CAVS -at- LAKERS - 11-6-22 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Another L... The Lakers forced an early timeout going up 14-7 to start the game. Extended to 26-14 off of 10 points from Russ, including a couple of threes. The Lakers gave up too many FTs and were poor at making their own in the first quarter, but led by 6 after the first.

The Lakers got Allen and Mobley into foul trouble midway through the second quarter, forcing both to the bench with 6 minutes left. They couldn’t take advantage and led 64-58 at the half. The Cavs shot 21-23 from the line in the half. Mitchell and Garland had 21 points each.

The lead was quickly erased 2 minutes into the second half, and Ham called a timeout as the Cavs rattled off an 11-0. The Lakers battled back, but then went scoreless for more than 3 minutes to close the third quarter. They trailed by 7 heading into the fourth.

They had to sideline AD in the third as he picked up his fourth foul on a rare double-foul call on a loose ball. Fouls really came to play in this game. The points at the line: Cavs from the line (32-36), Lakers from the line (12-21). That’s 20 more points there.

The Lakers quickly saw the lead balloon to 12 in less than a minute of the fourth as bad offensive execution led to easy scores the other way. Another timeout from Ham. The Cavs had a 17-0 run between quarters. We lost it there. The team fell 114-100.


LeBron -- -- Surprising when you hsee had had 27-7-4 afterward. That jumper was looking ugly to start this game. He had a couple of aiballs (at least). Even his freethrows were off. He would finally hit a three in the fourth quarter (I don’t know how many in a row that he missed over the last few games, but good to see the lid finally come off, at least). He was able to muscle in layups getting downhill or working out of the post. The floater in the middle of the paint looked good. But really not a good one from LeBron. The team needed more guys who could provide some spark. When we were able to get on the break, he could give that to us, but in the halfcourt, it was a struggle. Usually, that’s what you say about everyone but LeBron. A lot of shots have been short. We’ve seen this all season, going back to that first Denver game where he just didn’t have his legs. We need to really get that pace up without Russ on the floor. The Stats: He scored 27 points on 13-23 shooting (1-4 from three, 0-3 from the line) to go with 7 boards, 4 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover and 4 fouls in 33 minutes. He was a -7.

Davis -- -- Another 2-point second half. He had 17 points on 6-10 shooting at the half. Nunn set him up on a couple of plays early. Then Russ and LBJ would find him. His perimeter shot was looking off, but anything where he got going to the hoop was more productive. Defensively, our drop coverage struggled with the Cavs guards. He would pick up some foul trouble in the third quarter that had him sidelined (a double foul call on a loose ball). Like the last game, really nothing in the second half offensively from him. Our offense felt disjointed at times that second half and we struggled to get him the ball either with low position or down hill off the two-man action. We have to keep him engaged. Russ said they have to do it collectively, but will leave it to the coaches to figure out the best way to do that. The Stats: He scored 19 points on 7-12 shooting (5-9 from three) to go with 12 boards, 4 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover and 4 fouls in 33 minutes. He was a -7.

Walker IV -- -- He had some foul issues in this one and had to sit early in the third with his fourth foul. He struggled a little with the three ball. Small thing, but it drives me crazy when guys set weak screens. To open the fourth, Walker had one of those that busted the set play. He really didn’t have it this one and we’ve got too many problems for that to happen. Hopefully, we can see a bounce back game. It would help if we weren’t pulling the ball out of the hoop all the time and could get more transition going. Our starting guards got cooked. Just 6 points on 3-12 shooting. While Garland/Mitchell had 57. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 3-7 shooting (0-3 from three) to go with 1 board, 1 assist and 5 fouls in 19 minutes. He was a -10.

Brown -- -- Nice to have someone who is fairly consistent shooting from three in our starting lineup. (Frankly, you play D and hit threes and we’ve got a spot for you with the starters.) But once he lost his confidence in his three shot later in the game, things got clunky. He would miss a wide open one, then pass on a three shortly later to attack a crowd unsuccessfully. Not a great second half. In the first half, he also had a loose ball that he tried to grab and it went right between his legs (would have been a sure Laker hoop the other way, but somehow he choked that). The Stats: He scored 12 points on 5-12 shooting (2-5 from three) to go with 6 boards, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 30 minutes. He was a -8.

