Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2023 7:43 pm Post subject: LAKERS -at- CAVS - 11-25-23 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings
Starting the Road Trip with a W... The Lakers continue to shuffle the deck with their roster as injuries pile up, but they’ve stayed competitive in the process.
A turnover-prone first few minutes for both teams, but the Lakers pulled out to an early lead. Up 18-10 when the first Laker rotations came in midway through the first quarter. The Cavs would then score 30 points in 5:24 (21 in the final 3:49) to close the quarter as they moved to a floor-spacing lineup and Mitchell took over. The Lakers trailed 40-35 after the first.
Neither team played great defense as the Cavs held onto a slight lead, 71-70, at the half. The short-handed Laker bench (no Rui now to go with Cam, Gabe and Vando) put up some points in the first half. Wood hit threes on his way to 13 points and Hayes finished feeds from teammates for dunks and layups to score 10 himself in the first half. Reaves was critical in setting up those scores.
The scoring slowed a bit in the third as the teams swapped leads with the Lakers trailing by a point heading into the fourth.
The Lakers extended to an 8-point lead, holding the Cavs to 9 points in the first 8:25 minutes of the quarter. The Laker defense continues to up the clamps on in the fourth.
The Cavs, however, already showed in this game that they can put up points in a short amount of time, and once again they did, cutting the lead to 1 a minute and half later.
They found Bron on some key cuts late in the game for scores. Then they’d get a series of stops and rebounds that turned into freethrows for Reaves to shut the door. The Lakers won 121-115. Up next, Philly.
LeBron -- -- He settled a bit too much in this game, making just 1 of 9 from three. His only make was a three in transition to start the fourth quarter. He’d miss several threes later and then also settle for another three on a key possession in the final minute. He’d miss all those. After this game, LeBron will have played more games with the Lakers than the Heat. Good job defensively absorbing contact and stripping. Some nice cuts, through, just prior to that for reaves to finish him for some easy buckets at the rim. One of those, he’d get called for pulling up on the rim to erase a point. Glad that didn’t come back to haunt us again. The Stats: He scored 22 points on 8-23 shooting (1-9 from three, 5-7 from the line) to go with 6 boards, 6 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 4 turnovers and 1 foul in 35 minutes. He was a -2.
Davis -- -- Much more involved in the second half of this one. Of course, the Cavs were going single coverage at times. But he even had a board crash where he was at the top of the arc when Bron missed a jumper and AD tipped it in. He also had a rim run for a lob from LeBron. Still, first play of the second half was designed for him. So some intention by the offense, too. “We tried to put him into a positions, move him around a little bit,” Ham said, mentioning a variety of ways they mixed it up. The touch around the rim was excellent, scoring with both hands smoothly. The perimeter shot looked much, much better. That helped, as well. Defensively, another 3 blocks and 2 steals. He had some stretches early on where he wasn’t challenging as strong, but it's tricky when you've got the vertical threats the Cavs have. In the second half, the Lakers tightened that up put the clamps on. The Stats: He scored 32 points on 13-20 shooting (6-7 from the line) to go with 13 boards (5 offensive), 3 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks, 5 turnovers and 3 fouls in 38 minutes. He was a +3.
Russell -- -- He had 4 turnovers in this one, getting most of them in stretch of several plays in a row early on where they ran the sideline pick and roll and the Cavs would get hands into the passing pocket for deflections. Rare we see that. He sank a couple of threes, both of them were on the catch and both misses were pull-ups. He got back into the fourth quarter rotation in this game. We really needed all hands on deck with the short roster. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 4-12 shooting (2-6 from three) to go with 5 boards, 5 assists, 2 steals, 4 turnovers and 3 fouls in 32 minutes. He was a +3.
Christie -- -- Despite an airball three and another three that hit the top of the board from the corner, he actually looked much more comfortable. He had a great dive weakside when Russell probed baseline and threw down a two-handed dunk. That was just a read of his man and the space. He also cut from the corner to take another low pass and powered up for another two-hand dunk finish. He showed some poise on a couple of possessions. He sank an iso side-stepping three with the shotlock low and another pull-up elbow jumper with the shotclock low. Defensively, he gave up middle a ton. Ham talked about him needing to work those on-ball screens better, so this is a work in progress. On a key defensive stop in the final seconds, he was able to stay with Mitchell reasonably, not giving up a three or a score. The Stats: He scored 12 points on 5-7 shooting (2-4 from three) to go with 5 boards, 3 assists, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 33 minutes. He was a +6.
