BUCKS -at- LAKERS - 10-15-23 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Lineup Length... This year’s squad has depth, but also length. As Ham rested several key players, he experimented with a tall starting lineup tonight.

AD, Wood, Rui, Prince and Russell started the game off and pushed the team to a 14-6 opening start -- a tall unit, but also one that flexes that three ball.

You could see more potential there with Bron in the mix over Rui since that lineup lacks playmaking, but it was able to hold its own against the Bucks starters.

As the Lakers got into their rotations, however, the defensive boards started to falter, and the team struggled to hold the Bucks to one-and-out possessions.

The two teams played close throughout the first half. The Lakers went to the deep bench to start the second half, before full G-League action to start the fourth. They didn’t score a field goal for about the first 6 minutes to start that fourth quarter and fell 108-97.


Davis -- -- I like seeing him across Wood as we’ve always got some length out there that can allow us to be more aggressive on the perimeter or double on occasion as they always seems to have someone of size near the rim. They had a nice passing sequence that turned into a give and go where Wood found AD cutting for an And-1. Both of the bigs hit a threes, as well. AD was disruptive defensively with a couple blocks and steals. The midrange and three ball looked good tonight, so that perimeter consistency for AD seems to be there this preseason. That makes a huge difference if it can hold up. “I see a level of focus that is infectious,” Ham said, calling AD the heart and soul of the team. The Stats: He scored 16 points on 5-8 shooting (1-2 from three, 5-5 from the line) to go with 7 boards, 5 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks and 3 fouls in 19 minutes. He was a +3.

Russell -- -- He didn’t get to play across another playmaking guard like he prefers as we rested guys tonight. The playmaking seemed to suffer as a whole, but Russell missed some passes he has been making lately. Still, another good outing from Russell. He was active defensively. Not disruptive like the previous night, but still a willing defender and he even got in on another help D block from behind. Offensively, he’d attack some lesser defenders like Beasley and Lillard on occasion. He’d get to the rim for some scores and hit on the midrange. No three ball tonight. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 4-8 shooting (0-1 from three, 3-4 from the line) to go with 1 assist, 1 block, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 20 minutes. He was a -2.

Hachimura -- -- He got the start at the SF as LeBron rested. He missed both threes, but had a couple midrange jumpers drop. Some work in the post (a dunk off one and another feed to a cutting AD on the other). He also found AD on a drive and dish for a score. Love the ball movement. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 4-9 shooting (0-2 from three) to go with 2 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and no fouls in 17 minutes. He was a +1.

Prince -- -- He slid him down to the SG spot. Good to see Ham experiment with going really big versus going really small like we did last season. He sank a couple more threes tonight, continuing that production from behind the arc. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t get the start at SF this season. We haven’t seen a lot of Vando and they might not want to have him lose that spot to injury. But Prince makes things much less complicated versus Vando’s lack of floor spacing. I suppose there is an outside chance, we see Bron at SF with a tall lineup of AD/Wood, but I’m not sure we want Bron defending the three. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 2-5 shooting from three (2-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards and 1 turnover in 15 minutes. He was a -2.

Wood -- -- He got the defensive assignment on Giannis. I thought he did a pretty reasonable job. His length made things a little harder for him. That allowed us to have AD roaming off ball as needed. They don’t have to worry if they pick up Giannis or Lopez in transition. Makes for a good matchup and we have floor spacing. Offensively, he had just one score tonight, a three. That will come along. I just appreciate the effectiveness as another defender against a tough cover like Giannis. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-6 shooting (1-3 from three) to go with 4 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and 2 fouls in 23 minutes. He was a -6.

Christie -- -- A lot of that midrange pull-up game from the FT line. At times, not as open as he thought (he might want to go into the floater on those), but under control at all times on the pull-ups. He knocked down one pull-up three straight away with the shotclock low. Some sloppy passing, throwing a bounce pass instead of a lob to Hayes on one and airmailing a perimeter pass on another play against some pressure. Our lack of playmakers gets him out of his comfort zone. I think with the rotations tonight with Cam back in the mix, you see that Christie is currently ahead on the depth chart. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 4-10 shooting (1-3 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 26 minutes. He was a -11.

