LAKERS -at- SUNS - 10-28-24 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Road Tripping... The Lakers headed out on the road for an extended road trip. They stumbled out of the gates on this trip with the loss, but this game came down the wire.

Like the last time we faced the Suns, a team got off to a large lead early. It was L.A. this time as they were moving the ball well and getting to the rim. They pulled out to an 18-point first quarter lead.

The Suns erased that pretty early in the second quarter. But there was a stretch where the Lakers held the Suns without a field goal for 5 minutes in the second. They edged up their lead again to 10 as a result, but they struggled to score. With just 14 points in the second quarter, they lost the lead. The Suns closed the half with a 16-4 run to lead 50-48 by halftime.

The three games in four nights might have impacted LeBron in this one. His perimeter shot wasn’t falling. He wasn’t getting to the rim. As the teams went back and forth in the second half, Bron was missing in action. He was still in single digits with 2 minutes left, when he sank a big three to cut the lead to a point.

The Lakers were right there in the final minute, but couldn’t knock down an open three. Down three, Bron was intentionally fouled with 6 seconds left to prevent a three. He made the first, intentionally missed the second, but the Lakers didn’t recover. They fell 109-105.


LeBron -- -- He was a -10 in the first half on 1-6 shooting. The jumper wasn’t there early on, although his one make was a three straight away. Not great shot selection on some of it, and he certainly wasn’t getting to the rim. This may have been the closest he’s come to not getting double digits. He hit a big three with 2 minutes left to get it, but very poor shooting night. I think I would have liked to see a little more low-post opportunities for him to get that penetration. But what are you going to do with the three games in four nights scenario at his age? Any kind of average game from him and this could have easily been a W. He had a chance for an open three late, but slipped and they were able to foul him for FTs. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 3-14 shooting (2-5 from three, 3-6 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 8 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and 1 foul with 36 minutes. He was a -17.

Davis -- -- He had 20 points on 9-14 shooting in the first half, Most of that was in the first quarter as the Lakers pushed out to that early lead. He put a lot of pressure on the rim, but also had some great setups by Russell and Reaves. Defensively, he dominated Nurkic, had a couple blocks and some good challenges that disrupted shooters. KD thought AD should have had another block on the stat sheet, saying he didn’t shoot an airball. In the second half, he did a good job going at the smaller lineups. Last time against the Suns, we let them stay in the small ball too long. Tonight, AD punished that. Some really good D, as usual, including a big block on Booker on iso D with 40 seconds left. Some Suns home cooking it looked like with the refs on a big no call late. He said they need to have the mentality of never losing two in a row. They will have a tough job against the Cavs who are undefeated. The Stats: He scored 29 on 12-24 shooting (0-2 from three, 5-6 from the line) to go with 15 boards (5 offensive), 3 assists, 1 steal, 3 blocks, 3 turnovers and 1 foul in 35 minutes. He was a +15.

Russell -- -- Just 1-4 shooting in the first half, but he led the team with 6 assists in the half. Some really excellent ball movement whether it was swinging it to Rui or getting into the paint and finding AD multiple times. He and Bron, though, were a combined 2-10 offensively and that hurt as we couldn’t put points on the board in the 14-point second quarter. He’d hit a couple of threes, a floater and a layup in the second half (4-9 shooting). He’s been setting a lot of screens for AD in different places. Those are tough for teams to deal with when we get the ball in AD’s hands. Russell had a nice one in the midpost area that allowed AD to get a pass, spin and score an And-1. The Stats: He scored 14 points on 5-13 shooting (2-9 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 8 assists, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 33 minutes. He was a +1.

Reaves -- -- With Bron struggling, AR stepped into that second scorer role. He sank a couple of threes early on, one off a Rui swing pass another off a Max tap out. He also had a strong attack off the three line to break down the D and setup AD. Late in the game, we put the ball in his hands to work the two-man actions with AD. He had a number of scores, including a big 4-point play with 4:17 left to take the 1-point lead. He’d hit a runner next time down. Draw FTs the following trip down. With 35 seconds left, we ran an ATO play to get him a wide open three. He couldn’t knock down that one. Huge miss after making his previous 5-7 threes. Great effort by AR on the road with Bron dragging. The Stats: He scored 23 points on 8-14 shooting (5-8 from three, 2-3 from the line) to go with 8 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 38 minutes. He was a +14.

