Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2024 11:32 pm Post subject: CAVS -at- LAKERS - 12-31-24 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings
The New Guys... The Lakers shuffled their lineup with the trade sending out D’Angelo Russell and bringing in Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton. First test for the new squad was against the Cavs and their league-best record.
Sloppy first quarter from the Lakers with turnovers and fouling three-shooters (twice). They fell back by double digits (15), but that rattled off a 14-2 run over 3 minutes to trail by a bucket. But 7 turnovers in the first quarter won’t win against good teams. They trailed 34-30 after the first.
The Lakers were able to take the lead back as AR took it to another level, getting into the paint for scores or setting up teammates. But they faded as they went cold offensively for a stretch. They trailed 58-53 at the half.
The Lakers cut it to 2 early in the second half, but went cold offensively for several straight minutes and fell back by a dozen. Reaves helped set the table for a Lakers 10-0 run to pull them back within a basket and force a timeout.
Poor close to the quarter with AR resting, and the Lakers trailed 87-78 heading into the fourth. The Cavs continued to bomb threes to start the fourth quarter and extended the lead to 16 points.
The Lakers trimmed the lead down to 5 late in the game off a couple scores from Bron, but gave up a series of baskets with under 2 minutes left while also missing some threes. That did them in. The Lakers fell 122-110 as the Cavs stretched their win streak to eight in a row and their record to 29-4.
LeBron -- -- Some big buckets late in the game. On one he bullied his way in transition to a layup to cut the lead to 8 points with 3:20 left. Then with 2:49 left, he chased down an outlet into the left corner and fired up an off-balance three and sank it to cut the lead to 5. JJ had one of Bron and AR on the court to run the offense at all times. I think they’ll need to lean on their set plays a bit more without Russell in the mix, but we’ll see. Bron had 7 assists with just 2 turnovers. I like that ratio. We spread the floor for Bron at times to try to get to the rim with our new lineups. Good floor spacing for him against most teams. The Cavs are tough, but let’s see how these small ball lineups with the new guys play out. Should help Bron. Not a lot of whistles against the Cavs. His first and only freethrows of the game came a minute into the fourth quarter. The Stats: He scored 23 points on 9-17 shooting (3-6 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 7 assists, 1 block, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 34 minutes. He was a -11.
Davis -- -- Slow first half missing jumpers a bit, but he’d get 17 of his 28 in the second half. A lot of perimeter oriented ball in this one with the size of the Cavs. We wanted to pull them out to the perimeter, so AD either looked for the jumper or would have the occasional downhill attack when he got the ball on the move, cutting or rolling. Defensively, we needed to do a better job on the perimeter. Breakdowns would force AD to help and our help-the-helper D was not great other than maybe Cam a few times. Cavs are a tough team to integrate new players and D. Ideally, though, we can go with some length all around, crowd perimeter players and use our new backline length to contain drives. The Stats: He scored 28 points on 12-23 shooting (2-4 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 13 boards, 4 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 37 minutes. He was a -6.
Reaves -- -- He’s leveling up. We’ve given him the ball more this year and leaned on him a little more lately and he’s bringing some strong games. One rebound shy of a triple-double tonight. His first shift started off a little slow with some turnovers, misses and giving up a 4-point play. The Cavs went to a zone and AR found the middle of the paint for scores and that got him going. Some great drives during this stretch, including a nice one where he faked like he was going to pull it out and took it for a layup (kind of play where he cooked Steph Curry that we see a lot of replays on). He followed that up with another drive and lob to AD, then a give-and-go to Bron. He then followed that up with another drive for an And-1 he flipped in on his way down as he was tripped. He drew the D and lobbed to Rui for a dunk. He led the team with 16 points on 6-10 shooting in the first half. Some moments in the third quarter that helped the Lakers get on a run. In the fourth, he turned up the scoring with a three, a runner after looking off a man, a layup on the slip screen, an And-1 jumper and a bunch of FTs. He missed a couple threes late. Very aggressive and continued to look like the third star on this team. Need a little better from some of the supporting cast. The Stats: He scored 35 points on 11-20 shooting (1-4 from three, 12-13 from the line) to go with 9 boards, 10 assists, 1 steal, 4 turnovers and 2 fouls in 38 minutes. He was a -3.
