KINGS -at- LAKERS - 11-15-23 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Self-Inflicted Wounds... So much for winning a first quarter or a half. It was fun while it lasted.

Once again, the Laker flopped in the first quarter, falling back by 38-25 as they piled up 7 turnovers.

Despite their strong start in the previous game, the Lakers are still worst in the league in the first quarter with a -6.8 differential. That only grew worse in this game.

The Lakers doubled down in the second half as they lost that quarter by 11, as well.

Ham switched gears in the fourth, running Russell, Reaves, Reddish, LeBron and AD (who really didn’t show up in this game) in a zone. They’d string together a 10-0 run to pull closer.

As they chipped away with threes from Reddish and Russell, they got the lead down to 9 with 3 minutes left. But that’s as close as it would get. With AD playing like a ghost for most of the night and way too many turnovers (23), the Lakers fell 125-110.


LeBron -- -- Messy start where his turnovers were turned into dunks or threes the other way. I think his first 4 turnovers were 10 points for the Kings. So as good as he was offensively with the triple-double, he gave a lot away. He scored 19 points on an efficient 6-8 shooting in the first half. Second possession to start the second half was another turnover. Throw in a choke of a point-blank, uncontested layup and he just gave a lot away. All that said, he helped ignite the team in that fourth quarter comeback. Considering his age, he brings a 28-10-11 game with 4 steals you can excuse those 6 turnovers. He was let down by AD tonight. Maybe part of that is Bron as team leader needing to figure out how to keep AD engaged. He shouldn’t have to, though. The Lakers were a -15 when Bron was off the court. When Bron missed that game a few nights ago, we saw AD elevate his effort to carry the team. Bron got the game of rest, but no fuel in the tank for AD I guess. The Stats: He scored 28 points on 9-15 shooting (3-7 from three, 7-8 from the line) to go with 10 boards, 11 assists, 4 steals, 1 block, 6 turnovers and 1 foul in 35 minutes. He was a +0.

Davis -- -- You got dominated. “I just played like (bleep) tonight to be honest,” AD said. A key to beating the Kings is attacking Sabonis. You put him in the crosshairs and go at him in multiple ways. Just 4 points on 1-6 shooting in the first half. He scored his one bucket 45 seconds into the game and then nothing until the fourth quarter. He’d get nothing in the third, nor even take a shot. Just invisible. I had zero notes for AD in that third quarter. Meanwhile, Sabonis was pacing on a triple-double (finishing with 29-16-7 for the night). Just a very lopsided battle there which made you wonder how AD was feeling healthwise. He got downhill a couple of times trailing the break in the fourth quarter for scores. We saw in the last game, he had multiple plays that were rim runs, putbacks and just hustle plays outside of the offense. None of that tonight. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 3-9 shooting (0-1 from three, 3-3 from the line) to go with 9 boards, 1 assist, 4 blocks, 4 turnovers and 4 fouls in 35 minutes. He was a -13.

Russell -- -- A strong game like this from Russell typically gives you three big scorers, which makes the Lakers tough to beat. He had 13 points on 5-10 shooting in the first half and 15 points on 7-10 in the second half. Again, the three ball has been dropping (he made a big one with 4:44 left to cut the lead to 10). Combine that with a few midrange scores as well as some drives and he’s clicking on all three levels. As mentioned in that last one, he had been averaging 17 with poor shooting from three. Get the three ball dropping and he’s leveled up the scoring. Not a big playmaking game. AD and Bron had 10 turnovers. Maybe you lean into Russell a bit more to playmake as he’s been very clean. Defensively, it’s tough to keep Russell/Reaves combo out there. We’ve sent Reaves to the bench to break that up some. In the fourth, we saw them go to zone and some switching to mitigate issues there and that was their best defensive quarter of the night and those two played big minutes in the fourth. The Stats: He scored 28 points on 12-20 shooting (4-6 from three) to go with 5 boards (3 offensive), 5 assists, 1 block, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 35 minutes. He was a -13.

Prince -- : stoneface: -- A team-low -24 in 25 minutes. I think a bunch of that was playing with Bron when he was in turnover mode (he had most of his with Prince out there). Prince missed some wide open threes in this game. His one make was a swish at the end of a quarter off a Reaves kickout. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 3-7 shooting (1-4 from three) to go with 2 boards, 1 steal and 2 fouls in 25 minutes. He was a -24.

Reddish -- -- Kind of game we want from him. Bring the D (5 steals…that’s impressive). Score within the flow of the offense. Some good work by Cam changing ends for a fastbreak scores. Guys found him. It seems like he gets one backcourt steal or a pick six steal in passing lane per game lately. He had both of those tonight. Love that. He nearly had a poster slam over McGee, but couldn’t finish it. He’s going to get the highlight one of these nights. Bron had good words for him after. “Cam just needed someone to believe in him,” LeBron said. He added, “I think he’s special and can do some things in this league.” He also praised his offensive versatility in addition to his D. The Stats: He scored 16 points on 7-14 shooting (2-5 from three) to go with 2 boards, 5 assists, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 32 minutes. He was a +0.

Reaves -- -- Near triple-double off the bench. Crazy both he and Bron could nearly have that in the same game. Like, Bron a few too many turnover issues to make that a little messy. Reaves couldn’t knock down the three ball tonight which kept his scoring down. So he finished with a 9-11-8 game off the bench. Very Lamar Odom kind of output, where he’s Mr. Near Triple-Double with frequency. Love that he has been putting in effort on the defensive glass. Seeing that on the heels of the previous good rebounding game seems to signal that he’s making a specific effort to run these down versus just having them bounce his way. Kind of a big development if this keeps up. On the 2-3 zone they played in the fourth “Our energy and effort in that 2-3 zone itself was high and everybody was talking and communicating on what we needed to do -- rotations and stuff like that. And when you do that, good things happen.” It’s important for Reaves to help figure out how to get AD going since often Bron sits during some of those stretches and the ball is in Reaves hands more. “I’ll have to go back and watch the game to see what we could have done better to help him,” Reaves said. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 4-10 shooting (0-5 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 11 boards (2 offensive), 8 assists, 1 steal, 5 turnovers and 1 foul in 34 minutes. He was a +0.

