Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2023 8:13 pm Post subject: LAKERS -at- ROCKETS - 11-8-23 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings
Yuck... The NBA’s worst first quarter team took the court tonight against the Houston Rockets.
With AD out and Wood starting, they went scoreless the first few minutes and would trail 32-19 after the first quarter. So, they surpassed their average -8.7 first quarter average by quite a few points.
The Lakers were missing AD and their energy guys against the Rockets and it really showed. Throw in turnovers, horrible (horrible!) pick and roll defense, and a lack of size, and by midway through the second quarter, the Lakers were down 24. Zero offensive boards in the second quarter for the Lakers.
They were outmatched again in the third quarter, losing more ground. By the time the fourth quarter came, it was garbage time.
This was a good opportunity for the Lakers to win their first road game, but they were much too soft, especially without their defensive anchor. The Rockets dominated points in the paint and on the break. The Lakers fell 128-94.
Awful.
LeBron -- -- At least we limited his minutes. But we might have been just as well off sitting him with AD for the night. Some good moments in the post. A little bit of fastbreak action. Passing-wise he teamed up with Rui a couple of times on some nice ones. On one it looked like Bron was about to fire up a three, but instead spotted Rui under the hoop for a layup. On another, they worked the two-man game, Bron got downhill and wrapped a pass around the help D to Rui for the easy score. He was annoyed a few times with the officiating coming out of that last game where the Lakers sent the league some footage to look at. The Stats: He scored 18 points on 7-13 shooting (0-2 from three, 4-5 from the line) to go with 6 boards, 2 assists, 3 turnovers and 1 foul in 27 minutes. He was a -24.
Russell -- -- He had 7 points in the first half on an inefficient 3-10 shooting. Reaves was equally poor. Much better 6-8 shooting in the second half. He’d dial in the three ball. When he was able to catch and shoot from three (versus) trying to create himself, he looked pretty automatic (went 4-7 from three on the night). Defensively, he started the game with a block on Brooks from behind and another after fighting over the top of a screen to recover from behind on a pull-up. He’d finish with 3 blocks on the night to lead the team. The Stats: He scored 22 points on 9-18 shooting (4-7 from three) to go with 2 boards, 4 assists, 3 blocks, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 28 minutes. He was a -18.
Reaves -- -- The Lakers need impact from him to be a top tier team. Near triple-double the previous night. As good as that one was, this was on the other end of the spectrum. Just two made shots on the night. He snaked into the lane for an And-1 jumper on one. He’d hit a pull-up at the FT line for his other make. That’s not going to cut it. Defensively, overwhelmed at times, but he did get a couple of steals. Rebounding was MIA after a great one in MIA. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 2-9 shooting (0-4 from three, 3-3 from the line) to go with 1 board, 4 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 26 minutes. He was a -28.
Wood -- -- At times, you didn’t know he was on the floor. I did think the Lakers missed him several times on passes. But he really was making no impact. No points and only one shot attempt in that starting spot for AD. Yikes. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-1 shooting (0-2 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 1 steal and 4 fouls in 22 minutes. He was a -19.
Prince -- -- Did most of his work in the first half. He attacked baseline to muscle in a layup. He hit a three on a pull-up while on the move (nice). He knocked down a midrange jumper. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 3-6 shooting (1-2 from three) to go with 1 board, 1 assist, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 27 minutes. He was a -16.
Hachimura -- -- At least Rui showed up. Out of the concussion protocol and back in the mix. He gave the Lakers some much-needed scoring in that first quarter, hitting a three, a pull-up jumper and dunking on a screen-roll. He could have had more than 7 points but missed a couple FTs. He’d finish with 15 on 6-9 shooting in the first half. He’d hit a couple of threes in the game. The midrange looked automatic. I love it when guys are on him and he just buries those like the D isn’t even there. Multiple times he did that in this game. That’s kind of his trademark shot. He led the team in scoring off the bench. Defensively, he had a nice play where he stayed with a man on the drive, blocked the shot, recovered it and threw it over his head, fortunately to a teammate. The Stats: He scored 24 points on 10-14 shooting (2-3 from three, 2-5 from the line) to go with 8 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block and no fouls in 26 minutes. He was a -13.
Christie -- -- Man, he has not picked up where he left off last year, let alone in the summer league. Shooting blanks most of the night. Still, I appreciate the effort on the glass. He’s pretty elite rebounding from the SG spot. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 1-8 shooting (0-2 from three, 2-3 from the line) to go with 8 boards, 3 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 28 minutes. He was a -15.
Reddish -- -- He had 3 steals on the night, one was thrown right to him. Not a lot of disruptive defensive stands by the Lakers as the Rockets had just 11 turnovers on the night. Anytime he shoots from three, it feels like a miss because it is. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 2-7 shooting (0-3 from three, 3-4 from the line) to go with 1 board, 3 steals and no fouls in 25 minutes. He was a -20.
