Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2022 9:08 pm Post subject: LAKERS -at- JAZZ - 3-31-22 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings
The Final Push... The Lakers dropped another game with their injured lineup limping to the finish line. Tonight, it was the Jazz taking the 122-109 win. Help may be on the way for L.A., but will it be too late?
The Lakers weren’t sharp on their defensive schemes against the Jazz. Early on, they gave up easy scores to Gobert and the Jazz guards. The Jazz built a 10-point lead within 3 minutes and were able to keep the Lakers there most of the game.
As the game went along, the Lakers were slow on rotations, and it’s those rotations you try to avoid against the Jazz.
Without LeBron/AD in the mix on D, they don’t have that mobile big defender who can switch everything. Those types of players cause problems for the Jazz. (And, hopefully, those two specific players will be able to give it a go in the next one.)
They’ve got another shot tomorrow to add to the win column. It’s do or die time.
Westbrook -- -- Gobert and Westbrook have a similarity. They’ve both got such serious flaws in their games offensively, that you can take away threat elsewhere on the court with gimmick defenses. When the playoffs come and teams zero in on those weaknesses, it’s typically trouble for their teams. Pretty good game by Russ. He scored 12 points on 5-8 shooting with 4 assists in the first half. A lot of setups for Dwight after drawing Gobert over to him. You can see how we can activate our bigs when we can get to the rim with consistency. Despite all that, we were a team-low -17 when Russ was on the floor. Westbrook irritated me just a few seconds into this one. Why are you taking a tech FT? First play in this game I see…annoying. He missed. (Of course, Monk missed his, as well in the second half.) But can we just let our FT shooters shoot, please. Russ was 6-10 from the line tonight. The Stats: He scored 24 points on 9-18 shooting (0-2 from three, 6-10 from the line) to go with 6 boards, 7 assists, 3 turnovers and 2 fouls in 9-18 shooting. He was a -17.
Monk -- -- Good job playmaking again with Dwight. Those two have some good chemistry. We ran some set plays for the two. One a SLOB where Monk curls in the paint after taking the pass and lobs to Dwight. Another on a high screen out of an ATO for another dunk. Without LeBron on the floor, we’ve got to have Monk playing aggressive and looking for teammates just to survive. Good job getting running starts into the offensive zone for scores and a few dimes. Despite the good passing, the scores in the paint and from behind the arc, the team struggled when he was on the floor. His weakside roll-man D just gets abused continually. Got to tag and recover to your man no matter how small you are. The Stats: He scored 14 points on 5-13 shooting (2-6 from three, 2-3 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 32 minutes. He was a -15.
Howard -- -- Big game from Dwight. He scored 15 points on 6-9 shooting in the first half. Most of his points were off drives and dishes from teammates that drew Gobert away from Dwight. But he also hit a step-back three in the first half that had the crowd buzzing. If they looked up his stats after that, they would have seen 7-11 from three. So we did a good job taking advantage of Gobert’s shotblock chasing. With Dwight out there on D, however, we can’t play to the Jazz’s weaknesses. When we beat them previously, we had smaller, mobile defenders switching out high on those screens, taking away pull-up jumpers, floaters, etc. by the guards. And taking away passes on the roll to Gobert for dunks. Tonight, we were abused on a lot of that. The Jazz pulled out to that 10-point lead they held most of the game in just the first 3 minutes. I want to give Dwight some props for a great corner close out early in the second half. One of those rare sequences where everyone was hustling on rotations. The basketball gods approved on that play as we forced the miss and got the stop. Big double-double, but defensively we just couldn’t do what works against the Jazz with any consistency tonight. The Stats: He scored 21 points on 9-13 shooting (1-1 from three, 2-3 from the line) to go with 12 boards, 1 steal and 3 fouls in 30 minutes. He was a -9.
Johnson -- -- Not much action in this one. He’d get a couple FTs for his only points. He had a steal that led to some Ariza FTs. He missed his only three. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 0-3 shooting (0-1 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 23 minutes. He was a -8.
