out of bounds up against the shotclock on their possession.
The game was winnable, but they had just too many loose ends on both ends.
“I have to be more aggressive to start the game,” AD said.
LeBron -- -- Good, all-around game from LeBron. Not great, but good enough for the team to win. The ankle looked fine, no issues that were apparent. He seemed a bit more engaged early and was a +14 in the first quarter, scoring 12 points on 5-6 shooting with 3 assists and 3 steals. It seemed like he was ready to play in this one. As soon as he sat in the quarter the team went scoreless, and the Blazers cut the lead down. He was getting a little frustrated with the officiating as the game went along. Vogel ended up taking a tech on his behalf later in the game. Passing-wise I think most of his assists were to KCP in the corners for three. Those teamed up early. Defensively, still several miscues on either rotations or closeouts. The team in general was not locked in. The Stats: He scored 29 points on 11-20 shooting (3-7 from three, 4-5 from the line) to go with 9 boards, 6 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 3 turnovers and 2 fouls in 36 minutes. He was a +0.
Davis -- -- Pretty poor game from AD. A forgettable first half with 2 points on 1-4 shooting in 17 minutes. Obviously, he’s coming off the calf contusion, but this was reminiscent of some first halves we’ve seen where he doesn’t impose himself on the opponent. The second half wasn’t much better. Most of his touches seemed like we were just dumping it into him in the midpost and standing around. Nothing on the move. No guard setups. Very stagnant and ineffective. You’ve got to have him a little more mobile than that. The guard play didn’t really do a lot for him. You saw a lob from Schroder go behind him a little and they couldn’t connect as AD threw it away trying to save it. LeBron didn’t help much, either. But to be fair, the effort by AD on both ends was pretty sub par. Whether that was defensive glass work when we needed a board or just generally contesting shots. On the plus side, the passing was decent. There was a little chemistry with some of his other bigs, in particular. He ran a screen-roll and hit Gasol rolling for a layup. He also found Harrell with another pass for an easy score (missed him when he was open a few possessions later). The Stats: He scored 13 points on 6-14 shooting (1-2 from the line) to go with 10 boards, 5 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers and 1 foul in 37 minutes. He was a +5.
Schröder -- -- He continues to look more comfortable offensively. He had 11 points on 4-9 shooting in the first half. Three-level scoring, getting to the rim, midrange and hitting a three. HIs attacking was consistently effective. There was one possession he scored a layup on where you could see the defensive big get pulled out to the perimeter to cover Gasol and Dennis just blew past his man for the layup. That’s one of those five-out sequences that he will take more and more advantage of as the season goes along. Schröder sparked the Lakers to an 8-point lead in the third quarter, getting to the line and to the rim for scores. He and LeBron were the one-two punch tonight. We needed our third but AD wasn’t up for it tonight. Schröder is a scoring guard and that may impact AD some. “I didn’t think we did a good job of involving him (AD) in the offense in the first half,” Vogel said afterward. He didn’t direct it at Schröder, but I put the quote here because despite Schröder’s good game, we still have a lot of work to make the chemistry with him and AD a real weapon. Defensively, our schemes were a bit screwed up at times against the Blazers. Hard to get on anyone in particular. The Stats: He scored 24 points on 8-16 shooting (1-2 from three, 7-7 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 4 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 36 minutes. He was a +8.
Caldwell-Pope -- -- He drilled three corner threes early on, then we put him on the bench for an extended amount of time. Seemed like we should have brought him back a little sooner since he had the hot hand and we were struggling to score. Would knock down another corner three later. He looked automatic on those. A bit turnover prone, and he had some adventures on the break tonight. He lost the handle in transition on one play, he couldn’t handle another pass on the break, and nearly blew a layup when Gasol poked a ball loose on D. Still, overall good game from KCP. The Stats: He scored 14 points on 5-9 shooting (4-5 from three) to go with 1 board, 3 turnovers and no fouls in 29 minutes. He was a +11.
