LAKERS -vs- TWOLVES - 10-6-22 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

 
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DancingBarry
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 06, 2022 9:02 pm    Post subject: LAKERS -vs- TWOLVES - 10-6-22 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

Extended Garbage Time... The NBA deserves this type of lineup for running a back-to-back game in the preseason. No LeBron, no AD, no Russ, no Beverley, no Nunn, no Schröder (who may finally be available now).

Without those players, others are asked to do more. As a result, guys get out of their comfort zones and sweet spots. It gets ugly.

There was a sequence in the third when we shot an airball three, got it back and threw up another airball three. Not pretty at times after a strong first quarter by the Lakers. They managed just 37 points over the next two quarters and ended up falling 114-99.


Reaves -- -- He’s been kind of impacted by the gravity of the players around him. Starting with the stars yesterday, he was confident and aggressive. In the other games when he was playing with the second and third stringers, it’s been ugly at times. We know what he can do, so there’s really nothing to take away from games like this. He has shown some good crafiness in drawing fouls and staying focused on finishing And-1s from the midrange. Little plays like that add up and are what keep you a consistent scorer as your game matures. Defensively, he drew a couple of illegal screens. He was superb on that and drawing charges last year. Overall, not a great game, but I really don’t care. These lineups are wack. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-8 shooting (0-3 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 8 boards, 3 assists, 1 block, 4 turnovers and no fouls in 21 minutes. He was a -17.

Gabriel -- -- He hasn’t quite had that same individual impact that he came out with when he played in the tall lineups with the other bigs in the first one. Best play was curling around a defender to dunk. But on his other iso attempts, he lost a handle and got blocked trying to jumphook without getting his defender off balance. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-5 shooting (0-1 from three, 0-2 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 1 assist, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 12 minutes. He was a -1.

Pippen -- -- Seems like he’s getting more comfortable by the game. There’s a certain confidence he has with the ball is in his hands. The scoring side of that he’s always had, but the playmaking has looked better since summer. Occasionally, he gets sped up, but for the most part he seems to be playing under control and seeing plays before they develop. I expect that poise will develop in the G-League, but getting him reps at this level will be useful. So hopefully, they find opportunities to use that two-way to get him minutes when the game doesn’t matter. Defensively, tonight he had a number of good plays (3 steals and 3 blocks). He had DLo trying to post him up and he stripped him clean. He drew a moving screen call fighting over the top for a stop. He drew another charge for a stop. Some good work out there. The Stats: He scored 14 points on 4-12 shooting (2-8 from three, 4-7 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 7 assists, 3 steals, 3 blocks, 3 turnovers and 4 fouls in 32 minutes. He was a -6.

Christie -- -- “He’s really improved his body. He was rail thin when we first got him,” Ham said, mentioning there are a lot of little things he needs to improve on. Pat Bev mentioned how Christie was a sponge. That bodes well for his career. He’s young and parts of his game looks skilled, other parts still very raw. So a full year of playing ball at the next level and learning from pro’s will really help his development. He shows flashes of skill. Nice changes of direction on the dribble to get a step on his man. Some decent looking form (and ability to hit from the midrange in this one). The finishes on the floaters or layups, however, are not there with any regularity. He did have a nice attack and finish around a defender trying to pressure him in the corner. I love that he didn’t back down and got over against that. But, overall, the finishing needs a lot of work. The muscle he puts on will help, and Ham mentioned that Christie needs to learn to go hard to the rim more. The three ball tonight was sprayed all over the place, including banking one in, so don’t count that. I do like his length on the boards. He pulls some away from bigs. Hopefully, the team can start to reel in minutes given to our youth and we can get focussed on doing what it takes to win. Christie should get some reps in the G-League. I imagine they’ll find occasional minutes for him at this level, but the team is pretty guard heavy. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 5-13 shooting (1-3 from three) to go with 5 boards, 1 assist, 2 turnovers and no fouls in 32 minutes. He was a +1.