Nunn -- -- The virus that LeBron/AD/Gabriel had also caught up to Pat Bev. So we put Nunn in the starting lineup rather than mess with our bench rotations. Schröder will likely be taking over that role at some point. Nunn had a couple of assists early to AD, but man, that shot. He went another 0-5 tonight, missing all four of his three attempts. Just stone cold. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-5 shooting (0-4 from three) to go with 3 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 turnover in 18 minutes. He was a -3.

Westbrook -- -- He had 12 points on 5-6 shooting, 4 assists, 2 steals and 3 turnovers in his 8 minutes of the first quarter. Really brought a lot of energy and had the Cavs on their heels. Hitting a couple of threes helped, as well, and have some key dimes and steals (including on an inbounds). He’d score just 2 points in the next quarter and then just 5 in the second half. Still, good job getting downhill and finding teammates. He’s been setting up both AD and LeBron a little more in those minutes where they are on the floor together. We had to go to that quicker off the bench in the second half and he brought a little more life to the offense again. Thomas Bryant is an energy guy and we miss that. Schröder can provide some of that on D and take over those Nunn minutes. Too many turnovers, despite the good energy and impact from Russ. The ball has been slipping from his hands quite a bit. I like how well he’s finishing around the rim. The Stats: He scored 19 points on 6-13 shooting (3-5 from three, 4-5 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 10 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 7 turnovers and 3 fouls in 32 minutes. He was a -8.

Reaves -- -- We saw him trying to recover again and again on the high screens as the Cavs guards worked off that again and again. It was rare we blitzed or did anything to get the ball out of their hands. He had a couple good defensively plays, blocking a lob pass and drawing a charge on Love in the post. The Stats: He scored 1 points on 0-2 shooting (0-1 from three, 1-1 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 1 block, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 25 minutes. He was a -12.

Toscano-Anderson -- -- Not a lot in this one. He looked a little out of sync with the offense and that caused some issues. A couple of good plays. He attacked and hit a pull up from 7 feet out. He had a kickout to Ryan for a three. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-2 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 1 board, 1 assist, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 11 minutes. He was a -3.

Ryan -- -- He sank a three on a JTA kickout in the fourth, but we were in garbage time. That was his first make of the game. He’d hit another as the Lakers tried to make a late-game run. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 2-6 shooting (2-3 from three, 2-3 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 16 minutes. He was a -5.

Gabriel -- -- The virus that is going around the team caught up to him. He scored a layup off a Russ drive and dish as Gabriel moved into open space in the middle of the paint to make himself available. Some good work crashing the glass. Stat’s don’t quite reflect that effort. Late in the game he rejected Allen who was trying to finish over the top of him. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-4 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 4 boards (1 offensive), 1 block, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 14 minutes. He was a -4.

Christie -- -- He hit a midrange pull-up on the break to cut it to 9 with 2 minutes left. The Stats: The Action: He scored 2 points on 1-2 shooting to go with 1 foul in 4 minutes. He was a +3.

Ham -- -- Key Moment: The 17-0 run the Cavs had between the third and fourth quarters. The Lakers had survived that early third quarter run and came back. But they lost control of the game for good during that 17-0 run. It sucked the energy out of the building.

Key Substitution: AD had to sit in the third when he picked up his fourth foul. I’m not sure if it would have been worth reviewing that. Seems like a hard one to overrule conclusively.

Key Stats: The Lakers had a season high scoring in the first half and a season low in the second half. The Laker three shooting and freethrow shooting went the opposite direction as the last game. They were 12-21 (57.1%) from the line and 8-27 (29.6%) from three.

Coach’s Challenge: The Cavs challenged a take foul that they won. It resulted in a jumpball which we won. Again, maybe Ham could have tried using the challenge on AD’s fourth foul as that was a pivotal play.

[DShotMaker1824]

Thanks DB!
_________________

"Through the legs to the left, through the legs to the right, we don't run them Laker plays, we just Kobe fadeaway..."

