Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 9:24 pm Post subject: LAKERS -at- KINGS - 10-29-23 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings
Overtime... The Kings played fast and loose to start the game, putting together a 41-point first quarter. Down 13 to start the second, the Lakers would cut it to 3 points before turnovers and misses piled up in the last couple minutes, and the Lakers trailed 66-55 at the half.
The Kings were playing a little quick for the Lakers, resulting in a ton of scoring in the paint. Still, the Lakers battled and picked up Fox’s fourth foul off a great challenge call by Ham midway through the third. They rattled off an 11-0 run to cut the lead to 1.
They’d take the lead a couple minutes into the fourth with Rui sinking a couple of threes to force a timeout. They’d extend their lead to 5 and force another timeout a few minutes later. Then Ham sat Rui.
They let that lead slip away and went down by 7 with 1:35 left as the Lakers couldn't connect on multiple open shots. Here, they had Sabonis fouled out and Barnes defending AD. Like in the first loss, they seem to forget AD in the post as an option.
The Lakers guards were horrible most of the night offensively. Finally, D’Angelo Russell gave them a little life, hitting a big three and scoring a couple of FTs with a minute left. With an AD putback (finally some advantage against the small Kings lineup), the Lakers would tie the game up. They gave up backcourt FTs on a bad foul, called a timeout and had Bron iso for an easy score with 12.9 left to tie it up.
Kings ball. Fox versus Vincent in regulation. We sent help to force the pass, and the Kings missed a good look at a three at the buzzer. On to overtime with Sabonis fouled out already, Fox with five fouls.
The Lakers tried to go to the post on the first possession of overtime, but LeBron threw the post entry pass away as AD couldn’t get into position. Two things went sideways for the Lakers in overtime. First, they gave up two big offensive boards, and the Kings hit two threes out of that. Secondly, they missed a number of wide open looks at three themselves. If the Kings are packing the paint, you’ve got to make them pay. The Lakers did not. So poor play on both ends cost them.
Down 5 with 15 seconds left, the Lakers threw inbounds away. Russell went one way, Bron threw it another. Ballgame. Lakers fell 132-127.
Overtime, no win, and you play tomorrow. That hurts.
LeBron -- -- Some big makes by Bron. He tied the game up with 12.9 seconds left, attack across the lane and around AD for a layup with 12.9 seconds left to tie the game up. In overtime, he hit a big three in front of the Kings bench with the shotclock winding down to cut it to 1. Nearly a triple-double in this one. The 8 turnovers just shows how out of sync the team is at times. A couple times he’s expecting guys to be where he’s throwing the ball and they aren’t. He threw an outlet away late in the game, way short trying to reach Russell. I really liked the stretch where Bron/Wood were on the court. Wood got a couple of wide open threes and another breakaway score. That spaces the floor for Bron, makes life easier. In the second half, we saw the floor shrink, the offense stumble with Hayes out there and the team out of sync. The Stats: He scored 27 points on 11-19 shooting (3-8 from three, 2-6 from the line) to go with 15 boards, 8 assists, 8 turnovers and 2 fouls in 39 minutes. He was a -5.
Davis -- -- Killing me, the announcers and I’m sure most Laker fans that we couldn’t take advantage of a small lineup with AD in the paint late in regulation. One score for AD in overtime, hitting a short one in the middle of the off a Bron drive and dish. Obviously, Ham doesn’t have his guys clicking, but our floor generals need to be more deliberate in organizing the offense to get him some touches instead of calling their own numbers. AD looked particularly frustrated with under a couple minutes left in regulation when we missed a three and he didn’t see the ball. It’s also killing me that we were the bigger team out there, yet we’re losing the rebounding battle and getting burned by second chance points. You’ve got to have better team rebounding. The Kings in overtime were able to get AD out on the perimeter challenging shots. He needs to get back in the paint when those go up to help battle, but it wasn’t really on him. The rest of the guys need to do better (Prince and Russell got burned on the defensive glass). The Stats: He scored 30 points on 11-22 shooting (1-2 from three, 7-8 from the line) to go with 16 boards (6 offensive), 2 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks and 5 fouls in 42 minutes. He was a -10.