Prince -- -- Only Laker not to score in double digits. He had a layup in transition, scored another when Bron no-looked a loose ball to him and Prince attacked baseline, and he hit a three on a handoff from AD (we ran that a lot more earlier in the season). He blew a point-blank layup he should have had. A lot of time defensively on Mitchell early on, which isn’t ideal (we’d later go to Christie to close). We just don’t have too many options with all of our key point of attack defenders down so they run Prince on them. We kind of went through this early in the season thinking he might be able to do that. We just couldn’t lock anyone down then. We had a lot of issues early in this one, as well, as Mitchell went off in that first quarter. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 3-8 shooting (1-3 from three) to go with 4 boards, 6 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks and no fouls in 31 minutes. He was a +8.
Reaves -- -- In the first half, he and his two bigs off the bench combined for 30 points, Reaves had 7 of those, but more importantly 7 assists finding his bigs for multiple scores. Some of that was setup as a short-roll man on the two-man action with Bron in the middle of the paint. But he also showed some nice handles, splitting a couple defenders before lobbing to Hayes on another assist. “Jaxon did a really good job corner cutting,” AD said. In the second half, he stole the ball and lobbed to AD to force a timeout as the Lakers regained a lead. He’d get a couple more assists after that to lead the team with 10. Late in game, he hit some clutch FTs to secure the win when they had to intentionally foul. Defensively, some really good moments in the second half. He will have his issues, but what you want to see is him being disruptive in some manner. He had that steal to start, he drew a moving screen on the perimeter for a stop, he took another charge to stop a breakaway and he came up big with those defensive boards and fouls to close the night. Double-double on the road. The Stats: He scored 15 points on 4-8 shooting (1-2 from three, 6-6 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 10 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 32 minutes. He was a -2.
Wood -- -- He had 13 points on 5-7 shooting in the first half. He sank a couple of threes on back-to-back possessions. Got to make those to keep team’s honest. He’d also get an And-1 tip-in for another 3-point play. All his offense in the first half. In the second half, he traveled taking a couple steps into a three then deciding to attack. Then we limited our backup bigs in that fourth quarter, going with smaller lineups defensively. The Stats: He scored 13 points on 5-7 shooting (2-3 from three, 1-1 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 17 minutes. He was a -8.
Hayes -- -- He had 10 points on 5-5 shooting in the first half finishing lobs and feeds from teammates at the rim. At times he was spread out to the corner, but he’d use that to run into the dunker spot. So quickly reading a play and not keeping himself in no man’s land by staying at the three line. This is a big difference versus running Vando in that corner. Vando isn’t a vertical threat and will stay in the corner. Teams can load up elsewhere by leaving and know exactly how to play the defense on the weakside with rotations. With someone who can cut and finish above the rim, that makes it much more unpredictable and you have to keep your head on a swivel. Hayes and Reaves continued to show good chemistry. That helped him to a +14 to lead the team as they got in a groove. Some good challenges, as well, defensively. He swatted a drive on the two-man defense in the first half. He’s been contributing better in that area. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 5-5 shooting to go with 3 boards, 1 assist, 1 block, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 21 minutes. He was a +14.
Ham -- -- Key Moment: Let’s go with purposely getting AD the ball early in the second half on set plays instead of leaving him. AD commented a couple times after the game about having plays set up for him in this one. Sigh.
Key Substitution: Good job by our bench trio to all score in double digits. They finished with 38 points on 14-20 shooting and 11 assists with 4 turnovers.
Key Stats: The Lakers had 34 assists on their 121 points. Defensively, the Cavs scoring by quarter: 40, 31, 23, 21. The Lakers dialed them in.
In the fourth cavs were going to the hoop for their go-ahead baskets. We were throwing it to AD who was going for more difficult hook shots. seems like the whole season the players are shying away from taking it to the hoop late _________________ Kobe
Not a game to be taken for granted considering the Cavs were at home. they have gotten nice wins against some of the best teams in the league (Nuggets and 76ers), and they finally got Donovan back while we had four key players out ourselves.
Christie was a pleasant surprise for me in this starting role. Like what was mentioned above, he put up some nice stats, especially shooting, despite a few bad misses.