Hachimura -- -- Very flat game from Rui. He gave up a layup to Mobley on the first possession. (Then would foul Mitchell on a three.) Mobley would score 20 on the night. Rui with just 7 points on 10 attempts. Not a good outing, including choking a couple easy ones. He’s the guy you most likely would see replaced in the starting lineup with DFS or at least have his minutes reduced. But we’ll see how it plays out. JJ put some very big lineups out on the floor, too, with DFS at the 2. I like the small ball potential where we have mobile bigs, but it will be a work in progress. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 3-10 shooting (0-3 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 5 boards (3 offensive), 1 steal, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 30 minutes. He was a -17.
Christie -- -- Too many small defensive miscues in this one. Whether it was not tagging roll men or getting caught upright and giving up penetration or getting caught in the air to give up a cut and score, we needed better D against the Cavs. He did have a perimeter steal that he took for an uncontested dunk, but our D wasn’t as tight as we needed it to be. Offensively, he had a lot of great looks at corner threes and could only hit one three in this game. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 2-6 shooting (1-5 from three) to go with 1 board, 2 assists, 1 steal and 3 fouls in 28 minutes. He was a -17.
Finney-Smith -- -- He had the team-high +7 (and Rui with a -17). His first Laker bucket (and only one tonight) was a putback slam on an AD airball jumper that he turned into an oop. They set up a real oop for him to start the second quarter. It was right there for him but he lost control of it. He was wide open. We’ll see that again. He had a nice play defensively in the second half, communicating with teammates, then reaching in to strip the ball from a man on help D. Feel out game, but you can see how JJ is already experimenting with his defensively flexibility. Should have played him more than 20 minutes, but there’s a lot of integrating and reps still needed. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-4 shooting (0-2 from three) to go with 2 offensive boards, 2 assists and 2 fouls in 20 minutes. He was a +7.
Milton -- -- He swished a corner three from the left side a few seconds after entering the game for his first Laker bucket. In the second half he swished another corner three from the left side, as well. Nice to have that coming off the bench. Just 10 minutes tonight. Hopefully, we’ll get some set plays for him and then start finding more opportunities to ball handle. We’re going to need both of those things with Russell no longer in the mix. Defensively, he had a nice boxout against a big to get a board. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-4 shooting to go with 2 boards and 1 foul in 10 minutes. He was a -9.
Reddish -- -- We went back to him in this game late in the fourth to put him on Mitchell who was bombing jumpers. He came up with a huge steal that led to a Bron three to cut it to 5 with under 3 left. (Reddish had missed a big three himself a couple minutes earlier that would have now made this just a one possession game). Some good battles by Reddish under the hoop, including a stop and strip in the post against the much bigger Mobley. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-3 shooting (0-2 from three) to go with 4 boards, 1 steal and no fouls in 19 minutes. He was a -1.
Knecht -- -- He couldn’t get the three ball to fall tonight, missing all five attempts. The team was a poor 9-35 (26%) on some pretty good looks, just a couple of late-clock grenades where we had to heave something up, DK got one of those. On the move with his tribble he looked great. He iso’d and hit a pull up in the paint off the dribble. He also pushed out in transition and scored a layup with his left. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-8 shooting (0-5 from three) to go with 3 boards, 1 assist and no fouls in 22 minutes. He was a -3.