Russell -- -- Hard to believe he turned this into a 17-point game. At one point early in the fourth, our starting guards were a combined 2-17 from the floor. In that fourth, he’d score on a 16-footer, he’d get a layup in transition off a Gabe steal. He’d get Fox’s fifth foul on a reach with 8 minutes to go as he came off a screen and gave up the Lou Williams treatment (I think he was annoyed Fox got a similar foul on him on the other end). He’d miss a couple of threes (this was hurting when AD needed touches against some shrimps defending him). But Russell would bring the team back from down 7 with a minute and a half to go. He sank a huge three with 1:24 to cut it to 4. He’d then push out a board with a minute left to earn FTs and cut it to 2. In overtime, he had a big And-1 17-footer working off the two-man game and getting a man climbing his back. Then missed a couple jumpers and we’d fade. The Stats: He scored 17 points on 5-13 shooting (1-5 from three, 6-7 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 9 assists and 4 fouls in 40 minutes. He was a -5.
Reaves -- -- Usually efficient, he was off the mark in the first half, going 1-10 (1-7 from three). Good looks mostly, just was not connecting. That was a difference maker in the half. Just give me a couple of those makes from three and we’re doing okay. That continued into the second half and Ham ended up sitting him except for some offense/defense subs. Any kind of game from one of our guards tonight would have made the difference. On the playmaking side, he’s missing a lot of reads off passing sequences. I think a good portion of this is he’s not being aggressive enough to get the D to commit. They had one of their standard Chicago actions that he got in the middle of the paint with AD rolling. That should be a two-on-one for a lob to AD or a layup yourself, but he kicked it out prematurely before putting the pressure on the D. He can make these reads. He’s just not totally in a groove yet. Shortly after that play, he showed a good read as a tag man got sucked into the paint to stop a roller, and Reaves hit Prince across court in the corner for the open three. A few of his passes were deflected in this game. Not sure what was going on there. Usually reliable for 14 or 15 points, poor game tonight. That hurt. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 1-12 shooting (1-8 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers and 2 fouls in 28 minutes. He was a -12.
Prince -- -- Defensively, got the Fox assignment. He’s not Vando. So that matchup wasn’t going well as Fox had 21 on 9-11 shooting and 5 assists in the first half. The thought here is you fight over the top, apply back pressure and have AD in drop to deter. We’d switch that up later with Vincent taking over the primary defensive duties down the stretch. Also on the defensive side, just 3 boards for Prince in 41 minutes. He let Murray tap one out in overtime for a big three. You’ve got to commit to doing something on the defensive glass on that play. Either box your man out (Murray) or crack back and sandwich McGee who Gabe was battling. He did neither. Offensively, he gave you that third scorer with 20 points, sinking 5-13 from three. Without him hitting, we probably get smoked in this game. In overtime, though, he’d miss some wide open ones we needed badly. The Stats: He scored 20 points on 7-17 shooting (5-13 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 2 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 41 minutes. He was a -8.
Hachimura -- -- Rui gave the team a huge lift to start the fourth quarter. He sank a couple of threes and hit a midrange. Ham put him on the bench after he had it going and we didn’t see him again. The offense started that fourth quarter going 6-7, then went 1-6. The rotations felt really out of sync in this game. We really don’t seem to know what to do with Rui and Wood. At least last time, they rode Wood in the fourth for the win. We didn’t figure that out with Rui in this one. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 3-6 shooting (2-4 from three, 3-4 from the line) to go with 6 boards, 1 assist and 1 foul in 17 minutes. He was a +9.
Vincent -- -- Uggh, a backcourt foul 80 feet from the hoop to give up FTs with 26 seconds left. We were set up with a two-for-one that would get us the ball back with maybe 4 or 5 seconds left. What are you doing? There no need to put pressure on at that point in the game. The Kings are going to run some clock, run their play. Just get ready. Got to be smarter than that. He also got sucked off a shooter strong side, one pass away to give up an open three with 32 seconds left in OT to go down 5. Yes, there were some good defensive plays. He forced Fox into a brick three as well as stripped the ball from him on a drive and nearly had another steal. I like the feisty play on that end, but just need to be a little smarter in some situations. Offensively, he still hasn’t connected on a three. He made a midrange for his only hoop. Despite some of those miscues, I liked what he was giving the team overall. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-3 shooting (0-2 from three) to go with 2 assists, 1 steal and 4 fouls in 31 minutes. He was a +6.