Hachimura -- -- He led the team with a +14 in the first half, scoring 10 points and pulling down 6 boards. Just a really good two-way effort from Rui making things happen, but he got into foul trouble. He picked up his third midway through the second quarter and had to sit. The Lakers went into an offensive funk. Another good third quarter, sinking a couple of threes and scoring on a drive left. He picked up his fourth foul, however with 4 minutes left in the third and sat. Just love the effort. Can’t say enough about it. He had 5 offensive boards tonight and looked quick/confident firing and making all three of his threes in this game. Defensively, some really scrappy efforts, including a nice stop on Durant late and a great help D baseline block early on. This is just a different Rui. He’s embracing that glass crashing, extra effort ball and it’s paying off .He led the team with a +21. The Stats: He scored 20 points on 8-18 shooting (3-3 from three, 1-1 from the line) to go with 10 boards (5 offensive), 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block and 5 fouls in 30 minutes. He was a +21.

Christie -- -- He closed the first half with the starters instead of Rui, who had foul trouble. The offense died during that stretch. Max did sink a three beating the shotclock, but was also blocked twice trying to finish at the rim in that first half. They were a -11 in his 14 minutes in the half. His other bucket was a cut in early offense where Russell hit him back door for the layup. Just 8 bench points for the team. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 2-4 shooting (1-1 from three) to go with 2 boards, 1 assist, 2 blocks and 4 fouls in 23 minutes. He was a -13.

Hayes -- -- We’ve been killing it with the Hayes lineups, but not tonight. He was a -18 in 13 minutes. He had 3 turnovers in that time. Felt like it was more. He was called for an illegal screen, got caught in the air and threw it away, threw another pass away and was stripped in the paint when bringing down a pass. That stuff killed his minutes. The Stats: He didn’t shoot or score and had 4 boards, 3 turnovers and 2 fouls in 13 minutes. He was a -18.

Vincent -- -- His one bucket was late in the third. We had 1 second on the shotclock and Redick called a timeout (I think there were 10 seconds in the quarter). Gabe buried an open corner three on the inbounds. We may have needed a timeout late, but can’t complain about using one there with that result. That gave the Lakers a 9-point lead. Unfortunately, we have a bucket a few seconds later so the lead was trimmed to 7. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-3 shooting (1-2 from three) in 19 minutes. He was a -5.

Knecht -- -- Quieter night for Dalton. Phoenix was definitely very aware and familiar with him after all the games these teams have played to date. He missed a running bank, couldn’t finish a drive in transition (Rui cleaned it up), and he missed a quick-fire three. Felt like when we were struggling in that second, we could have got him involved more. As this team evolves, he’s that guy off the bench that I think they will look for that offensive spark when things go dry. But, it’s early and he’s a rook. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-3 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 1 board and no fouls in 11 minutes. He was a -13.

Redick -- -- Wow. Just have to say how refreshing it is to hear someone look at what he could do better after a couple years of Ham. First lost and JJ was talking about how well the team did and what he could have done better. Redick: “If there’s one thing to nitpick it’s probably me. I probably should have gone to the fire [blitzing] a possession or two earlier against KD, but liked that group we had out there defensively. I trust those guys. And the other thing I would say is we should never have a 14-point, so that’s on me, as well. Part of that is on me. I’ve got to make sure we’re running good offense.”... Coaches wanted more physicality from the team after the 14-point second quarter…

[CandyCanes]

First.
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Damian Lillard shatters Dwight Coward's championship dreams:

[eddiejonze]

Crooked refs, missed not one, but TWO AD hacks with no call...4 FT's=the winning instead of the L.
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[Nobody]

A loss, but I like that they fought tooth and nail. The one thing that stood out was our D getting caught out of whack because of DLO and Bron, who just sleepwalked on their assignments. And the minutes without AD being painful to watch. Bron was especially bad tonight.