Bryant -- -- Super efficient even though that three ball isn’t there yet. I’ve kind of mentally penciled in that he will still be a work in progress for the next few months as he’s recovering from injury. But he was looking a bit more effective in this one. He was able to get up and down the floor with speed (which you want to do with Gobert out there). He drew a number of fouls and ended up 8-10 from the line. I always think with Gobert, you can go smaller. He’s got a poor post game and switching can be really disruptive if you have mobile defenders. The Lakers aren’t going to do that in preseason when they are learning their drop coverages and rotations. That plays into the TWolves hands, but gives Bryant reps with teammates to improve on that drop coverage D. Come regular season and certainly playoffs that’s where Gobert will be tested. It’s also where Bryant will be tested. Can he stay in the rotation when the games matter? He struggles at times to change direction on D. Despite his issues, he was one of our better players tonight. He was able to muscle in And-1 finishes and get the line a variety of ways. Good activity. Very serviceable. The Stats: He scored 18 points on 5-8 shooting (0-2 from three, 8-10 from the line) to go with 7 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 26 minutes. He was a +9.

Walker IV -- -- I’m not going to read much into this one since it’s his first game. It did highlight some of the things I think we’ll see during the season. First, inconsistency (his shooting numbers have always been iffy…he needs to find some go-to ways to score). Second, athleticism/explosiveness. He had a couple of attacks (one for a two-handed dunk from the corner, another going behind his back to split the D and score around a third defender). Lastly, sub par moments of D. He wants to be a defender, but that hasn’t been the case yet in his career. We saw some moments of getting scored on, overpowered, or not really engaged off ball. Again, though, first game and we had some garbage lineups out there. Energy and decision making will likely be different with the stars in the mix. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 4-13 shooting (1-7 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks, 2 turnovers and 2 fouls in 23 minutes. He was a -20.

Swider -- -- In the summer league, he didn’t shoot well when on the move. There’s a video out there showing all the threes he took this summer. Almost all of his makes were just catching and shooting. So anytime you see him on the move, whether off the screens or trying to create off the dribble, just know that’s not how he was killing it. When you don’t have stars that can collapse the D and put a pass in your shot pocket as you space the floor, you start to get into more and more of those on-the-move situations. You saw him start to attack off the three line a little more in the second half, but he’s a gunslinger from three and wasn’t going down without emptying the clip from three. Defensively, he’s mixing it up still. That’s a good sign. Just need that shot to drop like we know it can while putting in all the work on the defensive end. The Stats: He scored 17 points on 4-16 shooting (3-11 from three, 6-6 from the line) to go with 5 boards (3 offensive), 2 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 25 minutes. He was a -9.

Jones -- -- Nothing to report. That -17 in 8 minutes…ouch. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-1 shooting to go with 1 board in 8 minutes. He was a -17.

Toscano-Anderson -- -- He took a knee in the third quarter to his quad that had him done for the night. It looked like he’ll be all right. Prior to that, he knocked down a couple of threes. When he hits that shot, he probably get a little extra run. I’ve always thought of him as a streaky shooter. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-4 shooting from three to go with 2 boards and 3 fouls in 15 minutes. He was a -17.

Bacon -- -- He’s got good strength that shows up banging against guys on drives or boarding. The shot wasn’t falling tonight and he didn’t get to the rim and finish like the last one. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-5 shooting (0-2 from three) to go with 6 boards, 3 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 20 minutes. He was a -4.

Huff -- -- He showed that length on a couple of finishes around the rim and some challenges. He also outreaches guys on the offensive boards (4 in 11 minutes). A little foul-prone. It just seems like the game is going a little faster for him and he’s late to react defensively at times. Better minutes tonight, though. I still wouldn’t mind seeing him the mix with the backup bigs as preseason goes along. No one is killing it there yet. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-2 shooting to go with 7 boards (4 offensive), 2 assists, 1 block, 2 turnover and 3 fouls in 11 minutes. He was a -1.

Ryan -- -- He dropped a couple of threes and showed a some skill curling off the dribble and scooping in an And-1 around his man. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 4-10 shooting (2-8 from three, 1-1 from the line) to go with 1 board and 1 foul in 13 minutes. He was a -1.