Gasol -- -- We defended better with him out there. He was coming out high to defend screens in this one. There was one sequence where he fell back in drop coverage by mistake and Dame burned him for a three, but he was generally aggressive on the perimeter. (Watch one of the assistant coaches after that play, telling Gasol to get up on that coverage.) We didn’t play him in the fourth, going to more mobile defenders and our defense wasn’t on a string and couldn’t get stops to close. Not as much scoring in this one, but he finished a screen-roll with AD as the passer and hit a little shotput jumphook in the paint. He led the team with a +14. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-4 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 7 boards, 1 steal, 2 blocks and 2 fouls in 19 minutes. He was a +14.
Matthews -- -- Still some rough minutes. He scored a layup leaking out on the break. He missed both of his threes, the first one he wasn’t even close. The lineups he was in weren’t very dynamic offensively. “We’re still trying to get Wes involved and acclimated,” AD mentioned after the game. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-3 shooting (0-2 from three) to go with 1 board, 3 assists and 1 foul in 15 minutes. He was a -16.
Harrell -- -- We weren’t on the same page defensively down the stretch against Lillard late in the game. We want to commit to something. In the playoffs it was taking the ball out of Lillards hands off pressure D and scramble and recover. Harrell was floating as his man was going to set a screen and they got burned for a key score late. Next time down, he got stuck in no man’s land to give up another layup. We didn’t really commit to anything in either of those defensive stands and paid the price. Vogel sat him with a minute left for Kuzma, but the damage was done. The team just needs to get reps to tighten things up on that end because this seemed more not executing the scheme we want properly than getting exposed. Offensively, a quiet night. He had a big And-1 off a feed from AD late. Unfortunately, we couldn’t lock down. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 3-5 shooting (3-3 from the line) to go with 6 boards (2 offensive), 1 assist, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 27 minutes. He was a -20.
Kuzma -- -- Back to the bench and oof. He’d sink a couple of threes in eight tries, but not a lot of impact on this one. Defensively, he had a nice swat on Kanter and looked like he got a bad call on a track down block later. But again, we got killed on the perimeter again by another hot hand that no one could cool down. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-9 shooting (2-8 from three) to go with 1 block, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 23 minutes. He was a -23.
Horton-Tucker -- -- Pretty good first half getting to the rim and finishing. He missed his threes (airballed one), but the dribble penetration helped during a stretch when the Laker offense was trying to get back on track after going dry. We don’t really commit to him just going off on a team, but you could see if he was on a cellar dweller, he’d probably be putting up big numbers on much higher usage. Defensively, in the fourth he got lit by Trent like others as he was on fire from three. That got him benched after we fell back by 5. With a hot hand, we needed to be a little tighter on Trent than THT was playing. You could see LeBron look to the bench in frustration after that one. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 3-6 shooting (0-2 from three) to go with 2 boards, 1 steal and no fouls in 10 minutes. He was a -9.
Morris -- -- Not used much in this one. He hit Trezz under the hoop for a dunk after working the post. He missed in the post next time down. Team played poorly (-10) in those 7 minutes and Vogel had the hook. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-1 shooting to go with 1 board, 1 assist, 1 block and 1 foul in 7 minutes. He was a -10.
Vogel -- -- Key Moment: Late in the game we couldn’t get stops with our AD/Harrell combination. AD was sluggish all game. Harrell is still learning what we want to do. Harrell got picked on for a couple of scores and Vogel finally sat him with a minute left, but the damage was done.
Key Substitution: The bench in this game just didn’t have it. Trent Jr. beat them by himself with 28 points as we got outscored 45-23. Not something we want to see with frequency this season.
Key Stat: The Lakers had a 1-point lead going into the fourth. They had the 57-0 streak when leading in the fourth last year. That was snapped pretty quickly this season.
Joined: 30 Jul 2001 Posts: 380 Location: Portland, OR
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2020 11:35 pm Post subject:
Definitely missed Caruso’s steady defense on the Blazer guards. The stretch of three made 3’s by Trent and three missed 3’s by Kuzma was the difference in the game.
Definitely missed Caruso’s steady defense on the Blazer guards. The stretch of three made 3’s by Trent and three missed 3’s by Kuzma was the difference in the game.
Joined: 17 Sep 2008 Posts: 21075 Location: In a white room, with black curtains near the station
Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 12:04 am Post subject:
Thanks DB. Crappy game, other than Marc Gasol continuing to confirm that my reservations about him were off base.