Wood -- -- He didn’t enter the game until the start of the second quarter, down 13. Really not sure why. The team has played great with him on the floor particularly in our big lineup. He led the team with a +9 in the first half. He had 11 points and 5 boards in his 10 minutes in the second quarter. Ham adjusted in the second half and brought Wood in for LeBron when he sat midway through the third. So here you thought, okay, he’s going to get more minutes. Nope. Just 4 second half minutes. He’d lead the team with a +12 in 14 minutes and get just 4 seconds half minutes in the third. We brought in Hayes would shrank the floor for Bron and made for some awkward offensive possessions in the second half. But 4 minutes for Wood, who had bombed a couple threes, ran the floor for an ANd-1 and drew more FTs on the secondary break in that second quarter. Rui and Wood were 4-6 from three, a +12 for Wood, a +9 for Rui, but sitting on the bench a ton despite that. Painful watching Ham trying to figure things out right now. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 3-3 shooting (2-2 from three, 3-3 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 1 assist and no fouls in 14 minutes. He was a +12.
Hayes -- -- He found himself in some awkward positions offensively as the Kings just ignored him on the perimeter. With McGee plugging the paint as Bron tried to post up, what are we even doing? This is very much like the Russell Westbrook treatment last year. You have to run some very specific things when he’s on the floor. Russell and a nice screen roll lob pass for him to dunk. Other possessions, he was at least in the dunker spot to keep the D honest. Defensively, so-so. He got fooled badly by McGee on a fake handoff for a monster dunk. But he did have a nice shutdown against Monk to force a turnover on the other end. I guess with the guards, maybe you want his mobility out there, but we can’t just wing it offensively or it bogs things down. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 1-1 shooting (2-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards and 1 foul in 7 minutes. He was a +1.
Reddish -- -- Felt like this was a game where Christie could have helped a bit with his rebounding and perimeter shooting. Reddish is getting the call right now. A -7 in just 5 minutes. He missed in transition, then fouled on the inbounds. He missed an open corner three. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-2 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 1 board and no fouls in 5 minutes. He was a -7.
Ham -- -- Key Moment: I almost feel like going back to preseason to where he could have gotten more reps and more combos of guys that will actually play instead deep bench and G-league. Ham just has no feel for his guys yet and his roster combos. His preseason management the last two years has this team stumbling out of the gates. They’ll figure it out, but these problems were predictable. Getting to this actual game, maybe the key moments were those two offensive boards that led to threes in overtime. Go one and out, with a lineup that can do that, and it could be a different game.
Key Substitution: Wood for less than 4 minutes in the second half. Rui pulled in the fourth when he had it going. Ham mentioned after the game that he needs to figure out his rotations. Lakers actually won the second, third and fourth quarters in this game. Why Wood didn’t play in the first quarter coming off the last game is just a poor job by Ham. No way around that.
Key Stats: The Lakers shot a poor 15-23 from the line (65%) in the first half. They were going there a ton and left too many free ones get away on the road. Fox finished with 37 points on 14-24 shooting. Prince on opposing guards to start has not been great.
Coach’s Challenge: Good challenge midway threw the third on a block/charge call with Prince/Fox on the perimeter. It was called a block, but Ham had them review and it was overturned, Fox’s fourth foul. They had his fifth foul, tried to go after him a little with some switching plays, but didn’t really take advantage there.
Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 8638 Location: Santa Monica
Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 10:47 pm Post subject: Re: LAKERS -at- KINGS - 10-29-23 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings
DancingBarry wrote:
Ham -- -- Key Moment: I almost feel like going back to preseason to where he could have gotten more reps and more combos of guys that will actually play instead deep bench and G-league. Ham just has no feel for his guys yet and his roster combos. His preseason management the last two years has this team stumbling out of the gates.
This is why preseason is important. At least play the starters and regulars the whole game in the last preseason game while sprinkling in some playing time for a few of the rookies alongside at least two regulars.
While other teams were ready on opening night because they used the preseason wisely, we're in between preseason and beginning of regular season mode. That results in at least one extra loss, and that one extra loss could be very costly come springtime. _________________ Lakers 49ers Chargers Dodgers
Last edited by slavavov on Sun Oct 29, 2023 10:47 pm; edited 1 time in total
Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 11:02 pm Post subject: Re: LAKERS -at- KINGS - 10-29-23 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings
slavavov wrote:
DancingBarry wrote:
Ham -- -- Key Moment: I almost feel like going back to preseason to where he could have gotten more reps and more combos of guys that will actually play instead deep bench and G-league. Ham just has no feel for his guys yet and his roster combos. His preseason management the last two years has this team stumbling out of the gates.