Ariza -- -- Some veternism out there tonight. He had some good help D plays challenging shots. Something we don’t see with a lot of consistency from this team. He led the team with 2 blocks as a starter. Offensively, that three ball was struggling. He went 0-4 from behind the line. He’d get a couple putbacks around the rim. One a putback of a missed Dwight drive. Another, a layup off some long steps to get around Gobert. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-9 shooting (0-4 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 5 boards (2 offensive), 2 blocks and no fouls in 25 minutes. He was a -12.
Reaves -- -- Not much from Reaves in this game. He got all his points from the line. Didn’t do any playmaking. Defensively, JC was able to get going in this one finally. Some nice boxing out like he does. One of the few with a positive in the +/-. Feels like he’s hitting the wall lately. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 0-1 shooting from three (3-4 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 17 minutes. He was a +1.
Gabriel -- -- I wanted to see a little more time for him in this game. Just 11 minutes and he led the team with a +6. I just think running mobile bigs against the Jazz is the way to go. But Gabriel got tagged with 5 fouls in just 11 minutes, so that’s not going to get you minutes. Gabriel scored an And-1 putbacking trailing the break. He banked a short one after a couple head fakes. He beat Gobert on a catch and attack for layup. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 3-4 shooting (0-1 from three, 1-1 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 1 assist, 2 turnovers and 5 fouls in 11 minutes. He was a +6.
Anthony -- -- You see a lot of that Melo game that he’s had from day one in him. The midrange pull-ups at the elbow tonight. He had a face-up attack from the wing off the dribble and reversed for the And-1. Needed the three ball, though, tonight and that wasn’t dropping. He went 0-3 from the three and the team was a poor 7-25 overall. Still too many minutes for him, but we are depleted. The Stats: He scored 12 points on 5-11 shooting (0-3 from three, 2-3 from the line) to go with 4 boards and no fouls in 26 minutes. He was a -14.
Horton-Tucker -- -- He hit a three, a pull up at the FT line and a short fade. Combine that with some drives he finished and you get some three-level scoring. There was a moment when he hit a three and then Monk had a chance at one that went in and out late in the game that would have trimmed the lead to 7. Monk missed. THT had some more D on the other end navigating the screens and this one was done. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 5-8 shooting (1-2 from three) to go with 2 boards, 2 steals, 1 block, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 22 minutes. He was a +0.
Augustin -- -- He went 3-4 from three. Take him out of the equation and the team shot 4 of 21 from three (19%). I’m kind of curious how he will look with AD out there. AD can help strengthen some of your weaker defenders with his mobility and size. This team needs three shooting badly to open up the paint for that LeBron/AD or Russ/AD two-man action. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 3-4 from three to go with 2 boards, 2 assists, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 20 minutes. He was a +3.
Vogel -- -- Key Moment: Two plays in the fourth. Watch the awful two-man D by Dwight and THT that gave up a massive dunk to Mitchell. I think THT is trying to ice the screen but gets beat over the top instead of funneling the guard. That leads to a wide open lane for a dunk. Then a couple plays later, we see Monk go over the top on the screen as Dwight is in drop coverage. DJ has to tag the rolling Gobert as Dwight helps. That leaves DJ’s man open for the corner three. That forced a Vogel timeout as we trailed by 13 with 4:47 to go. The Jazz are a very, very capable team when you don’t play a switching defensive scheme. Missing LeBron’s mobility as the bigman very painful here when the Lakers were trying to put together a run.
Key Substitution: Let’s go with the 37th starting lineup tonight. We got just a few more games. Can we hit 40?
Key Stats: Lakers gave up 34 points, 32 points and 33 points in the first three quarters. That’s just consistently soft D.
RW has stringed together 5-6 good games in a row, at least to the level some of us were expecting, unfortunately, it is 75 games too late. I give the guy credit for missing only one game, but his flaws(mainly shooting) is frustrating. The good sign was that he has missed very few layups in the past month of so, even made some hard ones.
