Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2022 8:32 pm Post subject: LAKERS -at- NUGGETS - 1-15-22 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings
Mile High Suckage... The No D Lakers continued with business as usual, giving up 73 points in the first half to the Nuggets. Anything Denver wanted, it looked like a free flowing, easy game.
The Lakers let yet another opponent get real comfortable. They trailed 73-60 by halftime.
DFish said at the half, “Good news is it probably can’t get any worse.”
The Lakers were like, oh really? Just watch.
The Lakers started the half with multiple turnovers. The offense sputtered and the points and three shooting from the Nuggets kept coming. The ass kicking just snowballed into some serious extended garbage time quickly against our currently flawed roster.
The Lakers were down by 40 with 4 minutes left as we saw Bazemore hit the side of the board on an iso turnaround. They scored 36 in the second half and fell 133-96. Good times.
LeBron -- -- There are plays where he just looks amazing. It’s pretty mind boggling at his age and mileage. Some ugly moments in this one, however. (Best plays were some nice spin moves in the post for scores.) By going small we’re giving him room and gaps to attack and he’s been going a great job with that. It’s not that he’s getting mismatches against slower defenders. He just has room to exploit. So in these later years of his career, it would be wise to run him with a floor spacing big (and, of course, floor spacing PGs, etc.). If Russ is going to play with him in the next couple of years, he’s going to either have to have the ball in his hands or play out of that dunker spot at times with other floor spacers around. For it to work this year, AD really has to find his shot someway, somehow. A bit too much complaining about fouls in this one. That impacted defense on a couple possessions as he didn’t get back. This was prior to the major ass kicking portion of the game. Once you’re down 20 or 30 in a mid January game, who cares? I don’t think he did in this in one. Last few games have been poor on the defensive end. The Stats: He scored 25 points on 9-23 shooting (2-8 from three, 5-7 from the line) to go with 9 boards, 2 assists, 2 blocks, 1 turnover and no fouls in 31 minutes. He was a -17.
Westbrook -- -- There was a play in the first half where you saw Russ step on the gas for an aggressive attack, but never let up and that layup attempt hit the glass so hard it never hit rim. No finesse on the finishes. He worked on bullying Gordon at times when they matched up and he had some moments with that. Then the two had some words, after a collision. Actually, more of a stare from Gordon and words from Russ as the Nugget lead ballooned to 19. The shot selection has been killing me of late. He was good for a while there, but he’s getting into those pull-ups early in offense and bad things usually result. He made a layup tonight on a drive and the very next possession, thinking he was feeling it I guess, chucked up and bricked an early offense three. Just a throw away possession. He finally sank his first three in more than 6 games. We’re seeing some of the players do a good job off cutting off Russ when he probes. LeBron and Bradley, especially. The Stats: He scored 19 points on 7-15 shooting (1-2 from three, 4-4 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 3 assists and 1 foul in 26 minutes. He was a -11.
Monk -- -- We aren’t playing D, so we need to try to outscore teams. If he’s not in the fight, we don’t seem to stand a chance. Some good passing moments with lobs to Dwight and DJ. In the second half, some really bad passing sequences where he brain cramped. We hadn’t seen that in a while. That kind of took them out of this one to start the second half. Defensively, the Nuggets tried to get Monk caught in mismatches with Jokic and that was causing problems. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-5 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 4 boards, 6 assists, 2 turnovers and 2 fouls in 25 minutes. He was a -13.
Bradley -- -- He was just a -4. But neither he nor Monk made a strong case for maintaining that starters spot in this one. Sometimes after a couple big losses, a coach might shake things up for a bit, but that probably won’t happen until we get some healthy bodies back. If/when Nunn is in the mix or a trade occurs, something will likely give. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-2 shooting from three to go with 1 board, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 20 minutes. He was a -4.
Howard -- -- With Jokic in the mix, you got to go big. A strong first quarter from Dwight with 11 points on 5-6 shooting. He had 3 offensive boards, as well. They even called his number out of an ATO twice. Defensively, he picked up just 1 foul in his 10 minutes despite a lot of cross screening from the Nuggets head to navigate. In his second shift, he picked up two fouls against Jokic, one in transition, the other on a face-up touch foul that Dwight argued. He had to sit and we went centerless, which meant double teams and more of our defense getting picked apart. Second half, some tag teaming with him and DJ to avoid the double teaming action, but it didn’t matter since it was a blow out. The Stats: He scored 13 points on 6-8 shooting (0-1 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 21 minutes. He was a -23.
Horton-Tucker -- -- Poor first stint and we put the ball in his hands some, even ran without Bron or Russ for a stretch. Still very quiet with just a point at the half. He had a nice read from the weakside of the D to start his second half shift, jumping the lane and swiping a pass for the uncontested dunk. A nothing game from THT. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-5 shooting (0-2 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal and 1 foul in 21 minutes. He was a -15.