[TooMuchMajicBuss]

Thanks DB. Excellent write up as always. Almost had this one, in spite of lackluster games from the entire bench plus LeBron.

Rui has really turned it up a notch so far this year. He didn't get the memo on having a crappy game. Neither did AD and AR. Too bad Dalton did get the memo. Goose egg. Bron just looked cooked after his outburst of immortality last game.

We'll see them again, we'll see who adjusts.

[PenG_]

LeBron Westbrook last night. Still close game, so that's a good sign.

[MJST]

Up 20, then worst 2nd quarter ever, then up 7 going into the 4th.

All with LeBron being in single digit scoring. If this was a regular 20-23 point performance for LeBron it's an easy win. And that's WITH Booker and Durant going off for 30.
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[av3773]

I think JJ should have gone bigger more often against the Suns and used his time outs more strategically to break up some runs

It's early, but it feels like Dalton should be getting more minutes than Christie...Max just seems to be pushing it and forcing it, Dalton even if it's not clicking for him it all feels more within the flow of the team....would like to see Max break out of this....but he is struggling and while dalton seems to be thriving

Definitely could have used Vando on this one

Good though AD looks great still, AR playing really well, Rui awesome verion of Rui, looks like we hit on our 1st round pick this time.

Still think this team needs one more high level role player/borderline all star to bring in

[Laker7]

Thanks DB.

Lakers bench 8 points. Suns bench 22 points. That was the game. Especially with Plumlee and O'Neale physically overpowering Hayes and Christie on the boards.
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Fire Rob Pelinka!

[sonic the laker]

Thanks, DB! Unfortunate loss. But, can't win them all.

It really seemed like the team went flat, during the first quarter, after that hot start. The Suns bench really brought it on the defensive end, with energy and activity, to give them credit. KD and Booker carried the offense. The Suns offense is pretty simple. Find the "weak link" on the opposing teams defense, get that defender switched off onto either Book, KD, or Beal, and let them work in iso. It's simple, but effective, when their shot is falling. The only thing the role players/bench has to do is play defense, get rebounds, and make open shots.

LeBron was looking all of his 40 years, in this game. That's going to happen during the course of the season. What can't happen is the Lakers falling back into the bad habits of previous seasons, and playing stagnant offense. The ball was really sticking on players hands, with little meaningful player movement. This combined with a bad night from LeBron did us in, despite a hot start.

Our bench could use a offensive sparkplug. That would potentially be Rui, if Vando was healthy, and in the starting lineup. Or, Wood, if he was back from injury. Gabe hasn't shown any real offensive punch, though he's been solid on defense. Max and Dalton are young, and will be up and down. Max still contributes, even if his offense is off, with good defense/rebounding. When Dalton isn't scoring, he's not giving much at this point in his career.

Nobody on that second unit can get their own shot, so it's even more incumbent for there to be a playmaker with this guys, and to keep running plays to get the offense humming. Dalton isn't shy about taking shots, but I would like to see Christie play with more confidence. We used to see him attack off the dribble more, for mid range shots, and runners. Now, it looks like he's just waiting either for wide open 3pt'ers, or over penetrating to the basket. Or, just giving the ball up. I'm guessing that's he afraid of messing up. But, I'd rather he mess up, than play scared.

Just my thoughts. Season still looks good, and hoping me can get some guys healthy, like Vando, Wood, and Koloko. Lakers!
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ZOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dr. Laker]

Thanks, DB!
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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".

[Texas_Pete]

Thanks DB.

Hated the loss but I'm enjoying what JJ is doing with this team.

For high-powered teams with great perimeter scorers, I'm looking forward to seeing Vando and even Cam out there to help shut off their water (with AD anchoring). Looking forward to Wood getting back too.

On to the next...

[A Mad Chinaman]

[pio2u]

[pio2u]

Thanks DB!