Yeah michaelg - I also kept wondering if Caruso could have put a dent in Trent's hot streak, or at least kept the Lakers defensive rotations tighter as the game was winding down.
Schroeder played well IMO. LBJ played well for the most part, but the defense is suffering at the moment as he still seems to be trying to get his legs back from last season's grind.
KCP had a good game.
Other than KCP, Schroeder, Gasol and LBJ, the Lakers stank it up tonight.
Definitely missed Caruso’s steady defense on the Blazer guards. The stretch of three made 3’s by Trent and three missed 3’s by Kuzma was the difference in the game.
I think it was three straight possessions by Kuz.
That back to back to back sequence had me fairly irate at Kuz. I understand the scorers mentality but when you have alot of talent, no need to to simply just start chucking down the stretch in a tight game to be the hero - in fact, I believe the last of that he had a straight line to the basket from the corner but, of course, chucked the 3. I'm of the mindset that in that situation, go for the easier hoop.
Despite all that happened the first 3 quarters, Lakers were up at about the 5:30 mark left in game 99-98. Those are ones they should win. With that said, I will say it did take last year's team a bit to figure out close games and who would be in to close out (I immediately think of the first 2 games versus the Clippers, both losses, but both were winnable with about 5 minutes left before the Lakers collapsed). I'll chalk it up to that and guys just not yet completely comfy. Strangely, I was of the mindset that Gasol should have gotten a bit more play in the 4th instead of what he got - 0 4th quarter minutes.
The defense frustrated me with some of the looks given in the last 5 minutes - including a wide open lane at times. With that said, interestingly in the regular season last year, the Blazers averaged 120 ppg vs the Lakers (and we were quite proud of the defense then).
I fully expect AD will have a big game vs the Spurs - typically if he has a poor game (and this was very much so), he comes out the next strong. There were also good signs, especially with DS and even how Gasol played.
Thanks DB. Crappy game, other than Marc Gasol continuing to confirm that my reservations about him were off base.
Yeah michaelg - I also kept wondering if Caruso could have put a dent in Trent's hot streak, or at least kept the Lakers defensive rotations tighter as the game was winding down.
Schroeder played well IMO. LBJ played well for the most part, but the defense is suffering at the moment as he still seems to be trying to get his legs back from last season's grind.
KCP had a good game.
Other than KCP, Schroeder, Gasol and LBJ, the Lakers stank it up tonight.
Good call, I noticed there were stretches where LBJ was locked in and a PITA defensively for the Blazers. But it was not consistent. I wondered if AD"s low energy sort of spread to others and just kept the Lakers ability to sustain a lead in peril, as their defense does get impacted by how he goes.
I don't care if AD played bad, we already know how good he is. It's more important that Gasol and Schroder are already showing what they are capable of.
Thanks DB. Perfect take when you said "the team just needs to get reps to tighten things up." Lets not over react. It was more of getting on the same page with rotations and switching than about an individual players lack of skill/desire. The concept was right (get the ball out of Damon's hands), but the execution was bad (but easily fixable).
Starters - Gasol +14. AD +5. KCP +11, Dennis +8 and James 0
Bench - Kieff -10, Trez -20, Kuz -23, Matthews -16, THT -9
James rating dropped as well due to the time he played with bench. Ditto with AD. Once the Lakers went into rotations, each time, the Blazers took control of the game. Starters, Lakers had control.
Joined: 24 Feb 2003 Posts: 6400 Location: Past left field
Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 6:43 am Post subject:
Concerned about Matthews. 0 for 8 from 3 so far this year with a shooting efficiency of 33%. Last year 36% from 3 with 52% shooting efficiency. He is dragging down the second unit when he comes in. ESPN has his PER ranked 71 out of 85 shooting guards. _________________ Darvin Ham is an idiot!
I felt this was a game that sort of showed why there needs to be a pecking order, and Dennis should be coming off the bench. As good a game as Dennis had, it could have been a great game, had he been off the bench. He is a good starting guard, someone we the can clearly rely on to create shots. Way better than Danny Green. But Green enforced two things. 1) Bron had to set up AD. 2) AD had to be the man, off that 1st unit. This is not happening. Bron is not coming into games looking to set up AD. Instead we are trying to showcase all our talent. This is not how we won a championship. We won a ring playing off AD in the post and creating, Lebron as point, and floor spacers. If Dennis starts, his first role should be to do that, not take over and create all for himself (look at the assist numbers, very low, too much 1 on 1 creating).