Reaves -- -- Looking to pass too much in this one. We need that, but I’ve liked the aggressive scoring efforts of late. Most minutes off the bench meant most punches taken. He was a -32. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 1-5 shooting (0-1 from three, 3-4 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 1 assist and 2 turnovers in 27 minutes. He was a -32.
Ellington -- -- One of the low points in this game was seeing him attack off the three line into a crowd and then throw it blindly away to some Nuggets. We looked every part of that single play tonight. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-4 from three to go with 1 board, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 15 minutes. He was a -26.
Ariza -- -- Backup C on Jokic when Dwight picked up his third foul in the first half. That meant instant doubles which the Nuggets are well versed on dealing with. Cutters from the weakside for instant layups. Ariza made them pay on the other end with a pick and pop for a three. They would switch and Bron would miss his three on the next attempt. But Ariza would hit another three later. So they kind of held serve there just being able to score. When not in the eye of the storm, he looked pretty creaky on defense. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 3-5 shooting from three to go with 3 boards, 3 assists and no fouls in 21 minutes. He was a -22.
Jordan -- -- Seeing that WCS is getting released, I’d do the same with DJ and pick up WCS. He’s at least more mobile and better at working the two-man action and crashing at this stage of his career. DJ had a lob finish on a monk drive, but really showed that lack of mobility on the defensive end where there were few rotations, closeouts and extra efforts. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-3 shooting to go with 3 boards, 2 assists, 1 block and 1 foul. He was a +1.
Bazemore -- -- He sank a couple of threes in garbage time. Probably should have been in there earlier. The Stats: He scored 6 point son 2-5 shooting (2-3 from three) to go with 2 boards, 1 assist, 2 turnovers and 2 fouls in 9 minutes. He was a -9.
Johnson -- -- Nice garbage time give and go layup to cut it to 38. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-2 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 2 boards and 2 fouls in 13 minutes. He was a -14.
Vogel -- -- Key Moment:
Key Substitution: How about just 3 points from THT in this game. Bones Hyland had 27 off the bench for the Nuggets.
Key Stats: The Lakers shot a strong 6-12 from three in the first half. The Nuggets, however, were 11-16. Good looks from Denver, for sure. The Nuggets would finish 23-40 from three. They purposed tried to set their team record in the final couple of minutes and the basketball gods didn’t let them. So they missed multiple to close the game and still shot 58% for the night.
Last edited by DancingBarry on Sat Jan 15, 2022 11:41 pm; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 24 Dec 2007 Posts: 36001 Location: Santa Clarita, CA (Hell) ->>>>>Ithaca, NY -≥≥≥≥≥Berkeley, CA
Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2022 8:33 pm Post subject:
This didn’t feel like it would end up as a 40 point blowout during the first half. Kind of surprised it ended up being that bad. _________________ Damian Lillard shatters Dwight Coward's championship dreams:
It doesnt get any easier either. Jazz next, then 3 of next 5 after that are Nets, Heat, and Sixers. Probably safe to assume an L in those at this point.
This blowout was so bad the team was not only outscored every quarter, but the Nugs would outscore the Lakers by even more points per quarter as the game went on (up 5 after 1; 13 (+8) after 2; 23 after 3 (+10); 37 at the end (+14).
This team has severe issues that I doubt AD can resolve. While Russ can not be blamed for this one, that albatross of a contract hangs high and makes it difficult to find ways to find players that can fit around LBJ / AD.
It's hard to believe how low the defense has fallen to at this point. From a top 3 D that generally kept the team in games under Vog, to this god awful crap. _________________ "One thing I admire about Kuzma is his unwavering confidence. He truly has no idea that he’s not as good as he thinks." - Killer_Z
The upcoming games will be revealing since it will show the following
* Lebron’s leadership impact
* Team’s pride
* Need of changes
I really don't mean to be disrespectful, but this leadership/pride stuff is so full of hooey- what the heck does leadership/pride have to do with a bad team losing to much better teams in the NBA? Are Orlando/Houston losing because they are lacking leadership/pride? Leadership/pride are relevant when good teams battle other good teams not when a flawed squad plays against a playoff/championship candidate.
Joined: 24 Feb 2003 Posts: 6407 Location: Past left field
Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 7:31 am Post subject:
So I was at the game in Denver last night. Had pretty good seats behind the Denver basket in the first half. Just some observations.
1. An hour before the game, Howard, Reaves and Bazemore were on the floor shooting before the game. Howard was shooting threes and free throws. No post work. Reaves was working with Phil Handy shooting from every where and was on fire. Really surprised at how bad he shot during the game. Bazemore was shooting from every where but was not putting a lot of energy into his workout. Barely jumping on jump shots, going half speed.