The thing I liked from him the most though was his defensive energy and, at times, effectiveness. Yes, he made mental mistakes trying to contain his man from driving at times (especially vs. Levert), but when he got it right, it really showed his potential at guarding quality guards on the perimeter.
The play that impressed me the most wasn't the challenge to Mitchell's fade away that missed in the last minute of the game (the challenge wasn't aggressive enough IMO). It was the one at about 2:50 left in the 4th against Mitchell, who was at the top of the three point line where he double crossed over Max and got a half step ahead of him driving to the basket.
Christie recovered, caught up to Mitchell and challenged him so tightly in the paint that Donovan's fade away scoop shot missed BADLY, not even touching the rim. The Lakers then got the easy rebound and started the fast break. The Laker commentators were randomly talking about something else and it wasn't replayed, but that was a key defensive moment for the team to me.
I'm glad someone on YT included it in their highlight video since most clips don't show good defense unless there is a steal or block. Check it out at the 8:48 mark below:
DLo and Austin wouldn't have been as defensively effective there because the two are slower-footed and don't leap as quickly or as high. I haven't seen much of Gabe in the purple and gold yet to evaluate, but while he slides his feet very well to perhaps prevent the drive, he might not be able enough to leap high enough to effect a shot like that from DMitch.
Bad thing about about a 8 man rotation, is that you only have 8
Good thing about a short rotation, is that they players (outside of LBJ) can learn from their mistakes/misuse, adapt, adjust and have success in the second half
Did Hayes earn more PT and did Vando see how he can use Hayes defense to his advantage
Prince is a good defender, but not on the level that Cam to Vando to Vincent to Max (seemingly) are to defend the opposition's best player for the elite title-contending teams
Joined: 13 Sep 2008 Posts: 5737 Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2023 1:00 am Post subject:
I'm glad that they eked out a win while being short-handed on the road against a solid team. But watching AR single-handedly turn the tide because of his non-existent D is slowly getting on my nerves. I can't even appreciate the good he brings on the other side of the floor anymore. Yeah, he tried a bit more in the dying minutes of the game, but Lavert and Porter Jr. and then Struss had their way with him the majority of the game. Must be incredibly frustrating for the rest of the team, because the entire D is out of whack when he continuously gets beaten by his man, gets stuck on screens and seems to play with little to no effort. Than you add DLO in there and the defense really suffers.
Christie is gonna make someone expendable. _________________ It was reminiscent of one of those Most Interesting Man in the World advertisements: "I don't always shoot 6-for-28 from the field, but when I do, I become the youngest player in league history to score 28,000 career points."
<snip>
The play that impressed me the most wasn't the challenge to Mitchell's fade away that missed in the last minute of the game (the challenge wasn't aggressive enough IMO). It was the one at about 2:50 left in the 4th against Mitchell, who was at the top of the three point line where he double crossed over Max and got a half step ahead of him driving to the basket.
Christie recovered, caught up to Mitchell and challenged him so tightly in the paint that Donovan's fade away scoop shot missed BADLY, not even touching the rim. The Lakers then got the easy rebound and started the fast break. The Laker commentators were randomly talking about something else and it wasn't replayed, but that was a key defensive moment for the team to me.
Exactly! I saw it too and then hit rewind and immediately replayed it !
This was one of my two favorite of the game, the other was the nifty AR lob to Hayes.
I'm glad that they eked out a win while being short-handed on the road against a solid team. But watching AR single-handedly turn the tide because of his non-existent D is slowly getting on my nerves. I can't even appreciate the good he brings on the other side of the floor anymore. Yeah, he tried a bit more in the dying minutes of the game, but Lavert and Porter Jr. and then Struss had their way with him the majority of the game. Must be incredibly frustrating for the rest of the team, because the entire D is out of whack when he continuously gets beaten by his man, gets stuck on screens and seems to play with little to no effort. Than you add DLO in there and the defense really suffers.
I agree that Austin's defense has taken a noticeable step back, compared to last season. Personally, I attribute that to him not having an off season to rest. He doesn't look as quick on offense, or defense. Playing on tired legs would also explain his inconsistent shooting. DLo will never be known for his defense, but he is giving better effort in that area.
The Lakers haven't been fully healthy since the beginning of the season. I want to see what this team can do, when everyone is available. Getting Rui, Vando, and Vincent back would be huge for our depth, and optionality.