Lewis -- -- Garbage time minutes. He missed both shots he took. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-2 shooting and had 1 board in 8 minutes. He was a -5.
Castleton -- -- In the mix with 2:20 left in the first quarter with AD out. He picked up a couple of quick fouls. That moved Rui into the C spot and the Lakers had some issues with their lack of size. He got a dunk off a two-man action with Christie out of a timeout in garbage time for his only score. Glad he got some run tonight. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-3 shooting to go with 2 offensive boards, 2 assists and 5 fouls in 14 minutes. He was a -8.
Hodge -- -- The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-3 shooting (0-1 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 1 assist, 1 block, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 10 minutes. He was a -4.
Ham -- -- Key Moment: Out of the gates, the team went scoreless for 3 minutes or so. Once again, not competitive to open a game up. But they lost all four quarters tonight, so no real key moment. Maybe that happened when the call was made not to play AD. Just not competitive at all tonight.
Key Substitution: Nice work by Rui tonight. Efficient scoring from start to finish. Wish we had AD, Vando and Vincent, but you’ve got to get a better effort from the remaining guys, for sure.
Key Stats: Let’s start with 0-5 on the road. Third time in franchise history they have done that. Yikes. Lakers gave up 14 offensive boards (had just 5 themselves). Rockets had 14 threes, the Lakers just 7 and just 1 outside of Rui/Russell.
This team's consistent slow starts and falling behind by double digits in the first quarter are reaching research worthy levels of poor start teams.
They feel like a .500 team at the moment. _________________ "One thing I admire about Kuzma is his unwavering confidence. He truly has no idea that he’s not as good as he thinks." - Killer_Z
Joined: 24 Dec 2007 Posts: 35497 Location: Santa Clarita, CA (Hell) ->>>>>Ithaca, NY -≥≥≥≥≥Berkeley, CA
Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2023 9:30 pm Post subject:
I had to miss this one. Did I miss anything worth watching, or did an dodge a bullet? _________________ Damian Lillard shatters Dwight Coward's championship dreams:
Standards for a Championship Laker team were not met
When will anybody on the team be embarrassed that they are giving up 35+ points to their opponents in the first quarter, even when the opposition is not shoooting lights out
Having five players out provided an excuse not to win
Having five players out does NOT provide any excuse not to play with high energy and intent
Joined: 24 Jun 2005 Posts: 2485 Location: Inland Empire
Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2023 12:32 am Post subject:
Ooof, this team has the worst starts I've probably ever seen from the Lakers, for a good team that is. Not the tank/lottery teams.
This is embarrassing.
The only saving grace is we are barely in November still and we have some injuries for excuses, if you will.
Man, I miss when we were the team to get off to a good start and overwhelm the teams that weren't as good.
That's been a long time.
Bye. _________________ "This trophy removes the most odious sentence in the English Language. It can never be said again that 'the Lakers have never beaten the Celtics.'" -Dr. Jerry Buss (1985) R.I.P., 33 x M.V.O.
Jeesuz, guess we’re not that deep _________________ “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. We desperately need some shooting. I would give Hodge a couple of games with real minutes to see if he can help. What do we have to lose? These horrendous starts to games are getting old.
DB, I'm glad you will not being doing Fridays game. Its bad enough you have to watch this crap. I can not imaging having to put the work in after these games.
Joined: 13 Sep 2008 Posts: 5559 Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2023 6:03 am Post subject:
Laker_Jocker wrote:
mhan00 wrote:
I fast forwarded through most of the game. Ugh.
Watched the first 6 minutes, saw the effort and then FF. > completed the blow out in under 20 minutes
Same here. The way they currently play is unwatchable. They just stand around on O, brick wide open shots, and then play no defense and put no effort into rebounding. There was a sequence in the 3rd Q (I think) where one of the Rockets grabbed a board squeezed between 4 Laker players. Inexcusable.
If they don't intend to at least compete, I don't intend to watch.
DB, I'm glad you will not being doing Fridays game. Its bad enough you have to watch this crap. I can not imaging having to put the work in after these games.
The one benefit of a blowout is I can start writing during the fourth quarter and finish early.
We are the Los Angeles mothereffin Lakers.. where is the standards? Do better for the fan's ya'll that been supporting your sorry a$$ses for years and paying 3x the ticket value compared to other nba teams.
Drop Darvin Ham, he is the cool uncle that wants to ki$$ ass and be liked. We don't need a cool uncle as a coach, we need a coach that will hold them accountable and light a fire under their butts.
Ya'll going to let scrub a$$ d. Brooks really BEAT ya'll by 30?
Sorry i'm a fed up degenerate laker fan who is on the verge of checking out.
DB, I'm glad you will not being doing Fridays game. Its bad enough you have to watch this crap. I can not imaging having to put the work in after these games.
The one benefit of a blowout is I can start writing during the fourth quarter and finish early.