2. Howard was respectable on Jokic but DB you called it. Nuggets were creating switches causing Monk to be guarding Jokic in the post. Boy was that ugly up close.
3. Lakers were getting fouled and stopping on the other end to complain about it allowing the Nuggets to have a 5 on 4 fast break opportunity. Lebron and Bradley were the two most guilty of this. It is one thing to complain, it is quite another to stop playing and complain.
4. Lakers won the points in the paint battle in Q1 but were being badly outshot from three point land. Nuggets shot 57% from three for the game. Tough to beat a team shooting that good from three. Lack of effort in closing out on shooters did not help.
I don't think you can right this ship WITHOUT drastic decisions. You made this god awful trade (completely eliminating your perimeter defense and YOUR IDENTITY) and didn't improve enough with outside shooting (mainly because the guy you gave up everything for can't do either).
As far as advanced metrics go, the clearest thing to look at is BPM (Box Plus/Minus) and VORP (Value over replacement player). LeBron, even at his advanced age; is still 4th in the league at BPM (behind Giannis, Jokic and Butler- but ahead of Durant, Curry and Embiid) and he is basically tied for 4th with Curry in VORP (behind again Giannis, Jokic and this time Durant) but the rest of the team leaves a lot to be desired.
Much like James DBPM (defensive end) being at a career low (1.2), that is the common theme for much of the Lakers team as well.
Rank-Player-OBPM/DBPM/BPM/VORP
4. LeBron James- 7.1/1.2/8.3/2.9
44. Anthony Davis- 2.3/0.6/2.8/1.2
It gets really sad after these two...
144. Malik Monk- 0.7/-0.9/-0.2/0.4
148. Carmelo Anthony- 0.4/-0.8/-0.5/0.4
185. Dwight Howard- -0.3/0.5/0.3/0.3
199. Russell Westbrook- -0.6/-0.8/-1.4/0.2
There are only a handful of players in the entire league who have a worse BPM than Russell Westbrook- and none of them come close to his usage (leads the NBA in minutes with 1517).
He simply doesn't fit with James on the floor and I would argue it is only worse when you go with a 2-guard lineup with him (Bradley, Monk). Bradley is your best and only decent perimeter defender but is dreadful in OBPM and Monk is just the opposite. We could use Brazemore's defense, but his OBPM is one of the worse in the NBA. Ellington, blah. THT can't shoot and that hurts what could be a plus for us (would still rather have him getting minutes over RW though)...
They don't have any stretch forwards aside from AD and it shows. Ariza looks even slower. It is saying how lacking in everything we are when we are sorely missing Carmelo Anthony's game, like we were last night.
I dont know how you fix it with RW on the team. You can't trade him because of his salary and although benching him is the RIGHT thing to do, that isn't going to happen.
Nunn should help and of course a healthy AD will, but does anyone even have a clue what the rotation should be or how RW fits when those two come back??? I don't, unless it is a DRASTIC move.
I dont know how the trade deadline or buyout market can realistically help us either, not when you are having to trade your lone young asset and another 1st round pick just to get any conversation started about anyone meaningful- someone mind you who would only suffer as well with RW getting 30 plus minutes a night...
Advocates for this trade when it went down were as clueless as Pelinka was. This was a team lacking in youth and specifically perimeter talent but still had two superstars and could win WITH DEFENSE. You sacrificed the strength of the team to get someone who was going to limit the minutes of James (which hasn't happened, and as team is constructed I doubt even with a healthy AD would it be any different) and completely ignored our strengths and how said person fit.
Joined: 17 Sep 2008 Posts: 21092 Location: In a white room, with black curtains near the station
Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 9:03 am Post subject:
Thanks DB for putting a lot more effort into your T&R's than half the players on the floor. And I say half the players on the floor because the Nuggets put forth effort.
Laker7 interesting notes from seeing the game live - thanks for sharing.
DB, respect for putting in time/effort towards a product that clearly isn’t reciprocating that energy. You’re a better man/fan than I am for it.
My own analysis of last night: trash. That’s all they will get (and deserve) outta me haha
If my 9ers don’t come thru today, all hope is lost… _________________ Not familiar with the salary cap/CBA rules & how it impacts our Lakers?
#GetFamiliar by CLICKING HERE!
Joined: 24 Feb 2003 Posts: 6407 Location: Past left field
Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 12:33 pm Post subject:
deal wrote:
This G-league team needs lots of improvement....
I would not call them G League.
I would call them a bunch of minimum contract guys giving minimum effort because they know they will never get more than a minimum contract in the future. _________________ Darvin Ham is an idiot!
I would call them a bunch of minimum contract guys giving minimum effort because they know they will never get more than a minimum contract in the future.
The sad thing about what you wrote is the truth of it…at least G leaguers give effort _________________ "One thing I admire about Kuzma is his unwavering confidence. He truly has no idea that he’s not as good as he thinks." - Killer_Z
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