My biggest concern, outside of health, is the lack of creative offensive playcalling. Our offence consists mainly of DLo/Reaves/LeBron pnr's, LeBron perimeter iso's, or LeBron/AD posting up. That's it. Very little, and inconsistent, off ball movement. Our other guys mostly stand on the perimeter, waiting to take spot up jumpshots. There are a lot of new...and injured...faces. So, I understand the circumstance Ham is in. Which is why I'm counseling patience. That said, Ham has a MUCH improved roster, from the previous season. Rob showed his improve as a GM. I would like to see that same improve from our coachign staff, led by Ham. _________________ ZOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm glad that they eked out a win while being short-handed on the road against a solid team. But watching AR single-handedly turn the tide because of his non-existent D is slowly getting on my nerves. I can't even appreciate the good he brings on the other side of the floor anymore. Yeah, he tried a bit more in the dying minutes of the game, but Lavert and Porter Jr. and then Struss had their way with him the majority of the game. Must be incredibly frustrating for the rest of the team, because the entire D is out of whack when he continuously gets beaten by his man, gets stuck on screens and seems to play with little to no effort. Than you add DLO in there and the defense really suffers.
I agree that Austin's defense has taken a noticeable step back, compared to last season. Personally, I attribute that to him not having an off season to rest. He doesn't look as quick on offense, or defense. Playing on tired legs would also explain his inconsistent shooting. DLo will never be known for his defense, but he is giving better effort in that area.
The Lakers haven't been fully healthy since the beginning of the season. I want to see what this team can do, when everyone is available. Getting Rui, Vando, and Vincent back would be huge for our depth, and optionality.
My biggest concern, outside of health, is the lack of creative offensive playcalling. Our offence consists mainly of DLo/Reaves/LeBron pnr's, LeBron perimeter iso's, or LeBron/AD posting up. That's it. Very little, and inconsistent, off ball movement. Our other guys mostly stand on the perimeter, waiting to take spot up jumpshots. There are a lot of new...and injured...faces. So, I understand the circumstance Ham is in. Which is why I'm counseling patience. That said, Ham has a MUCH improved roster, from the previous season. Rob showed his improve as a GM. I would like to see that same improve from our coachign staff, led by Ham.
AR is not a good one-on-one defender, he is a good team defense player that seems to be the designated person to double-team. With AD, LBR (sometimes putting in a full effort defensively, though better but still 38-39 years old), DLo (who is never asked to be the person that double-teams) and Prince (who at times is struggling defensively and obviously offensively) - he's got a lot on his hands.
When LBR is not on the court, the flow is much better because they are more dependt on Lebron.
Is your preference to to have others have the ball/control the play?
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".
I'm glad that they eked out a win while being short-handed on the road against a solid team. But watching AR single-handedly turn the tide because of his non-existent D is slowly getting on my nerves. I can't even appreciate the good he brings on the other side of the floor anymore. Yeah, he tried a bit more in the dying minutes of the game, but Lavert and Porter Jr. and then Struss had their way with him the majority of the game. Must be incredibly frustrating for the rest of the team, because the entire D is out of whack when he continuously gets beaten by his man, gets stuck on screens and seems to play with little to no effort. Than you add DLO in there and the defense really suffers.
I liked DLO's defense today actually. I don't love that he doesn't fight through ball screens but otherwise I thought he was fine.
Reaves has always been a full effort guy, so I found it baffling on that Strus 3 when he got screened off ball by Allen (Draymond-esque moving screen tbh) and didn't even bother contesting. It was a BLOB later in the game.
Anyway, in general I'm not sure I agree he doesn't play with effort, but what Bruce Brown did to DLO is being done to AR every game.
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-- He settled a bit too much in this game, making just 1 of 9 from three. His only make was a three in transition to start the fourth quarter. He’d miss several threes later and then also settle for another three on a key possession in the final minute. He’d miss all those. After this game, LeBron will have played more games with the Lakers than the Heat. Good job defensively absorbing contact and stripping. Some nice cuts, through, just prior to that for reaves to finish him for some easy buckets at the rim. One of those, he’d get called for pulling up on the rim to erase a point. Glad that didn’t come back to haunt us again. 