This is why preseason is important. At least play the starters and regulars the whole game in the last preseason game while sprinkling in some playing time for a few of the rookies alongside at least two regulars.
While other teams were ready on opening night because they used the preseason wisely, we're in between preseason and beginning of regular season mode. That results in at least one extra loss, and that one extra loss could be very costly come springtime.
Using the season for preseason is garbage. Nobody is saying they should treat preseason like the playoffs, but settle on what you want to do instead of running summer league squads.
Go big, ham, that’s our solution to lack of 3 point shooting and losing rebounds
At this point I'm convinced Wood needs way more playing time. He might have to start!
TP can light it up but he can't rebound. We are missing Vando like crazy, but Wood can rebound, and he can space. We've looked the best with Wood + AD + Bron on the floor. Hell, I would put TP at the 2 with Dlo or AR at times. Anything to get a rebound!
Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 11:54 pm Post subject: Re: LAKERS -at- KINGS - 10-29-23 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings
DancingBarry wrote:
Ham -- -- Key Moment: I almost feel like going back to preseason to where he could have gotten more reps and more combos of guys that will actually play instead deep bench and G-league. Ham just has no feel for his guys yet and his roster combos. His preseason management the last two years has this team stumbling out of the gates. They’ll figure it out, but these problems were predictable. Getting to this actual game, maybe the key moments were those two offensive boards that led to threes in overtime. Go one and out, with a lineup that can do that, and it could be a different game.
Pains with growing up with a potentially very good coach.
Interesting is that the defense are having problems, in the first three games.
Appears that LBJ and AD are out-of-sync with how the plays is so suppose to layout
Going against teams (Nuggets and Kings) that basically have little significant turnovers in their personnel hence have a ontinuity in their schemes quickly highlights all the warts that this team needs to addressed, hence he got all the players' attention
What’s slightly worrisome is if Booker played that second game or if Lebron doesn’t go into take over mode past his minutes plan (that we’re seeing is BS real quick) we may be 0-3 right now. But these are all playoff level teams so it’s not bad we lost to Kings and Nuggets. They are good teams who should be in the playoffs.
I don’t have a big issue with being 1-2 based on the schedule, we beat the Suns without Book/Beal, took care of business at home. Lost 2 playoff level teams (top 3 seeds from last year) on the road. That’s acceptable.
What concerns me is that we were a team that brought back its core only to have very little continuity to show for it so far. It looks as if these guys never played together. You would have liked to have seen AD/Bron/Rui/DLO/Reaves get a lot of minutes as they were part of the core last year.
The other concern is Lebron. As our co-best player. Our goal was to have him at 28-30 min. In game 2 and 3 we played him 35 and 39 min. The plan to keep him at 28-30 hasn’t been followed in 2/3 games. If physically it is in his best interests to follow that plan, we should at this point of the season. Late in the season when playoff spots are on the line is when you go over the minutes. Weird stuff going on.
- kings with zero rim protection at the end of the game and Russell with nothing but one man between him and the rim refusing to try to get to the hoop
- backup centers making stuff happen to start the run in the second half, creating steals (not sure why they're not on the stat sheet?), stopping rim penetration, just all around energizing the squad with defense, only to see them benched for more iso ball
- refusal by LeBron and Davis to just literally walk to the rim at the end of the game with no defender over 6'6 _________________ Kobe
They have too much size to be chucking threes and the defense is awful.
Unfortunately I feel the Kings simply packed the paint in the 4th(they didn't want LBJ to have another hero night). That is why the Lakers got all those shooters..teams will do this..I don't understand why this still happens with all the shooting the Lakers brought in.
FYI I think keeping LBJ minutes low till the 4th is working..the Lakers simply didn't hit those open 3s.
With Harrison Barnes at center? (after Demontas Sabonis fouled out)
With Javale Mcgee — he did not jump one time last night (!!) — at center? (entire overtime)
You have to be joking, my dude.
Anthony Davis was frozen out of the offense by our two all-star playmakers, Dangelo and Lebron .
Do we really need to get another playmaker AND a big, what happened to DLo-Reaves playmaking abilities _________________ “The main goal for the Lakers is to win a championship. All I care about, all we care about, is to raise another banner in the rafters.“
Go back and watch the game when Javale was guarding AD anytime in the 2nd half...The clown was essentially tackling AD, who fell to the ground like Two different times, yet nothing was called...I'm guessing that was the reason the he seemed frustrated as well.