THT is basically RW without play making and speed at this point, he does play some defense mainly one on one defense, but whenever a screen comes, he got lost, has no idea where to go. I think he should go to another team for his own sake ( not sure which team would want him)
Can you imagine any coach playing the 2 above mentioned players for extended time together???? And add Ariza/Dwight
RW has stringed together 5-6 good games in a row, at least to the level some of us were expecting, unfortunately, it is 75 games too late. I give the guy credit for missing only one game, but his flaws(mainly shooting) is frustrating. The good sign was that he has missed very few layups in the past month of so, even made some hard ones.
THT is basically RW without play making and speed at this point, he does play some defense mainly one on one defense, but whenever a screen comes, he got lost, has no idea where to go. I think he should go to another team for his own sake ( not sure which team would want him)
Can you imagine any coach playing the 2 above mentioned players for extended time together???? And add Ariza/Dwight
RW is better when he has a much higher ball usage rate. Would that happen with LBJ and AD on the court. If RW is penetrating, AD would have many more shot opportunities. If RW is penetrating, would LBJ be able to be effective in the high or low post. If RW is penetrating, are the above-listed options better than when LBJ or AD have the greater ball usage
Vogel doesn't have many choices/options and forced to play RW and THT together, with Bazemore/Ellington/Ariza being so inconsistent
RW has stringed together 5-6 good games in a row, at least to the level some of us were expecting, unfortunately, it is 75 games too late. I give the guy credit for missing only one game, but his flaws(mainly shooting) is frustrating. The good sign was that he has missed very few layups in the past month of so, even made some hard ones.
THT is basically RW without play making and speed at this point, he does play some defense mainly one on one defense, but whenever a screen comes, he got lost, has no idea where to go. I think he should go to another team for his own sake ( not sure which team would want him)
Can you imagine any coach playing the 2 above mentioned players for extended time together???? And add Ariza/Dwight
RW is better when he has a much higher ball usage rate. Would that happen with LBJ and AD on the court. If RW is penetrating, AD would have many more shot opportunities. If RW is penetrating, would LBJ be able to be effective in the high or low post. If RW is penetrating, are the above-listed options better than when LBJ or AD have the greater ball usage
Vogel doesn't have many choices/options and forced to play RW and THT together, with Bazemore/Ellington/Ariza being so inconsistent
THT can get to most places on the court...whereas Russ is very limited because his speed has declined and his handles are suspect. A better, more offensive minded coach would make a monster out of THT.
RW has stringed together 5-6 good games in a row, at least to the level some of us were expecting, unfortunately, it is 75 games too late. I give the guy credit for missing only one game, but his flaws(mainly shooting) is frustrating. The good sign was that he has missed very few layups in the past month of so, even made some hard ones.
THT is basically RW without play making and speed at this point, he does play some defense mainly one on one defense, but whenever a screen comes, he got lost, has no idea where to go. I think he should go to another team for his own sake ( not sure which team would want him)
Can you imagine any coach playing the 2 above mentioned players for extended time together???? And add Ariza/Dwight
Raise that trade value please. There has to be some lottery team that needs a high usage, expiring contract. Knicks???
RW has stringed together 5-6 good games in a row, at least to the level some of us were expecting, unfortunately, it is 75 games too late. I give the guy credit for missing only one game, but his flaws(mainly shooting) is frustrating. The good sign was that he has missed very few layups in the past month of so, even made some hard ones.
THT is basically RW without play making and speed at this point, he does play some defense mainly one on one defense, but whenever a screen comes, he got lost, has no idea where to go. I think he should go to another team for his own sake ( not sure which team would want him)
Can you imagine any coach playing the 2 above mentioned players for extended time together???? And add Ariza/Dwight
RW is better when he has a much higher ball usage rate. Would that happen with LBJ and AD on the court. If RW is penetrating, AD would have many more shot opportunities. If RW is penetrating, would LBJ be able to be effective in the high or low post. If RW is penetrating, are the above-listed options better than when LBJ or AD have the greater ball usage
Vogel doesn't have many choices/options and forced to play RW and THT together, with Bazemore/Ellington/Ariza being so inconsistent
THT can get to most places on the court...whereas Russ is very limited because his speed has declined and his handles are suspect. A better, more offensive minded coach would make a monster out of THT.