Hayes -- -- I like the resistance he showed around the rim in this one. It’s something we’ve kind of been missing from his game so far. He denied multiple shots, including Portis trying to hammer a dunk on him. That had the crowd buzzing. The passing was solid as well. He kicked to Lewis in transition for a three. Lewis later returned the favor with a drive and dish for an And-1 for Hayes. We saw him fake the handoff and attack on the drive again for a dunk. That gets setup from all the dribble handoff action he does. Teams are not expecting him to be a threat. The +/- suffered from just playing with our deep bench. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 2-2 shooting (3-3 from the line) to go with 6 boards (3 offensive), 4 assists, 3 blocks and 1 foul in 17 minutes. He was a -10.

Reddish -- -- Back in the mix after the ankle twist. Much better outing than his last one. “Cam looked great,” Ham said, mentioning he thought he was gassed. Some hustle in transition to knock a ball loose from behind as well as some hustle on the boards (5). That hustle is really what they could use from him. The team needs some energy guys playing D. The offense will be there for the team. He made a couple of threes and had a couple of finishes at the rim (and a couple he probably should have made). Overall, better minutes. Something to build off of. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 4-11 shooting (2-5 from three) to go with 5 boards, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 5 fouls in 21 minutes. He was a -5.

Hodge -- -- Wide open on his first touch in the corner and he airballs. So that three ball wasn’t tracking tonight. On the good side, though, he was able to get out in transition and finish at the rim a number of times. Good job there, showing some more polished skills like a high gather cross into the finish and another where he shielded a defender well with his body. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 3-8 shooting (0-4 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 1 board and 3 fouls in 12 minutes. He was a -4.

Lewis -- -- The length of his legs really allow him to cover a lot of ground in a couple of steps or even on a step-back. A year with Handy will be interesting to see how he develops. He sank one three tonight. At the end of the third quarter, he ignited the break by crashing back on the glass for the defensive board and quickly making the outlet to Pippen. Seems minor, but those little plays are the things you need to see more of from him as he grows. Didn’t see a lot of that with consistency in college. But the motor has looked good in preseason. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-5 shooting (1-4 from three) to go with 2 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 11 minutes. He was a +5.

Castleton -- -- Really solid minutes. It was against the Bucks bench, but he was imposing his size on the game. He swatted three shots, including a dunk attempt. He got to a couple of offensive boards, even keeping one alive from behind Robin Lopez, the other was a putback jam. I could see the team converting him to a full contract late in the season or by next season. He just seems very serviceable at the least. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-5 shooting to go with 5 boards (2 offensive), 1 steal, 3 blocks, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 12 minutes. He was a -4.

Pippen -- -- No Reaves, Vincent or Bron, so we lacked some ballhandling/playmaking. He came in with 2 minutes left in the first quarter. Some excellent effort on D late in the game. On one play, he fought through a double screen then drew the charge on his man. On another that had the crowd buzzing, he dove to the floor in the corner to recover a ball on D and quickly outlet for a Laker breakaway. It wasn’t always pretty, but I appreciate the effort. DFish mentioned the importance of that effort to team culture. On the poor side, those were the freethrows tonight. Oof. Left a lot of points there going 4-9. Good job getting to the line. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 2-9 shooting (1-4 from three, 4-9 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 6 assists, 3 steals, 3 turnovers and 2 fouls in 25 minutes. He was a -8.

Fudge -- -- He didn’t scratch in this one, but one drive allowed Castleton to cleanup on his miss. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-2 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 2 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal and no fouls in 12 minutes. He was a -4.

Baugh -- -- First time in the mix. He missed a shot in the paint and quickly bounced up to get his own miss. Nothing else much to report. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-2 shooting to go with 1 offensive board in 6 minutes. He was a -4.

Valerio-Bodon -- -- Not much to report on. He gave up an open three to Connaughton on one stand staying too far off the shooter. The Stats: He had 2 boards (1 offensive), 1 block and no fouls in 5 minutes. He was a -4.