Ham -- -- Key Moment: When they scheduled the back-to-back. He’s not playing his stars when he’s trying to ease them into second and third gears.

Key Substitution: Oof. I guess seeing Walker IV out there tonight was something new. Glad he got to get some minutes. That, at least, gave us something new to look at. It will be interesting to see how/when Ham finds minutes for him in the rotation.

Key Stats: The Lakers shot 3-19 from three in the first half. They were fortunate the TWolves shot just 4-19 from three.
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LakerDYnasty72
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 06, 2022 9:17 pm    Post subject:

Reaves-I love his game. Just a little too passive on the offensive side. Aggressiveness offensively will complement his already solid defensive game.

Christie- I love this pick. He's going to be a solid pro. I can see it. Most on this board do not have any patience so it's not surprising they think lowly of him right now. But he's going to be a good one


Ryan- A hired gun. The ball was not going to be passed back once he got it. lol. He wants a spot real, real badly and his aggressiveness is a reflection of that.

Gabriel- if he could only develop a little move around the basket when he's being guarded one on one.

Thanks DB!

No one else mattered after those
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 06, 2022 9:58 pm    Post subject:

Thanks DB! Nice to see a good game from Bryant.
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dabask11
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 06, 2022 11:37 pm    Post subject:

Best thing from this game was Bryant showing life.

Maybe he can give us a decent 15-20 min at the position, especially compared to his previous games.
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sonic the laker
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2022 8:37 am    Post subject:

Excellent analysis, DB! Pretty much said it all, and nothing left to add, lol. I know this one was a stinker. But, I really appreciate you for sticking it out, and giving us great insight!

I'm really excited as to the kind of player Christie can grow into, with proper maturation and development. He's already a very good defender, and will only get better. He has very good shooting mechanics. But, his lack of strength shows when shooting from behind the arc. Time in the G-League, and maybe some limited run in blowout games (one way, or the other) will help him.
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2022 12:13 pm    Post subject:

Lakers#1Team wrote:
Thanks DB! Nice to see a good game from Bryant.


Yeah, that might have been our second best game from a support big. I'll still give Gabriel the edge for that first game. I'm kind of waiting for our guard playmaking to pick up a little more and see if there's any chemistry developing with the bigs.
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2022 12:32 pm    Post subject:

sonic the laker wrote:

I'm really excited as to the kind of player Christie can grow into, with proper maturation and development. He's already a very good defender, and will only get better. He has very good shooting mechanics. But, his lack of strength shows when shooting from behind the arc. Time in the G-League, and maybe some limited run in blowout games (one way, or the other) will help him.


I always seem a little surprised by his ability to get into the paint. It's been looking good. Then I'm always underwhelmed by what happens there. A big adjustment for a lot of young players is learning how to play above the rim. He's still in that adjustment stage. Ham mentioned just going hard to the rim and I agree. Christie's finesse game with the floaters and layup attempts either feel like he needs to take one more power dribble/bump than he does or that he's just trying to avoid contact altogether. That poster dunk attempt he tried (in game 1?) is the right mindset with his length and athleticism. Or just using his body in general to fend off defenders.

The three shooting will come at some point, I'm sure, with strength and reps. We've seen the potential the with the midrange. I know some on here worry he will be like Anthony Brown Part 2 offensively, but I think the potential on the above abilities to get to the paint and finish are a big difference.
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2022 5:32 pm    Post subject: Re: LAKERS -vs- TWOLVES - 10-6-22 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

DancingBarry wrote:
Extended Garbage Time... The NBA deserves this type of lineup for running a back-to-back game in the preseason.


Werd.

Thanks DB
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A Mad Chinaman
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 09, 2022 11:48 am    Post subject:

DancingBarry wrote:
Lakers#1Team wrote:
Thanks DB! Nice to see a good game from Bryant.
Yeah, that might have been our second best game from a support big. I'll still give Gabriel the edge for that first game. I'm kind of waiting for our guard playmaking to pick up a little more and see if there's any chemistry developing with the bigs.
Agree

Bigs are depended on guard play to get opportunities
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