Redick -- -- Some new skillsets to introduce to the line as well as find with Russell leaving… Let’s look at the rotations with the new guys: First, AD, DFS, Dalton, Max and AR lineup. So Rui and Bron out… Then we shifted to an AD, Bron, DFS, Knecht, Milton lineup. AR out Bron in… Then Rui, Bron, DFS, Knecht, Milton lineup after that -- that lineup is made for Bron as the floor spreads… The next rotation was bringing in Reddish for DFS, going smaller… They then brought back in Reaves for Milton. There was a bit of iso ball happening with Bron during this stretch and the offense was misfiring. We’ll probably want some of that but the Cavs are a good team and can load up defensively on iso… Interesting: Later in the second quarter with over a minute left, he went with AD, Bron, Rui, DFS and Reaves. Huge lineup, JJ wanted a peak at it… Second half, they went back to the same first rotation lineup with AD, DFS, Dalton, Max and AR leading the show as Bron sat midway through the quarter. They ran off a 10-0 run… AD, Bron, DFS, Knecht, Milton lineup next, resting AR and bringing back Bron… They sat AD for Rui again, going with the Rui, Bron, DFS, Knecht, Milton lineup… Just 20 minutes tonight for DFS, look for that to increase and someone else’s minutes to shrink…
Joined: 24 Dec 2007 Posts: 36810 Location: Santa Clarita, CA (Hell) ->>>>>Ithaca, NY -≥≥≥≥≥Berkeley, CA
Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2025 12:26 am Post subject:
First. I got the sense the Cavs were just playing around and never in real danger of losing the game. _________________ Damian Lillard shatters Dwight Coward's championship dreams:
Joined: 17 Sep 2008 Posts: 21478 Location: In a white room, with black curtains near the station
Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2025 1:13 am Post subject:
Thanks DB!
Tough game. Cleveland as they're playing right now is definitely a title contender. I hope they kick Boston's butt every time they play.
Will Reaves hit a wall? He played his butt off, great effort. Nice game by AD, LeBron did well too.
Hard to judge the newcomers, Shake did surprisingly well but I don't think Cleveland had him anywhere on their priority list. DFS - up against a tough defense, I didn't expect a good shooting night, I expected just OK defense at the 3 line but solid defense elsewhere, I think he played just fine.
Interesting stat, DFS +7 while on the floor, Rui -17, and that's on a bad shooting night for both. DFS might not impress box score readers, but he improves a defense.
Toughest team we'll face all season IMO. We still have work to do.
The game clarify, highlighted and confirmed what this Lakers squad needs to develop into its game to evolve into a legitimate title-contending team.
Cavs are one of the few teams, as confirmed by their league-leading record, that knows how to get production from all five players on the court
With Rui (along with Knecht) not productive in the front court, Cavs' two bigs were able to clog the paint. With the Lakers lacking the needed consistent discipline of their "veers" to cover AD's back when he is defending straight-line and penetrating drives into the paint to limit second chance opportunities.
~ As noted by J.J. and Big Game Rob
With CWood on the court, maybe that would have foced one of the Cavs' bigs to have to defend outside the paint.
Plenty of film for J.J. to show the team what it needs to do to be a legitimate title-contending team.
Cavs legit, all 5 can bombs away and none got eaten up on defense, even the ones guarding Bron. They seemed to crash the boards more than us _________________ “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.“
Take away AD and LeBron, the team was 4-25 from 3. A below average night here and the game is a coin flip or better. _________________ "A metronome keeps time by using a Ringo"
Joined: 24 Feb 2003 Posts: 6505 Location: Past left field
Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2025 10:54 am Post subject:
Thanks DB!
Why didn't Jaxon play? We are playing one of the taller teams in the association, AD is getting sandwiched trying to get rebounds and we left Hayes on the bench. I don't get it. _________________ Fire Rob Pelinka!
Cavs is a good barometer, what do y'all think we need mod? Rebounding big right? _________________ “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.“
Thanks, DB! _________________ On Lakersground, a concern troll is someone who is a fan of another team, but pretends to be a Lakers fan with "concerns".
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-- Some big buckets late in the game. On one he bullied his way in transition to a layup to cut the lead to 8 points with 3:20 left. Then with 2:49 left, he chased down an outlet into the left corner and fired up an off-balance three and sank it to cut the lead to 5. JJ had one of Bron and AR on the court to run the offense at all times. I think they’ll need to lean on their set plays a bit more without Russell in the mix, but we’ll see. Bron had 7 assists with just 2 turnovers. I like that ratio. We spread the floor for Bron at times to try to get to the rim with our new lineups. Good floor spacing for him against most teams. The Cavs are tough, but let’s see how these small ball lineups with the new guys play out. Should help Bron. Not a lot of whistles against the Cavs. His first and only freethrows of the game came a minute into the fourth quarter. 