Hachimura -- -- Much quieter night for Rui. Just two scores. He sank his only three. He crossed over on iso and reverse slammed for his other score. The real quiet part, however, was that he had zero other stats in the game. No boards, steals, blocks. Nothing. He did draw a charge on a rotation, but that typically a sign of not playing with a lot of energy out there. Third in four nights, I guess. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 2-5 shooting (1-1 from three) to go with no other stats in 17 minutes. He was a -5.

Wood -- -- Not much going on. He attacked off the three line for a layup. He scored in the post off a nice up-fake. He threw away a pass out of a timeout. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 2-2 shooting (1-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 9 minutes. He was a -6.

Hayes -- -- He threw an outlet away for a dunk the other way. He set an illegal screen out of a timeout for another turnover. So both of our backup bigs had turnovers on set plays out of timeouts. Painful. Again, Reaves connected with him on the two-man for FTs as those continue to have some chemistry. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 3-4 shooting from the line to go with 1 board, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and 4 fouls in 13 minutes. He was a -2.

Christie -- -- He came off the bench for the final minute and threw the ball away for a score. Theme of the game. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-1 shooting and had 1 board and 1 turnover in 1 minute. He was a -4.

Lewis -- -- He came in to add to the Lakers turnover total with a bad pass. The Stats: He had 1 turnover in 1 minute and was a -4.

Hodge -- -- Nothing to report in his minute of garbage time. The Stats: No stats in 1 minute. He was a -4.

Ham -- -- Key Moment: The team’s first quarter problems have been well documented. They also got burned in that third quarter as they couldn’t get AD on track. They lost that quarter by 11 points. This is your home court. You need to come out with some tenacity to protect that. They came out flat to start and flat in that third quarter. They lost the third 32-21. Even if you play just even with the Kings in that quarter, you’re within reach and your fourth quarter run when you switch up to zone on D actually means something..

Key Substitution: He went with AD, Bron, Reddish, Reaves and Russell for most of that fourth quarter. They made a strong run and cut the lead from 24 to 9.

Key Stats: The Kings had a 14-6 advantage on the break in the first half (Kings would finish with 21, more than double their 9-point average). A 13-2 advantage on second chance points for the Kings, as well. But turnovers would kill the Lakers all game long. They gave up 30 points off 23 turnovers -- 8-10 less turnovers would have made the difference. Lakers made it just too easy for the Kings.

[mhan00]

I could have sworn I saw AR have at least 6 TOs, but maybe they credited one or two or his TOs to the other Laker involved in the play, Seemed like he had a ton of passes deflected and picked off tonight.

Ugly game, but no unexpected sinee we were on a back to back against a young Kings team who loves to run. Just got out worked, especially AD. Might need to consider sitting AD on back to backs if this is the kind of game he's going to give us. Ouch.

[A Mad Chinaman]

Overall, a low energy game. Ham stated that he had made defensive scheme changes in the previous game. Maybe Ham can have the team in certain defensive schemes that will activate their energy, moving with purpose and to get rebounds at the start of games

Yet another confirmation that LBJ is "Da Man" while the uber-talented AD is trying to be "Robin" that is consistent and impactful. Fascinating that a player that has been in the league for 21 years is more consistent in producing stellar stats, imposing his will on his opponents and making a tangible difference in games that he's playing in. If one is missing chippies, make dunks. If one is injured (the reason why his mobility is seemingly limited, play the angles while on defense. If his shot is not falling and his mobility is affecting his defense, maybe he can set up at the high post block and do his impression of Jokic to get his other teammates more involved/effective by getting clean/cleaner looks at the basket

It is painful seeing DLo & AR in the game (defensively) at the same time. With AD, LBJ, DLo and AR good playmakers - it is surprising that there is not much more ball movement

Did Wood, Rui and Hayes play in this game - LOL!

Hopefully, Rui (LBJ's "Litte Brother") will start emulating his effectiveness

Only watched the fourth quarter on reply because I have little interest in a team that doesn't respect the game to provide the needed energy

Hopefully, our energy/defensive guys (Vincent & Vanderbilt) will "motivate" others to bring the needed effort. As DB had shared in the past, hustle is not a word that is not often seen in this team

[pio2u]

Thx DB.

[slavavov]

Not sure why this team keeps coming out with a lack of energy to start games. It almost reminds me of how the 2021-22 team had a casual approach and thought all it had to do was get the final play-in tournament spot in order to win the chip.
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[governator]

Domantas Abdul Jabbar took AD’s, Rui’s, everybody’s lunch. Simple back down, turn and quick mini jump hook, unstoppable
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“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.“

[wolfpaclaker]

[RI Laker]

[Dr. Laker]

Thanks, DB! I missed this game, thankfully.
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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".

[Halflife]

got to figure out how to beat a good team.
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Kobe.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Clw9scopegx/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

[tox]

Sad. In some ways I guess it's nice the Lakers lose to something as self-inflicted as 23 turnovers?

[deal]

[Halflife]

read a stat where AD is 0-8 against sabonis.
_________________
Kobe.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Clw9scopegx/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

[TDRock]

[A Mad Chinaman]