I mean, Javale's defense was cartoonish...Go back and watch it. Clear fouls not called. _________________ Creatures crawl in search of blood, To terrorize y'alls neighborhood.
Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2023 9:40 am Post subject: Re: LAKERS -at- KINGS - 10-29-23 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings
DancingBarry wrote:
Ham -- -- Key Moment: I almost feel like going back to preseason to where he could have gotten more reps and more combos of guys that will actually play instead deep bench and G-league. Ham just has no feel for his guys yet and his roster combos. His preseason management the last two years has this team stumbling out of the gates. They’ll figure it out, but these problems were predictable. Getting to this actual game, maybe the key moments were those two offensive boards that led to threes in overtime. Go one and out, with a lineup that can do that, and it could be a different game.
Key Substitution: Wood for less than 4 minutes in the second half. Rui pulled in the fourth when he had it going. Ham mentioned after the game that he needs to figure out his rotations. Lakers actually won the second, third and fourth quarters in this game. Why Wood didn’t play in the first quarter coming off the last game is just a poor job by Ham. No way around that.
.
There is nothing to figure out.
It is like saying I need time to figure out 1+1 = 2.
WTF, either he is purposely sabotaging the team.
or
He is just completely clueless and overwhelmed and too slow to be a head coach.
It is common sense to not pull out your player that is hot.
And it is common sense to not sit them for too long.
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-- Some big makes by Bron. He tied the game up with 12.9 seconds left, attack across the lane and around AD for a layup with 12.9 seconds left to tie the game up. In overtime, he hit a big three in front of the Kings bench with the shotclock winding down to cut it to 1. Nearly a triple-double in this one. The 8 turnovers just shows how out of sync the team is at times. A couple times he’s expecting guys to be where he’s throwing the ball and they aren’t. He threw an outlet away late in the game, way short trying to reach Russell. I really liked the stretch where Bron/Wood were on the court. Wood got a couple of wide open threes and another breakaway score. That spaces the floor for Bron, makes life easier. In the second half, we saw the floor shrink, the offense stumble with Hayes out there and the team out of sync. 
-- Killing me, the announcers and I’m sure most Laker fans that we couldn’t take advantage of a small lineup with AD in the paint late in regulation. One score for AD in overtime, hitting a short one in the middle of the off a Bron drive and dish. Obviously, Ham doesn’t have his guys clicking, but our floor generals need to be more deliberate in organizing the offense to get him some touches instead of calling their own numbers. AD looked particularly frustrated with under a couple minutes left in regulation when we missed a three and he didn’t see the ball. It’s also killing me that we were the bigger team out there, yet we’re losing the rebounding battle and getting burned by second chance points. You’ve got to have better team rebounding. The Kings in overtime were able to get AD out on the perimeter challenging shots. He needs to get back in the paint when those go up to help battle, but it wasn’t really on him. The rest of the guys need to do better (Prince and Russell got burned on the defensive glass). 
-- Hard to believe he turned this into a 17-point game. At one point early in the fourth, our starting guards were a combined 2-17 from the floor. In that fourth, he’d score on a 16-footer, he’d get a layup in transition off a Gabe steal. He’d get Fox’s fifth foul on a reach with 8 minutes to go as he came off a screen and gave up the Lou Williams treatment (I think he was annoyed Fox got a similar foul on him on the other end). He’d miss a couple of threes (this was hurting when AD needed touches against some shrimps defending him). But Russell would bring the team back from down 7 with a minute and a half to go. He sank a huge three with 1:24 to cut it to 4. He’d then push out a board with a minute left to earn FTs and cut it to 2. In overtime, he had a big And-1 17-footer working off the two-man game and getting a man climbing his back. Then missed a couple jumpers and we’d fade. 
-- Usually efficient, he was off the mark in the first half, going 1-10 (1-7 from three). Good looks mostly, just was not connecting. That was a difference maker in the half. Just give me a couple of those makes from three and we’re doing okay. That continued into the second half and Ham ended up sitting him except for some offense/defense subs. Any kind of game from one of our guards tonight would have made the difference. On the playmaking side, he’s missing a lot of reads off passing sequences. I think a good portion of this is he’s not being aggressive enough to get the D to commit. They had one of their standard Chicago actions that he got in the middle of the paint with AD rolling. That should be a two-on-one for a lob to AD or a layup yourself, but he kicked it out prematurely before putting the pressure on the D. He can make these reads. He’s just not totally in a groove yet. Shortly after that play, he showed a good read as a tag man got sucked into the paint to stop a roller, and Reaves hit Prince across court in the corner for the open three. A few of his passes were deflected in this game. Not sure what was going on there. Usually reliable for 14 or 15 points, poor game tonight. That hurt. 
