ROCKETS -at- LAKERS - 12-2-23 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Home Court Cooking... The Lakers are 8-2 on their home court. The Rockets, despite being a feisty team, have yet to win a road game.

The Lakers started a little slow like they do, but dominated the second quarter, winning it 35-14.

Maybe it was having more available bodies and better defenders, maybe it was just one of those games. The Lakers had a dominating 25-2 midway through the second quarter.

That was highlighted by 15 points from Austin Reaves, who was getting downhill and making things happen. There was a bounce in their step and having the home court crowd behind them kept the Lakers cruising.

“I was more surprised with the energy level we have coming off that road trip,” LeBron said after the 107-97 win.

The game wasn’t quite that close as that as the garbage time squad let the Rockets trim the once 19-point fourth quarter lead down in the final seconds.


LeBron -- -- He had 14 points on 6-11 shooting in the half and just 2 points on 1-1 shooting in the second half. Yet, the Lakers kind of cruised. The one bucket everyone will talk about was a post up where he spun in the post defender, then spun around the help D for a reverse. That had the bench on their feet and picking up a tech. He also got a tech mixing it up with Udoka on the sideline. Bron said he was just talking about Thanksgiving. I’ve known a few households like that, lol. The Stats: He scored 16 points on 7-17 shooting (0-4 from three, 2-5 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 7 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 5 turnovers and no fouls in 35 minutes. He was a +16.

Davis -- -- The defense was able to get set more and AD anchored the paint with 5 blocks. One of those was him hustling back in transition to swat a shot out of bounds. Overall, though, the pace of the game favored the Lakers more defensively. They sacrificed some open threes to the Rockets big in order to play drop coverage and defend the paint. Offensively, he started off slow, missing a ton of chippies. Really nice play out of a timeout in the second half. Christie curled around the high post on the wing and then cleared out. LeBron then took a handoff from AD and got middle. AD rolled and Bron found him for the easy dunk. It’s a simple play, but with Christie there it disguises the sideline pick and roll action that want to get into, and once Bron got middle it was over. The Stats: He scored 27 points on 10-22 shooting (7-9 from the line) to go with 14 boards (6 offensive), 3 assists, 5 blocks, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 37 minutes. He was a +12.

Russell -- -- Very disruptive defensively with 5 steals. It seems like he’s play defense a little more with his head this year to put himself in the right position. You may not have the physical ability for a tough defender, but you can still be disruptive with intelligent effort. I love that this was a low scoring game from Russell and you didn’t even feel it because you had six other players in double digits. But you also didn’t need to score a lot when you are holding the opponent to 97 points. So Russell’s defensive work made his scoring kind of a non-factor. He also had one of those backcourt steals this team seems to be really good at. Offensively, my favorite play of his was I think a freelance read. Bron had the ball in the post, Russell set a pin-in screen around the elbow area, but then slipped it and Bron hit him with the pass. That drew the help defender and Russell slipped it to AD for the dunk. Just a heady play that had the Rockets pointing fingers. It looked like Vincent on the Lakers bench also discussed the read Russell made on that one. So even though he’s not playing, hopefully he’s also picking up some chemistry from just watching his other guards at work. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 4-10 shooting (1-5 from three) to go with 2 boards, 7 assists, 5 steals and 2 fouls in 26 minutes. He was a +8.

Prince -- -- I suspect his three shooting will balance out over the course of the season. Perhaps, reducing minutes some will help with that. But he looked comfortable tonight, knocking down three threes. I really appreciated the rebounding in this one. It seemed like he pursued the ball a little more than regular. We need a little more of that to get a higher percentage of those 50-50 balls out there. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 4-7 shooting (3-5 from three) to go with 6 boards, 1 assist, 2 steals, 1 turnover and no fouls in 29 minutes. He was a +6.

Reddish -- -- So nice to have multiple defenders to keep the opponent from getting comfortable. Ham mixed up his guards a lot in this game and they all were able to stay within the flow. Great play early in the fourth to pull down an offensive board off a missed freethrow. He saved it to a teammate, got it back, attacked and scored an And-1 layup. He got the Rockets stirred up a little when he bumped a man in the fourth after a foul and was given a tech. This escalated into a LeBron/Udoka exchange and Udoka was ejected (after having picked up a tech earlier in the game). The Stats: He scored 11 points on 4-7 shooting (0-1 from three, 3-3 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 1 assist, 1 block and 3 fouls in 24 minutes. He was a -1.

Reaves -- -- He had 15 points on 5-9 shooting in the half. All of his points came in the second quarter when the Lakers dominated. He missed his first four shots of the game, but did not take his foot off the gas. Really one of his better downhill games of the season. His handle is superb, but being able to do it with gear changes of speed has defenders in trouble. A couple of drives in transition that had the crowd going, one was high speed cross to change directions for a layup (one of his best examples of getting downhill), the other was a Rondo-like behind-the-back fake into a layup finish. His aggression led to some FTs and scores at the rim. Love seeing that level of aggression from him. Defensively, he mixed in some steals with drawing charges. He really had the whistle in his favor in this game and similar to last year. It meant some shots to the head like he seems to take with frequency, but strong outing. He was part of the big run in the second quarter. He wasn’t quite as aggressive later in the game, but did draw FTs and even grabbed one of his own misses which led to a Christie three at the end of the quarter. The Stats: He scored 18 points on 6-11 shooting (1-4 from three, 5-6 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 1 assist, 3 steals, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 22 minutes. He was a +15.