[deal]

Thanks DB!

Bad team, you can’t coach that. It was bad when it
was formed and it’s just proving itself.
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Lakers need to build a freaking team !

[danzag]

Thanks, DB.

We play hard but we're not very good. Specially on offense.

[TDRock]

Thanks DB

[Halflife]

I know AD is solid but I don’t know if he’s the guy.
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Kobe.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Clw9scopegx/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

[Laker7]

[PenG_]

Thanks DB!

[TooMuchMajicBuss]

Thanks DB.

[LoanEase]

On this day Father Time wins.
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"Just because you are characters doesn't mean you have character." Harvey Keitel

[youcantguardme]

Just a bad team. They are going to need to blow the team up, let's just hope they don't do stupid things trying to win now. LBJ is awesome but old; AD is NOT the guy to build around; Russ has been doing better, but his best asset is that he has value for a short while; the rest of the team is average to below average.

[A Mad Chinaman]

Thoughts to Consider

Trend - Bad start to 3rd Quarters. Maybe have Westbrook start the 2nd half (DFish)

Trend - AD is the Invisible Man in the second half. Maybe have AD demand to have the ball in the post.

Trend - Lakers are bad in attacking the adjustments that the opposition are doing. Maybe the coaching staff can have a different definitive adjustments to address the opposition’s changes

Who, besides the Big Dogs, will provide consistent help from Reeves, JTA, Skywalker, MattyIce, Jones, Schroeder, etc?

[DrDent]

Thanks DB

It is what it is. Team is just not that good.
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"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

[mad55557777]

Russ finally showed signs of life (little careless with the ball today), even played great defense, he had blocks every game, and we still suck…… just frustrating to watch.

[Rek]

Thanks DB

[slavavov]

1. When AD goes to the bench, we're too small. Under NO circumstances should Gabriel play the 5. Why didn't coach go to Damian Jones when AD got his fourth foul?

It also shows how frightfully weak we are at backup power forward. I like Gabriel's energy, but he lacks strength and offensive skills. Someone like a Marcus Morris or Harrison Barnes (not necessarily them but someone like them) would make a big difference.

Thomas Bryant would also help, especially if he starts hitting 3s again.

2. I feel like we've been exposed as a team that can't play halfcourt basketball. AD isn't working to get open or get the ball at times, and LeBron isn't as effective when the game slows down as he used to be.

Our problems are fixable though. We have a glut of guards, which could open up a game-changing trade, and Russ may have finally figured out how to fit in and be a positive element for us.

[Aeneas Hunter]

[joeblow]

As easy as it is to zero in on the offensive shortcomings (the coach really should've had the team focus on setting up AD a lot more), we scored an 'OK' amount of points with 100. Even if we somehow put up an extra ten points, we still would've lost.

Giving up 114 was the main problem last night. Like so many of our losses so far this season, the weaknesses on defense have been the key. In this case, the Cavs back court chewed us up all game long, especially in drawing fouls and making outside jumpers.

Despite Pat Bev being hurt in a game in which he would've had the chance to show his strengths, we still could've adjusted with all the backcourt length we have on the roster. This was a strength of the mid 90s Bulls.... Ron Harper and Jordan were the two guards that could suffocate (without fouling a lot) the smaller opponents trying to get a clean open look.

It was apparent early on that putting length on DMitch and Garland was worth experimenting with. Trim some of Nunn and Westbrook's minutes for more of JTA and Walker while moving the available pieces around for a bigger lineup:

6'5" Walker/WB
6'6" Brown/JTA/Reaves
Lebron/JTA/Ryan (we need another SF with length!!!!)
Gabriel/AD (we need another PF with length!!!!)
AD/Jones (Can't wait for T. Bryant to get healthy)

So the main lineup in this situation would've had defensive length on the two Cav guards while atill having size in the front court without forcing Gabriel out of position by making him a center.

Water under the bridge, but it was a sad loss after the competitive first half we showed. At least Lebron FINALLY shot only three 3P attempts (missing them all =\).

[AtlLaker]

Pelicans will look good with wembanyama

[governator]

2-3, 4 pts in the last 3 second halves…nasty virus