-- Defensively, got the Fox assignment. He’s not Vando. So that matchup wasn’t going well as Fox had 21 on 9-11 shooting and 5 assists in the first half. The thought here is you fight over the top, apply back pressure and have AD in drop to deter. We’d switch that up later with Vincent taking over the primary defensive duties down the stretch. Also on the defensive side, just 3 boards for Prince in 41 minutes. He let Murray tap one out in overtime for a big three. You’ve got to commit to doing something on the defensive glass on that play. Either box your man out (Murray) or crack back and sandwich McGee who Gabe was battling. He did neither. Offensively, he gave you that third scorer with 20 points, sinking 5-13 from three. Without him hitting, we probably get smoked in this game. In overtime, though, he’d miss some wide open ones we needed badly. 
-- Rui gave the team a huge lift to start the fourth quarter. He sank a couple of threes and hit a midrange. Ham put him on the bench after he had it going and we didn’t see him again. The offense started that fourth quarter going 6-7, then went 1-6. The rotations felt really out of sync in this game. We really don’t seem to know what to do with Rui and Wood. At least last time, they rode Wood in the fourth for the win. We didn’t figure that out with Rui in this one. 
-- Uggh, a backcourt foul 80 feet from the hoop to give up FTs with 26 seconds left. We were set up with a two-for-one that would get us the ball back with maybe 4 or 5 seconds left. What are you doing? There no need to put pressure on at that point in the game. The Kings are going to run some clock, run their play. Just get ready. Got to be smarter than that. He also got sucked off a shooter strong side, one pass away to give up an open three with 32 seconds left in OT to go down 5. Yes, there were some good defensive plays. He forced Fox into a brick three as well as stripped the ball from him on a drive and nearly had another steal. I like the feisty play on that end, but just need to be a little smarter in some situations. Offensively, he still hasn’t connected on a three. He made a midrange for his only hoop. Despite some of those miscues, I liked what he was giving the team overall. 
-- He didn’t enter the game until the start of the second quarter, down 13. Really not sure why. The team has played great with him on the floor particularly in our big lineup. He led the team with a +9 in the first half. He had 11 points and 5 boards in his 10 minutes in the second quarter. Ham adjusted in the second half and brought Wood in for LeBron when he sat midway through the third. So here you thought, okay, he’s going to get more minutes. Nope. Just 4 second half minutes. He’d lead the team with a +12 in 14 minutes and get just 4 seconds half minutes in the third. We brought in Hayes would shrank the floor for Bron and made for some awkward offensive possessions in the second half. But 4 minutes for Wood, who had bombed a couple threes, ran the floor for an ANd-1 and drew more FTs on the secondary break in that second quarter. Rui and Wood were 4-6 from three, a +12 for Wood, a +9 for Rui, but sitting on the bench a ton despite that. Painful watching Ham trying to figure things out right now. 
-- He found himself in some awkward positions offensively as the Kings just ignored him on the perimeter. With McGee plugging the paint as Bron tried to post up, what are we even doing? This is very much like the Russell Westbrook treatment last year. You have to run some very specific things when he’s on the floor. Russell and a nice screen roll lob pass for him to dunk. Other possessions, he was at least in the dunker spot to keep the D honest. Defensively, so-so. He got fooled badly by McGee on a fake handoff for a monster dunk. But he did have a nice shutdown against Monk to force a turnover on the other end. I guess with the guards, maybe you want his mobility out there, but we can’t just wing it offensively or it bogs things down. 
-- Felt like this was a game where Christie could have helped a bit with his rebounding and perimeter shooting. Reddish is getting the call right now. A -7 in just 5 minutes. He missed in transition, then fouled on the inbounds. He missed an open corner three. 
-- Key Moment: I almost feel like going back to preseason to where he could have gotten more reps and more combos of guys that will actually play instead deep bench and G-league. Ham just has no feel for his guys yet and his roster combos. His preseason management the last two years has this team stumbling out of the gates. They’ll figure it out, but these problems were predictable. Getting to this actual game, maybe the key moments were those two offensive boards that led to threes in overtime. Go one and out, with a lineup that can do that, and it could be a different game.
.