Ham -- -- He started a tall AD, Wood, Rui, Prince, Russell lineup. This made the backline especially huge for rotations and help D. In turn, they doubled Dame and recovered well because of that to start. They brought in Christie for Rui, sliding Prince up to SF. The defensive rebounding started to struggle… They started the second half with Hayes, Wood, Reddish, Christie, Pippen. Pretty much garbage time… I imagine we are playing full regular season rotations in the next game to get guys game ready, but hard to predict coaches the past few years in preseason. Seems like we typically hit the season a little under prepared…

[JM]

Thanks. Love your summaries. Interesting game. Thoughts: Castleton had the ball tipped away many times when he dribbled into a play set-up. He also needs more ‘strength’ maybe? Reddish, seemed to me, to be highly slithery-shifty in his drives to the rim; he evidenced strength and agility with an ok handle.
Hayes looks like his standing jumps are a tad less than I’d expect?

[ThreePointBomber]

Was out with the wife so only got to see highlights.

Jackson Hayes providing defense, rebounding, and energy is going to be huge for us.

I like Pippen JR as well very scrappy.
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The most important shot in basketball.

[slavavov]

I really hope coach uses our last preseason game as a dress rehearsal for opening night. He can play the rookies some, but not all at the same time. We need to see how guys like Lewis, Hodge, Castleton and JHS will do alongside actual starters or rotation players.
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Lakers 49ers Chargers Dodgers

[JM]

[tox]

First game I got to see parts of. There was this sequence with the starters that ended in a Taurean Prince travel that was actually a joy to watch. The Lakers got into their offense early and created an early advantage. The Bucks played good D and forced the Lakers to get deeper and deeper into the play. But you could see them getting the Bucks more and more off kilter... I think there were still 10 seconds or so when Prince attacked the closeout when he was called for a travel. That would've ended up in a good shot if Prince didn't travel.

I realized it's the first time I can remember the Lakers' having that kind of beautiful free-flowing offense in a long time, if not ever. I actually don't think it's a surprise it's with LeBron sitting as he either jacks up a bad 3 or capitalizes on the advantage earlier on to get to the basket but I digress.

[1995Lakers]

[Laker7]

Lakers sat Lebron, Reaves, Vando and Vincent and were only down 2 at the half. Buck were without Middleton but other than that seemed at full strength. Bodes well for the future.

Stats were skewed as the Lakers played the G League team in the second half and the bucks played vets like Bobby Portis, Robin Lopez, Cameron Payne and Pat Connaughton for most of the second half.

The Good: AD 5 shots to get 16 points, DLo 8 shots to get 11 points, Hayes 2-2 from the floor with 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks

The Bad: Christie 4-10 while 1-3 from 3PT land, Wood 1-6 in 23 minutes with only 3 points

The Ugly: Fudge 0-2, Hodge 0-4 from 3
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Darvin Ham is an idiot!

[Dr. Laker]

Thanks, DB. No JHS tonight?
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On Lakersground, a concern troll is someone who is a fan of another team, but pretends to be a Lakers fan with "concerns".

[Laker7]

[TDRock]

[joeblow]

I very much enjoyed multiple aspects of the game tonight.

Ham has really impressed me with his willingness (so far at least) to play big line ups. I know Austin and Gabe were out, but going with only one guard for most pf the forst quarter was pretty bold for him. Honestly, it's on those players and not the coach for how many offensive boards they gave up early.... no excuses for the size we put out there.

It was also great to see the potential of Cam Reddish finally making an appearance, especially for those of us begging to see him in a Laker uni for the past three years. As noted above, his energy really stood out in attacking the boards and ferociously guarding his assignments. That was one aspect of his game I was hoping to see with us when he arrived.

Which reminds me that I'm not on board with those who believe Christie and Reddish are in direct competition with each other for backup minutes. I disagree. There is some overlap, but Christie should almost never be on the court playing the small forward slot, and definitely not the power forward slot.

Ham had 6'6" Christie guarding 6'11 Portis for a few sequences and our youngster was overpowered each time by the Bucks' forward down low every time. In between those sequences, the bigger stronger Reddish (6'8") guarded Portis, and once it was clear that he wouldn't be easily backed down into the post, Portis kicked the ball out.

Add the fact that Reddish did a highly admirable job guarding Lillard (who was only 2 for 6 in the first half) and one can see which of the two players has at minimum more defensive versatility.

Christie is the overall better offensive player as far as ai can tell at this point, so they both have something to offer depending on our line ups and our opponents. They should not be seen as direct competitors for the same role, though.

Lastly, the biggest question of the night for me was "what's a Valerio-Bodon?"

[Alpha]

Thanks DB!

[LakerLanny]