Lots of time to fix this, but with the non-impact of Matthews on offense, I think the most appropriate switch is to bring Dennis off the bench where he would be like an all-star off the bench. Matthews should be starting, and we should be using the first Q of games ensuring AD is going.
The 20 assists, in a game we got great penetration from Dennis and Bron. Again, shows a lot of individual creating.
The other things for Trez. When Trez is in the game, with AD. We saw this against Dallas. AD has to be outside the arc. In this one, we were trying to go to AD inside, with Trez as well at the elbow. This makes the double so much easier on AD. A lot of pressure on AD. We need to flip that play, with AD outside at the 3 point line (like Dallas game) Again, that is an area where we miss some Rondo IQ.
A few things I'd like to see
1) This return to Bron/AD's team, with a clear objective to play around AD and Bron.
2) Dennis move to the bench, in place of either Caruso or Matthews. No one is defending Matthews on the bench unit, and we need to use his size and D on the starting lineup. Or Caruso.
3) Trez and Dennis need to run a lot of high screen/roll and figure out a plan defensively. Trez has to be the featured player in the paint when he plays, and not play off other guys. It clogs spacing.
4) Vogel has to treat Trez like he did Dwight/McGee. If they are going to AD or Bron inside, then Trez is ineffective outside of a rebound 2nd chance. Defensively same thing, if Trez is being exposed, we need to bench him.
I know it is early and Frank will tighten things up. Lots of this is Frank trying to understand his team and give them all a chance to play with each other. He definitely left Trez out there way too long. Had that been Dwight, we would have seen that 4th Q switch to a stretch 4 like Kuz or Kieff way earlier.
Definitely missed Caruso’s steady defense on the Blazer guards. The stretch of three made 3’s by Trent and three missed 3’s by Kuzma was the difference in the game.
Definitely missed Caruso’s steady defense on the Blazer guards. The stretch of three made 3’s by Trent and three missed 3’s by Kuzma was the difference in the game.
Yeah those open 3s hurt, but so was the Trez screen coverage later in the game. I do appreciate at least Kuz defended well. Trez was lost on D both at the perimeter and overmatched in the paint. If we're going to play smaller with Trez, we need him to be effective in team speed D situations. Not be a liabiity.
Joined: 27 May 2010 Posts: 49069 Location: LA to the Bay
Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 7:56 am Post subject:
michaelg wrote:
Definitely missed Caruso’s steady defense on the Blazer guards. The stretch of three made 3’s by Trent and three missed 3’s by Kuzma was the difference in the game.
Yeah I mentioned in the game thread that I felt like we were missing some CGOAT defense fo sho.
Ah well... it’s not like we were gonna win all 72 games I suppose lol
Definitely missed Caruso’s steady defense on the Blazer guards. The stretch of three made 3’s by Trent and three missed 3’s by Kuzma was the difference in the game.
That was the deciding factor in the end. They hit sixteen(16) 3s last night for 48 pts.
ad looked soft af--very feminine as well. too much. he sucks out there. its pretty bad. and pretty obvious that he isn't in shape. whats his excuse bc he ain't in his 18th season and lebron don't even look that bad--there is cause for concern idgaf- after a performance like that--he better step his game up
oh and that see thru undershirt THE MAN was wearing has to go--i mean what in the actual (bleep)
Last edited by Dmagic on Tue Dec 29, 2020 8:46 am; edited 1 time in total
Concerned about Matthews. 0 for 8 from 3 so far this year with a shooting efficiency of 33%. Last year 36% from 3 with 52% shooting efficiency. He is dragging down the second unit when he comes in. ESPN has his PER ranked 71 out of 85 shooting guards.
YEAH HE SUCKS--WE DONT NEED HIM unless he plans on outplaying kcp at some point
Definitely missed Caruso’s steady defense on the Blazer guards. The stretch of three made 3’s by Trent and three missed 3’s by Kuzma was the difference in the game.