Vanderbilt -- -- In at the SF with 3 minutes left in the first quarter, good to see Vando back in the mix. Just having his energy where needed on defense makes a difference for the team. We need a fireman defensively to keep opponents off balance. It doesn’t have to be big minutes. He helps slide guys into better positions defensively. More bodies means more rest and hopefully shooters have better legs under them. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-2 shooting from three to go with 4 boards, 1 assist and 1 foul in 14 minutes. He was a +2.

Christie -- -- With Reddish and Vando back, a good sign for him that he was still in the rotation. He continues to get more and more comfortable. He drained all three of his threes, including one to beat the third quarter buzzer. He had a nice baseline cut off ball to take a pass and earn FTs. He also dunked off a spin and back cut to take a pass early in the game. Although, he couldn’t finish a few around the rim, just his flow in the offensive sets really fits the team well. He’s making it tough to pull him out of the rotation, but being young Ham will likely favor others The Stats: He scored 12 points on 4-7 shooting (3-3 from the line, 1-2 from the line) to go with 7 boards, 2 assists and 3 fouls in 29 minutes. He was a +19.

Wood -- -- Not much going on in this game. He dribbled a ball off his foot trying to create. The Stats: He scored 1 points on 0-1 shooting (1-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 1 assist and 1 turnover in 11 minutes. He was a -6.

Hayes -- -- He started the fourth quarter for the first minutes with Lakers up 14. He finished a lob dunk off a steal by LeBron that ignited a break. He’d also miss a wide open three in garbage time. (Open for a reason.) The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-2 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 3 fouls in 6 minutes. He was a -6.

Hood-Schifino -- -- He barely hit rim on a three and was blocked on a drive in garbage time. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-2 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with no other stats in 3 minutes. He was a -8.

Lewis -- -- He came in with JHS for a few minutes of garbage time. He missed a corner three. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-1 shooting from three to go with 1 foul in 3 minutes. He was a -7.

Ham -- -- Key Moment: The 25-2 run in the second quarter. It started with some Reaves scoring, but most of it came when AD returned midway through the quarter and the Laker D started to make things happen. Key play in that might be an AD block at the rim, which had the Lakers quickly changing ends and led to a Reaves two-handed dunk.

Key Substitution: Just having a lot more combos he can go to will help Ham. We saw an AD, Vando, Christie, Reddish, Reaves lineup late in third. Multiple defenders with Reaves allows you to really mitigate some of his weaknesses. But just having more bodies allows you to slot players better defensively.

Key Stats: Just 9 turnovers for the Lakers. Reaves and Christie combined for 30 of the Lakers 33 bench points. Maybe next year JHS is also in the mix.

[waterman40]

First
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LAKERS 2019-2020: NBA World Champions!

[Lakers#1Team]

Thanks DB!

[tox]

Thanks DB!

[RI Laker]

Thanks DB. After AR bricked his first few shorts, I thought that stretch of basketball he had was his BEST ever. He was incredible. I loved seeing the lineup of AR, Max, Cam, Vandy, and AD. This is going to be a fun crew down the road when Vandy gets his legs and wind back.

[LAKERMIKE2]

There is NO way AD & LBJ shoulda played 37 & 35 minutes this game.

Either Ham has to sit them a bit longer or the team has to play better & shoot better FG & FT.
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My Laker squad.
Mr. Clutch, Nixon, Eddie, Nick, Magic, Kareem,
Silk, Cooper, AC, Worthy, Horry, Shaq, Kobe.
HC: Riley

[governator]

We have wings, love it
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“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.“

[PenG_]

LeBron was 1-6 and 0-2 from the FT line in the 2nd half.

And yet they won his minutes..... ahhh to have wings again.

[mad55557777]

We will soon have a few rotation decisions with Rui and Gabe coming back. I would hate for Max to lose minutes. I think Hayes will see minutes reduction for sure. It will be hard decisions as role players have been playing well

[CervantesRises]

Thanks DB!

Really looking forward to Prince coming off the bench and playing under 20 minutes a game.

15 feels about right... some nights he'll explode a lead... other nights he'll make no impact and it will be the usual Vando, Cam, Rui trio stretching leads out.

He has no business in the starting lineup with a healthy Cam, Rui, Vando, Reaves, and now Max.

What a difference having some length defending the perimeter makes!!!
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"If You're Afraid To Fail...Then You're Probably Going To Fail."
- Kobe

#BannersOverBillboards

[Halflife]

Doing what we should. Beating up on the trash of the league. NeEd to continue. Suns are still missing one oftheir pillars and mavs are horrible on D and SAS are garbage.
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Kobe.
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[joeblow]

AD's defense on Sengun was MUCH better than it was when we lost to them in Houston. Their talented center missed a ton of shots when Davis was guarding him.

Still, I have to admit that part of the reason for Houston's weaker showing this time was because they are a terrible road team who has yet to win a game away from their arena.

[governator]

What Bron-Udoka said?
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“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.“

[Basketball Fan]

[miggz23]

[governator]

Sore loser ish but it’s not super bad, just bball trash talk, when u got tens of dollars to burn
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“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.“

[Basketball Fan]

[Dr. Laker]

Thx, DB! I missed this one.
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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".

[mad55557777]