-- Much more involved in the second half of this one. Of course, the Cavs were going single coverage at times. But he even had a board crash where he was at the top of the arc when Bron missed a jumper and AD tipped it in. He also had a rim run for a lob from LeBron. Still, first play of the second half was designed for him. So some intention by the offense, too. “We tried to put him into a positions, move him around a little bit,” Ham said, mentioning a variety of ways they mixed it up. The touch around the rim was excellent, scoring with both hands smoothly. The perimeter shot looked much, much better. That helped, as well. Defensively, another 3 blocks and 2 steals. He had some stretches early on where he wasn’t challenging as strong, but it's tricky when you've got the vertical threats the Cavs have. In the second half, the Lakers tightened that up put the clamps on. 
-- He had 4 turnovers in this one, getting most of them in stretch of several plays in a row early on where they ran the sideline pick and roll and the Cavs would get hands into the passing pocket for deflections. Rare we see that. He sank a couple of threes, both of them were on the catch and both misses were pull-ups. He got back into the fourth quarter rotation in this game. We really needed all hands on deck with the short roster. 
-- Despite an airball three and another three that hit the top of the board from the corner, he actually looked much more comfortable. He had a great dive weakside when Russell probed baseline and threw down a two-handed dunk. That was just a read of his man and the space. He also cut from the corner to take another low pass and powered up for another two-hand dunk finish. He showed some poise on a couple of possessions. He sank an iso side-stepping three with the shotlock low and another pull-up elbow jumper with the shotclock low. Defensively, he gave up middle a ton. Ham talked about him needing to work those on-ball screens better, so this is a work in progress. On a key defensive stop in the final seconds, he was able to stay with Mitchell reasonably, not giving up a three or a score. 
-- Only Laker not to score in double digits. He had a layup in transition, scored another when Bron no-looked a loose ball to him and Prince attacked baseline, and he hit a three on a handoff from AD (we ran that a lot more earlier in the season). He blew a point-blank layup he should have had. A lot of time defensively on Mitchell early on, which isn’t ideal (we’d later go to Christie to close). We just don’t have too many options with all of our key point of attack defenders down so they run Prince on them. We kind of went through this early in the season thinking he might be able to do that. We just couldn’t lock anyone down then. We had a lot of issues early in this one, as well, as Mitchell went off in that first quarter. 
-- In the first half, he and his two bigs off the bench combined for 30 points, Reaves had 7 of those, but more importantly 7 assists finding his bigs for multiple scores. Some of that was setup as a short-roll man on the two-man action with Bron in the middle of the paint. But he also showed some nice handles, splitting a couple defenders before lobbing to Hayes on another assist. “Jaxon did a really good job corner cutting,” AD said. In the second half, he stole the ball and lobbed to AD to force a timeout as the Lakers regained a lead. He’d get a couple more assists after that to lead the team with 10. Late in game, he hit some clutch FTs to secure the win when they had to intentionally foul. Defensively, some really good moments in the second half. He will have his issues, but what you want to see is him being disruptive in some manner. He had that steal to start, he drew a moving screen on the perimeter for a stop, he took another charge to stop a breakaway and he came up big with those defensive boards and fouls to close the night. Double-double on the road. 
-- He had 13 points on 5-7 shooting in the first half. He sank a couple of threes on back-to-back possessions. Got to make those to keep team’s honest. He’d also get an And-1 tip-in for another 3-point play. All his offense in the first half. In the second half, he traveled taking a couple steps into a three then deciding to attack. Then we limited our backup bigs in that fourth quarter, going with smaller lineups defensively. 
-- He had 10 points on 5-5 shooting in the first half finishing lobs and feeds from teammates at the rim. At times he was spread out to the corner, but he’d use that to run into the dunker spot. So quickly reading a play and not keeping himself in no man’s land by staying at the three line. This is a big difference versus running Vando in that corner. Vando isn’t a vertical threat and will stay in the corner. Teams can load up elsewhere by leaving and know exactly how to play the defense on the weakside with rotations. With someone who can cut and finish above the rim, that makes it much more unpredictable and you have to keep your head on a swivel. Hayes and Reaves continued to show good chemistry. That helped him to a +14 to lead the team as they got in a groove. Some good challenges, as well, defensively. He swatted a drive on the two-man defense in the first half. He’s been contributing better in that area. 
-- Key Moment: Let’s go with purposely getting AD the ball early in the second half on set plays instead of leaving him. AD commented a couple times after the game about having plays set up for him in this one. Sigh.