Yeah those open 3s hurt, but so was the Trez screen coverage later in the game. I do appreciate at least Kuz defended well. Trez was lost on D both at the perimeter and overmatched in the paint. If we're going to play smaller with Trez, we need him to be effective in team speed D situations. Not be a liabiity.
This team is a "Work in Progress" and it is good that these faults are identified
Capitalizing on Gasol's abilities and recognizing his weaknesses (differences between him and Dwight/JaVale) is a process that will take awhile
Dennis the Menance's gifts are very apparent and learning how to best capitalize them within the team process.
Matthews seems to need more reps to get his strokes and knowing the coverages within the team defense schemes
We knew that Trez's greatest abilities is not D hence incorporating him within the team defense schemes is a work in progress
Thanks DB! Winnable game but AD wasn't ready plus bad defense on the PTL threes. Not too surprised with the loss. Typical Portland game, annoyingly.
Now that it appears Gasol will be a contributor, I agree with Wolf that DS should come in off the bench (with Trez). Separate them out somewhat from Bron and Ad. That way we can develop the starting and bench two-man games as a distinct offensive strategy and not diminish AD on the starting unit.
Thanks DB! Winnable game but AD wasn't ready plus bad defense on the PTL threes. Not too surprised with the loss. Typical Portland game, annoyingly.
Now that it appears Gasol will be a contributor, I agree with Wolf that DS should come in off the bench (with Trez). Separate them out somewhat from Bron and Ad. That way we can develop the starting and bench two-man games as a distinct offensive strategy and not diminish AD on the starting unit.
I'm not there yet with your and Wolf's conclusion re DS's role, way too limited sample size for me. 3 games in, and AD's points/rebounds line:
18-7
30-8
13-10 (note: This after a 2 point, 4 rebound first half)
In those three games DS points and assists:
14-8
18-6
24-4
Also, LBJ is out there too, so solely focusing on DS's assist numbers alone does not tell the whole story.
With all that said, it is definitely worth keeping an eye on. If suddenly the starting lineup becomes LBJ-DS as the 1-2 punch, Houston, we have a problem (no offense to DS, he is really good, but a fully primed AD on offense has very little in the way of peers).
I'm honestly not sure of last night's game it would have made a difference having DS come off the bench with the way AD was fairly passive on both ends of the floor, even in the second half, (the counter to what I'm saying is "AD would have been engaged if he was fed the ball more"...but honestly I do not believe that is really AD's style, plenty of times last year he was either struggling offensively or not used as much but was impactful on the defensive end), and ultimately I am trending towards AD not being as impactful on the defensive end as being a big cause for last night's loss. Not blaming him, but that's how I saw game 4 of this 72 game season with several new key faces.
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-- Good, all-around game from LeBron. Not great, but good enough for the team to win. The ankle looked fine, no issues that were apparent. He seemed a bit more engaged early and was a +14 in the first quarter, scoring 12 points on 5-6 shooting with 3 assists and 3 steals. It seemed like he was ready to play in this one. As soon as he sat in the quarter the team went scoreless, and the Blazers cut the lead down. He was getting a little frustrated with the officiating as the game went along. Vogel ended up taking a tech on his behalf later in the game. Passing-wise I think most of his assists were to KCP in the corners for three. Those teamed up early. Defensively, still several miscues on either rotations or closeouts. The team in general was not locked in. 
-- Pretty poor game from AD. A forgettable first half with 2 points on 1-4 shooting in 17 minutes. Obviously, he’s coming off the calf contusion, but this was reminiscent of some first halves we’ve seen where he doesn’t impose himself on the opponent. The second half wasn’t much better. Most of his touches seemed like we were just dumping it into him in the midpost and standing around. Nothing on the move. No guard setups. Very stagnant and ineffective. You’ve got to have him a little more mobile than that. The guard play didn’t really do a lot for him. You saw a lob from Schroder go behind him a little and they couldn’t connect as AD threw it away trying to save it. LeBron didn’t help much, either. But to be fair, the effort by AD on both ends was pretty sub par. Whether that was defensive glass work when we needed a board or just generally contesting shots. On the plus side, the passing was decent. There was a little chemistry with some of his other bigs, in particular. He ran a screen-roll and hit Gasol rolling for a layup. He also found Harrell with another pass for an easy score (missed him when he was open a few possessions later). 
