CAVS -at- LAKERS - 4-6-24 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Playing with Pace... Back home for the first game after the long road trip, the Lakers met the Cavs for an early Saturday matchup.

Back-and-forth first quarter, highlighted by an underhand lob by Reaves into a crowd for LeBron to hammer down with both hands.

Russell and Prince started a scoring spree of threes and layups, and the Lakers pulled out to a 13-point lead on 15-2 run early in the second quarter. After a timeout, another Prince three had the Lakers up 16.

Later in the half, the Cavs started to find a rhythm when Russell sat and went on a 9-0 run to cut it to 5. The Lakers led 65-56 at the half.

Awful start to the third quarter by the Lakers, giving up an 11-2 run to bring things back even again. AD hit a turnaround in the post, then the Lakers went scoreless for the next several minutes. Just like that, anyone’s game again. The Lakers had just 4 points after 6 minutes of action on some turnover-prone ball and a lot of AD post touches for some reason (which is not how they got their lead).

The Lakers started to get on track late in the third quarter as the speed of the game picked back up. They rattled off a 17-0 run in 3 minutes and were up 13. That killed the Cavs.

The Laker defense put the clamps down in the fourth and they ran away with the 116-97 win.

Great job by Prince in this game off the bench. His scoring punch helped spark the team to a couple of runs.


LeBron -- -- He got out on the break for a number of early scores. His boat jaw-dropping play in the first half was in the halfcourt, cutting down the lane as Reaves worked the right side. AR saw him cutting and underhanded it to the middle of the lane for Bron to hammer down with both hands. The pass required Bron to reach out a little more, which always makes for the best lobs. He also had a really nice crossover on iso to lose Morris for a layup. That’s the switch in his game now as a PF instead of an SF of a few years ago. He’s more consistently guarded by bigger guys, has his health for the most part and can explode by those guys. He just needs to be shoulder to shoulder and it’s over. When the Cavs put a smaller man on him, Bron went to the post for the layup later. Not a lot of post action, though in this one. He had 9 assists by the half, setting up teammate on the break and on inverted screen actions. A little sloppy with the ball to start the second half and that helped the Cavs’ cause. We had a couple set lob plays. One to start the fourth quarter where he hit Hayes. Later, AD found Bron coming baseline for another lob dunk finish. The Stats: He scored 24 points on 10-18 shooting (1-5 from three, 3-5 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 12 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 5 turnovers and 1 foul in 36 minutes. He was a +10.

Davis -- -- Very disruptive defensively. He had 6 blocks and 3 steals. There was one sequence late in the half where he challenged multiple shots, finally blocked a man on a switch in the corner. The man got it back and hit the side of the board trying to shoot over him. The Lakers tried to focus on getting him the ball to start the second half. Things bogged down some as Russell wasn’t involved in much. He was much better off when other guys drew attention and he worked off that. Midway through the fourth, he had a couple big offensive boards, one for a putback. The other, he hit Bron cutting for a layup and that forced a timeout. On the defensive end during this stretch, he intimidated Mitchell into throwing a pass out of bounds. He then blocked a drive and controlled it out of a timeout. On the other end, he lobbed to Bron coming weakside for a slam. Killer plays in heat of the battle. That took control of the game. The Stats: He scored 22 points on 7-11 shooting (1-1 from three, 7-9 from the line) to go with 13 boards (4 offensive), 4 assists, 3 steals, 6 blocks and 2 fouls in 36 minutes. He was a +8.

Russell -- -- He had 23 points on 4-8 shooting from three in the first half and was a +25 in the half. He was burying threes on pull-ups, pick and pops and in transition. He also got into the paint for floaters. The Lakers shifted gears in the second half. Not sure why. He got his second shot of the second half a couple minutes into the fourth quarter. I think they were trying to lessen the turnovers, maybe, as Russell had some passes picked off. But the offense lost its rhythm, for sure. He’d knock down a couple more threes later in this one to go 6-12. He is crushing it from three. Having all those playmakers around him certainly helps keep him in flow. Once he gets into that zone, he’ll create space for himself and make teams pay. Keep it up. I want to see some huge playoff games. It makes such a difference for this team. The Stats: He scored 28 points on 11-17 shooting (6-12 from three) to go with 5 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 6 turnovers and 2 fouls in 31 minutes. He was a +21.

Reaves -- -- He’s still struggling with his three shot and that shows a little in some hesitation out there. He’s focusing more defensively and making some big plays there (really good challenges in this game). That may be taking some toll in his legs on his three shooting as we’ve see in the past. Some good work and chemistry between Bron and AR. He read a cut by Bron in the first half for the lob dunk. He got his only three in transition when Bron found him open in the corner. He returned the favor on the next play, hitting Bron with the pocket pass for a layup on the two-man game. They ran the inverted screen action where AR was the roller and Bron found him for a layup (great, quick finish by Reaves on that one, too). There was a key sequence in the fourth quarter where AR didn’t read the pocket pass well (needed to wait a beat) and it was picked off. He hustles back in transition, went vertical at the rim and forced a miss. That allowed the Lakers to get a bucket in transition on the other end, big 4-point switch that changed things from a possible 8-point lead to a 12-point lead. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 3-6 shooting (1-4 from three) to go with 2 boards, 6 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers and 3 fouls in 33 minutes. He was a -6.