THT can get to most places on the court??? seriously? i seen him attacking the basket like 1-2 times and has no idea what to do when he has the ball.
the fact that Russ missed to many layups showed he could still "get" there. i don't see a lot of decline from him in terms of speed/hop, but have no idea why he declined so much on his shooting.
RW has stringed together 5-6 good games in a row, at least to the level some of us were expecting, unfortunately, it is 75 games too late. I give the guy credit for missing only one game, but his flaws(mainly shooting) is frustrating. The good sign was that he has missed very few layups in the past month of so, even made some hard ones.
THT is basically RW without play making and speed at this point, he does play some defense mainly one on one defense, but whenever a screen comes, he got lost, has no idea where to go. I think he should go to another team for his own sake ( not sure which team would want him)
Can you imagine any coach playing the 2 above mentioned players for extended time together???? And add Ariza/Dwight
Raise that trade value please. There has to be some lottery team that needs a high usage, expiring contract. Knicks???
the contract value itself is higher than the actual player value, it is what it is...
RW has stringed together 5-6 good games in a row, at least to the level some of us were expecting, unfortunately, it is 75 games too late. I give the guy credit for missing only one game, but his flaws(mainly shooting) is frustrating. The good sign was that he has missed very few layups in the past month of so, even made some hard ones.
THT is basically RW without play making and speed at this point, he does play some defense mainly one on one defense, but whenever a screen comes, he got lost, has no idea where to go. I think he should go to another team for his own sake ( not sure which team would want him)
Can you imagine any coach playing the 2 above mentioned players for extended time together???? And add Ariza/Dwight
RW is better when he has a much higher ball usage rate. Would that happen with LBJ and AD on the court. If RW is penetrating, AD would have many more shot opportunities. If RW is penetrating, would LBJ be able to be effective in the high or low post. If RW is penetrating, are the above-listed options better than when LBJ or AD have the greater ball usage
Vogel doesn't have many choices/options and forced to play RW and THT together, with Bazemore/Ellington/Ariza being so inconsistent
why is he starting Ariza then? i think Russ plays ok with DJA, MOnk, Reaves, Stanley. i hope when Lebron returns, he let Russ handles the ball until crunch time to take over. his TOs are trending up, and Russ' is trending down.
RW has stringed together 5-6 good games in a row, at least to the level some of us were expecting, unfortunately, it is 75 games too late. I give the guy credit for missing only one game, but his flaws(mainly shooting) is frustrating. The good sign was that he has missed very few layups in the past month of so, even made some hard ones.
THT is basically RW without play making and speed at this point, he does play some defense mainly one on one defense, but whenever a screen comes, he got lost, has no idea where to go. I think he should go to another team for his own sake ( not sure which team would want him)
Can you imagine any coach playing the 2 above mentioned players for extended time together???? And add Ariza/Dwight
RW is better when he has a much higher ball usage rate. Would that happen with LBJ and AD on the court. If RW is penetrating, AD would have many more shot opportunities. If RW is penetrating, would LBJ be able to be effective in the high or low post. If RW is penetrating, are the above-listed options better than when LBJ or AD have the greater ball usage
Vogel doesn't have many choices/options and forced to play RW and THT together, with Bazemore/Ellington/Ariza being so inconsistent
why is he starting Ariza then? i think Russ plays ok with DJA, MOnk, Reaves, Stanley. i hope when Lebron returns, he let Russ handles the ball until crunch time to take over. his TOs are trending up, and Russ' is trending down.
RW’s TO are down because his ball usage is less
Maybe Reeves didn’t start because he’s starting to hit “The Wall” - as it relates to heavy PT
With LBJ/AD playing tonight (hopefully), the demands won’t be as great tonight
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