Your breakdown can almost be repeated many times
With all the injures, there is no chemistry
Energy and Effort - MIA
Defense - MIA
Lakers continue setting records for most points given up in the first quarter for the first (add number) in NBA history
Amazing that LBJ is doing what he is doing, how long will he be amazing and remain Da Man
I can't believe we lost the magic we had from last season when we made a run after trading Westbrook. So, what is the plan now? Just coast along, hovering around .500 until we can make a big trade? Pathetic. _________________ Lakers. Built different.
We are the Los Angeles mothereffin Lakers.. where is the standards? Do better for the fan's ya'll that been supporting your sorry a$$ses for years and paying 3x the ticket value compared to other nba teams.
Drop Darvin Ham, he is the cool uncle that wants to ki$$ ass and be liked. We don't need a cool uncle as a coach, we need a coach that will hold them accountable and light a fire under their butts.
Ya'll going to let scrub a$$ d. Brooks really BEAT ya'll by 30?
Sorry i'm a fed up degenerate laker fan who is on the verge of checking out.
This is the problem when you rely on Klutch. You are at their mercy.
It’s all fine and well when Lebron and AD are at their peak powers, but at their age and injury history respectively that’s few and far between so yeah basically anyone not in bottom 5 of league can beat the Lakers.
We can change coaching, front office, whatever…the results will stay the same as long as we are depending on 39 year old LeGrandpa and day to Davis to be the 1/2.
Our 2 stars are probably no longer a top 10 duo tbh. They can put up numbers in their sleep but the substance and availability isn’t consistently there for star duos.
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-- At least we limited his minutes. But we might have been just as well off sitting him with AD for the night. Some good moments in the post. A little bit of fastbreak action. Passing-wise he teamed up with Rui a couple of times on some nice ones. On one it looked like Bron was about to fire up a three, but instead spotted Rui under the hoop for a layup. On another, they worked the two-man game, Bron got downhill and wrapped a pass around the help D to Rui for the easy score. He was annoyed a few times with the officiating coming out of that last game where the Lakers sent the league some footage to look at. 
-- He had 7 points in the first half on an inefficient 3-10 shooting. Reaves was equally poor. Much better 6-8 shooting in the second half. He’d dial in the three ball. When he was able to catch and shoot from three (versus) trying to create himself, he looked pretty automatic (went 4-7 from three on the night). Defensively, he started the game with a block on Brooks from behind and another after fighting over the top of a screen to recover from behind on a pull-up. He’d finish with 3 blocks on the night to lead the team. 
-- The Lakers need impact from him to be a top tier team. Near triple-double the previous night. As good as that one was, this was on the other end of the spectrum. Just two made shots on the night. He snaked into the lane for an And-1 jumper on one. He’d hit a pull-up at the FT line for his other make. That’s not going to cut it. Defensively, overwhelmed at times, but he did get a couple of steals. Rebounding was MIA after a great one in MIA. 
-- At times, you didn’t know he was on the floor. I did think the Lakers missed him several times on passes. But he really was making no impact. No points and only one shot attempt in that starting spot for AD. Yikes. 
-- Did most of his work in the first half. He attacked baseline to muscle in a layup. He hit a three on a pull-up while on the move (nice). He knocked down a midrange jumper. 
-- At least Rui showed up. Out of the concussion protocol and back in the mix. He gave the Lakers some much-needed scoring in that first quarter, hitting a three, a pull-up jumper and dunking on a screen-roll. He could have had more than 7 points but missed a couple FTs. He’d finish with 15 on 6-9 shooting in the first half. He’d hit a couple of threes in the game. The midrange looked automatic. I love it when guys are on him and he just buries those like the D isn’t even there. Multiple times he did that in this game. That’s kind of his trademark shot. He led the team in scoring off the bench. Defensively, he had a nice play where he stayed with a man on the drive, blocked the shot, recovered it and threw it over his head, fortunately to a teammate. 
-- Man, he has not picked up where he left off last year, let alone in the summer league. Shooting blanks most of the night. Still, I appreciate the effort on the glass. He’s pretty elite rebounding from the SG spot. 
-- He had 3 steals on the night, one was thrown right to him. Not a lot of disruptive defensive stands by the Lakers as the Rockets had just 11 turnovers on the night. Anytime he shoots from three, it feels like a miss because it is. 
-- Garbage time minutes. He missed both shots he took. 
-- In the mix with 2:20 left in the first quarter with AD out. He picked up a couple of quick fouls. That moved Rui into the C spot and the Lakers had some issues with their lack of size. He got a dunk off a two-man action with Christie out of a timeout in garbage time for his only score. Glad he got some run tonight. 
-- 
-- Key Moment: Out of the gates, the team went scoreless for 3 minutes or so. Once again, not competitive to open a game up. But they lost all four quarters tonight, so no real key moment. Maybe that happened when the call was made not to play AD. Just not competitive at all tonight.