-- He continues to look more comfortable offensively. He had 11 points on 4-9 shooting in the first half. Three-level scoring, getting to the rim, midrange and hitting a three. HIs attacking was consistently effective. There was one possession he scored a layup on where you could see the defensive big get pulled out to the perimeter to cover Gasol and Dennis just blew past his man for the layup. That’s one of those five-out sequences that he will take more and more advantage of as the season goes along. Schröder sparked the Lakers to an 8-point lead in the third quarter, getting to the line and to the rim for scores. He and LeBron were the one-two punch tonight. We needed our third but AD wasn’t up for it tonight. Schröder is a scoring guard and that may impact AD some. “I didn’t think we did a good job of involving him (AD) in the offense in the first half,” Vogel said afterward. He didn’t direct it at Schröder, but I put the quote here because despite Schröder’s good game, we still have a lot of work to make the chemistry with him and AD a real weapon. Defensively, our schemes were a bit screwed up at times against the Blazers. Hard to get on anyone in particular. 
-- He drilled three corner threes early on, then we put him on the bench for an extended amount of time. Seemed like we should have brought him back a little sooner since he had the hot hand and we were struggling to score. Would knock down another corner three later. He looked automatic on those. A bit turnover prone, and he had some adventures on the break tonight. He lost the handle in transition on one play, he couldn’t handle another pass on the break, and nearly blew a layup when Gasol poked a ball loose on D. Still, overall good game from KCP. 
-- We defended better with him out there. He was coming out high to defend screens in this one. There was one sequence where he fell back in drop coverage by mistake and Dame burned him for a three, but he was generally aggressive on the perimeter. (Watch one of the assistant coaches after that play, telling Gasol to get up on that coverage.) We didn’t play him in the fourth, going to more mobile defenders and our defense wasn’t on a string and couldn’t get stops to close. Not as much scoring in this one, but he finished a screen-roll with AD as the passer and hit a little shotput jumphook in the paint. He led the team with a +14. 
-- Still some rough minutes. He scored a layup leaking out on the break. He missed both of his threes, the first one he wasn’t even close. The lineups he was in weren’t very dynamic offensively. “We’re still trying to get Wes involved and acclimated,” AD mentioned after the game. 
-- We weren’t on the same page defensively down the stretch against Lillard late in the game. We want to commit to something. In the playoffs it was taking the ball out of Lillards hands off pressure D and scramble and recover. Harrell was floating as his man was going to set a screen and they got burned for a key score late. Next time down, he got stuck in no man’s land to give up another layup. We didn’t really commit to anything in either of those defensive stands and paid the price. Vogel sat him with a minute left for Kuzma, but the damage was done. The team just needs to get reps to tighten things up on that end because this seemed more not executing the scheme we want properly than getting exposed. Offensively, a quiet night. He had a big And-1 off a feed from AD late. Unfortunately, we couldn’t lock down. 
-- Back to the bench and oof. He’d sink a couple of threes in eight tries, but not a lot of impact on this one. Defensively, he had a nice swat on Kanter and looked like he got a bad call on a track down block later. But again, we got killed on the perimeter again by another hot hand that no one could cool down. 
-- Pretty good first half getting to the rim and finishing. He missed his threes (airballed one), but the dribble penetration helped during a stretch when the Laker offense was trying to get back on track after going dry. We don’t really commit to him just going off on a team, but you could see if he was on a cellar dweller, he’d probably be putting up big numbers on much higher usage. Defensively, in the fourth he got lit by Trent like others as he was on fire from three. That got him benched after we fell back by 5. With a hot hand, we needed to be a little tighter on Trent than THT was playing. You could see LeBron look to the bench in frustration after that one. 
-- Not used much in this one. He hit Trezz under the hoop for a dunk after working the post. He missed in the post next time down. Team played poorly (-10) in those 7 minutes and Vogel had the hook. 
-- Key Moment: Late in the game we couldn’t get stops with our AD/Harrell combination. AD was sluggish all game. Harrell is still learning what we want to do. Harrell got picked on for a couple of scores and Vogel finally sat him with a minute left, but the damage was done.