Hachimura -- -- Quiet game for Rui. He was mostly relegated to corner threes in this one. He hit one of those. He dunked on a leakout. And he hit a midrange jumper. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 3-9 shooting (1-5 from three, 0-2 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 1 block and 1 turnover in 27 minutes. He was a -7.

Dinwiddie -- -- He got on the board with under 4 minutes left, sinking a corner catch-and-shoot three. He hit another three, banking it, just trying to threw it up to beat the shotclock late in the game and it went. Some good work defensively again. One play was a hustle back in transition to tap an outlet away from a player trying to leak out. He also had a steal stunting to a driver, then getting his hands in the passing lane after forcing the pass. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-5 shooting (2-4 from three) to go with 2 boards, 2 assists, 3 steals and no fouls in 25 minutes. He was a +11.

Prince -- -- Key player in this one. Strong first half with 11 points, hitting three threes and also scoring on the break on a Cavs turnover he helped cause. That gave the Lakers a bump to get some early separation. Again, in the second half, he buried another pull-up three in transition. He took a swing pass, attacked off the three line and Euro’d around the help D for another score. He then sank a midrange on his next attempt. Well done. None of the guys we had last year in his role could put up a game like this. The Stats: He scored 18 points on 7-9 shooting (4-5 from three) to go with 4 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 21 minutes. He was a +26.

Vincent -- -- Very quiet game. He missed a turnaround jumper attacking across the baseline. His second attempt, he got penetration and threw a floater up that Hayes hammered a dunk down with. He battled defensively and was in there with some of those Prince lineups that did well. Still very much in feel-things-out mode. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-2 shooting to go with 2 assists and 1 foul in 14 minutes. He was a +15.

Hayes -- -- A couple lobs in the fourth quarter. We set the first play up for him as Bron got into the paint and Hayes was already downhill and ready to hit the trampoline. He hammered that one. Great hustle on another one, crashing the glass as Vincent came up short on a floater and Hayes threw it down. He blocked a drive in the first half. Overall, good energy. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-2 shooting to go with 3 boards, 1 steal, 2 blocks, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 12 minutes. He was a +11.

Christie -- -- In for the final bit of garbage time. He missed a three. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-1 shooting to go with 1 assist in 2 minutes. He was a +3.

Castleton -- -- Offensive board in garbage time. The Stats: He had 1 board in 1 minute. He was a +0.

Ham -- -- Key Moment: Crazy shifts in the third quarter. The Lakers scored just 4 points in the first 6 minutes but still won the quarter (really slow, post-fed, offense early on). Credit the defense. The Cavs had an early 11-0 run in that quarter to even things up. The Laker defense tightened up and helped the offense pick up its pace. “We just kept getting stops, kept getting stops,” AD said. They rattled off a 17-0 run in 3 minutes and were up 13 again.

Key Substitution: Prince killed it for the Lakers. He had the three ball going early. That helped spark the Lakers to a couple of runs.

Key Stats: The Lakers had 11 steals and 11 blocks, holding the Cavs to 97 points. They held the Cavs to 41 points in the second half. The Lakers hit 16-37 threes (43%) on the other end.

[Laker7]

First! Thanks DB!
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Darvin Ham is an idiot!

[Chronicle]

Thanks DB

Felt like Rui was impactful but maybe not
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Kobe

[Dr. Laker]

Thanks, DB!

Just keep stacking wins.
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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".

[oaktown_dimond]

Does AR15 need a few games with much lower minutes to get his legs back under him? We need the kid feeling fresh and springy.

[slavavov]

The Lakers turned great defense into 32 fast-break points. That's how they need to play EVERY game.

No more of this "we just need to show up to beat inferior teams" BS. They've gotten better at that over the last several weeks.
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Lakers 49ers Chargers Dodgers

[Hammett]

Can we just start the playoffs now? While we're still hot?
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Lakers. Built different.

[Moses]

Hopefully this us peaking at the right time. Really hope we can play like this in the playoffs.
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Lakers, Chargers, Dodgers, Arsenal FC.

Mamba Forever
The Marathon Continues
Still I Rise

[A Mad Chinaman]

good win

With a rotation of bench players from Hayes to Dinwiddle to Vincent to Christie to Prince - hopefully one of these players will have a good game and make a positive impact on games

Last game was Prince, his next one might be in 3-4 games from now

If the Lakers play the Kings in the playoffs, we now have AR/DLo to Dinwiddle to Vincent to Christie to Prince to guard him