-- Slow first half missing jumpers a bit, but he’d get 17 of his 28 in the second half. A lot of perimeter oriented ball in this one with the size of the Cavs. We wanted to pull them out to the perimeter, so AD either looked for the jumper or would have the occasional downhill attack when he got the ball on the move, cutting or rolling. Defensively, we needed to do a better job on the perimeter. Breakdowns would force AD to help and our help-the-helper D was not great other than maybe Cam a few times. Cavs are a tough team to integrate new players and D. Ideally, though, we can go with some length all around, crowd perimeter players and use our new backline length to contain drives. 
-- Very flat game from Rui. He gave up a layup to Mobley on the first possession. (Then would foul Mitchell on a three.) Mobley would score 20 on the night. Rui with just 7 points on 10 attempts. Not a good outing, including choking a couple easy ones. He’s the guy you most likely would see replaced in the starting lineup with DFS or at least have his minutes reduced. But we’ll see how it plays out. JJ put some very big lineups out on the floor, too, with DFS at the 2. I like the small ball potential where we have mobile bigs, but it will be a work in progress. 
-- Too many small defensive miscues in this one. Whether it was not tagging roll men or getting caught upright and giving up penetration or getting caught in the air to give up a cut and score, we needed better D against the Cavs. He did have a perimeter steal that he took for an uncontested dunk, but our D wasn’t as tight as we needed it to be. Offensively, he had a lot of great looks at corner threes and could only hit one three in this game. 
-- He had the team-high +7 (and Rui with a -17). His first Laker bucket (and only one tonight) was a putback slam on an AD airball jumper that he turned into an oop. They set up a real oop for him to start the second quarter. It was right there for him but he lost control of it. He was wide open. We’ll see that again. He had a nice play defensively in the second half, communicating with teammates, then reaching in to strip the ball from a man on help D. Feel out game, but you can see how JJ is already experimenting with his defensively flexibility. Should have played him more than 20 minutes, but there’s a lot of integrating and reps still needed. 
-- We went back to him in this game late in the fourth to put him on Mitchell who was bombing jumpers. He came up with a huge steal that led to a Bron three to cut it to 5 with under 3 left. (Reddish had missed a big three himself a couple minutes earlier that would have now made this just a one possession game). Some good battles by Reddish under the hoop, including a stop and strip in the post against the much bigger Mobley. 
-- He couldn’t get the three ball to fall tonight, missing all five attempts. The team was a poor 9-35 (26%) on some pretty good looks, just a couple of late-clock grenades where we had to heave something up, DK got one of those. On the move with his tribble he looked great. He iso’d and hit a pull up in the paint off the dribble. He also pushed out in transition and scored a layup with his left. 
-- Some new skillsets to introduce to the line as well as find with Russell leaving… Let’s look at the rotations with the new guys: First, AD, DFS, Dalton, Max and AR lineup. So Rui and Bron out… Then we shifted to an AD, Bron, DFS, Knecht, Milton lineup. AR out Bron in… Then Rui, Bron, DFS, Knecht, Milton lineup after that -- that lineup is made for Bron as the floor spreads… The next rotation was bringing in Reddish for DFS, going smaller… They then brought back in Reaves for Milton. There was a bit of iso ball happening with Bron during this stretch and the offense was misfiring. We’ll probably want some of that but the Cavs are a good team and can load up defensively on iso… Interesting: Later in the second quarter with over a minute left, he went with AD, Bron, Rui, DFS and Reaves. Huge lineup, JJ wanted a peak at it… Second half, they went back to the same first rotation lineup with AD, DFS, Dalton, Max and AR leading the show as Bron sat midway through the quarter. They ran off a 10-0 run… AD, Bron, DFS, Knecht, Milton lineup next, resting AR and bringing back Bron… They sat AD for Rui again, going with the Rui, Bron, DFS, Knecht, Milton lineup… Just 20 minutes tonight for DFS, look for that to increase and someone else’s minutes to shrink…
