JAMIE SWEET’S ‘5 THINGS
Lakers’ Post Game Reports & Analysis
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Jamie Sweet wrote a new post
Read MoreWatching the game against Orlando for the second time and it was even more astounding at how completely lackadaisical the Lakers looked as a whole. Fundamental basketball evidently didn’t make the road trip’s opening flight so one can only hope it arrives at the next stop in Miami. All in all, while a couple lakers turned in some solid showings, the overall tenor of the loss was a complete and total lack of consistent effort.
FACEPLANT INTO ROCK - Faceplant to kick it off. Another craptastic first quarter makes one think a change of some kind is imminent. Can’t pin it on Cam reddish, we’ve been slow out of the gate all season long as our first quarter point differential (210-139) is astounding to see over just 5 games. Slow starts mean uphill climbs for the rest of the game. This is where you miss a guy who starts the game with hustle and energy like Vanderbilt the most. Setting a tone out of the gate is as important as getting off to a good start in the 3rd. Can’t play catch up all game, every game all season. Hard to ask LeBron to lead the team out of the gate, dude’s 4 billion years old in NBA years. We need younger guys to match the energy and intensity the opponent brings against the Lakers on a nightly basis.
- Fundamental were utterly MIA. Needed to put a body on multiple Magic players and just didn’t do it. They out-worked us to the tune of 19 offensive rebounds and clobbered us in second chance points (another disturbing season-long theme that’s emerged) and our turnovers led to an unbeatable edge in transition points. These are effort stats that lost us the game. these are the lunch pail stats and we didn’t bring our hard hat. That better change against the fundamentally sound and hard-playing Heat tonight. This happened all game long, Tree Trio or no, so that means it’s coming down to a lack of executing the fundamental of boxing out. Everyone needed to do better, nobody did.
- Couldn’t hit a three to save our lives. D’Angelo Russell was 1-10, LeBron and Wood each shot 2-5 and Reaves looked good (more on that later) but after that the well ran very, very dry. These misses generated great scoring opportunities for Orlando more often that which is causing me to revise my internal guide for the lakers to play by. I was an advocate for 30 3 PT FGAs/game and now I’m looking at lowering that to 20, maybe 25 if they’re going in. AD didn’t shoot one and he’s shooting 42.9% (on an anemic 1.2 attempts/game) so maybe he needs to move out more as a floor spacer? I dunno…frustrating trend thus far.
- Reaves rounding back into form. Of the five starters he was the only who had a positive impact on the game. he made his kind of shots, hit his threes, and generally looked like the dude we’d all been hoping to see consistently this season. While it came in a losing effort hopefully it means Reaves has put his early season struggles squarely in the rear view mirror.
- Tree Trio adjustment. LakerTom and I did a show where I theorized this would be a good test for the three bigs line up that got so much attention since we deployed it against the Clippers. This was the first time a team that had seen it had time to make an adjustment and it turned out to be a pretty simple one: play faster and harder. Everything about this (both the effectiveness of a three big line up and it’s counter) is a small sample size at this point but it makes sense. The only way we force teams to go big to match up is by beating them on the scoreboard so when that didn’t happen against Orlando (seeing it for the second time) the experiment looked like a flop. This will be a season-long topic for debate, in theory I like the idea of either starting Christian Wood and strategically deploying the three big line up but the fact is they have to use that height to counter speed and effort. The Tree Trio didn’t box out, hustle for loose balls, or score all that much as they basically got ru off the floor by a smaller Orlando team (that still features length, just better speed). The deciding factor is match ups and who wins them. Start Wood against a faster guy or a team that screens for shots like Golden State and I don’t see the point or the sense in it. He’s not a guy who fights through screens and we don’t deploy a switch everything defense very well, at least not yet. That takes a lot of time to implement because everyone on the court has to be on the same page and in sync. We’re not close to that by a country mile. Maybe if we’d had Vando for camp but we didn’t and even then I doubt it. At any rate I’m not giving up on the idea but Coach Ham needs to be more strategic and the Tree trio needs to execute the fundamentals a lot better than they did.
Miami tonight, this will be a tough one. Everybody always wants to count Miami out, yet of all the teams with hype they’ve been to the NBA Finals more in the last 5 years than any other team so they’re doing something right. It starts with Jimmy Butler but the whole team buys in, even the not-supposed-to-be-here Tyler Herro, so if we show up with another half-assed effort i expect this to be an L.
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Jamie Sweet wrote a new post
Read MoreIt’d been awhile. The much noted and hyped losing streak the lakers had going against their cross-hall rivals (one of the more unique situations in all of sport) ended last night with the tenet’s of Laker basketball guiding the way: put pressure on the defense and get to the line, be a paint-dominant team, and defend like your role depends on it (it does). Still, it’d been awhile and so was really nice to see the Lakers pull this one out and allow everyone to move on.
- The defense was feisty! Led by Anthony Davis (4 blocks), Austin Reaves (3 steals)and surprise starter Cam Reddish (also 3 steals and thrust into a starting role due to T. Prince being a late scratch after warming up and reporting some mild knee soreness adding another body on the pile of our walking wounded) the Lakers did a phenomenal job disrupting the late-game Clipper offense inside the three point line. The Clippers also missed some very makeable shots but I still liked the way the team defended as a whole. LeBron even got up for 2 big blocked shots.
- LeBron is a marvel. He really shouldn’t be doing this, at some point the hops will go…won’t they?! At any rate the breakaway ally-oop lob Reaves dished to The King as we pulled away in OT should dispel any “old” notions, at least for awhile. While once again blowing past the self-imposed minutes-restriction (and honestly I don’t fault the staff or anyone for that last night, we only had 8 healthy, NBA-ready players and that’s not a knock on Colin Castleton, Dmoi Hodge, Maxwell Lewis or Alex Fudge it’s just the truth) James put on a gem of a show for everyone in attendance and watching on the tube. 4-8 from three, skying to block shots, and that one-handed jam in transition from Reaves as the cherry on top. Gnarly stuff, man.
- Reaves rounding into form. The efficiency still leaves something to be desired and he still isn’t getting a consistent whistle on pretty solid contact but Reaves didn’t let his offence get in the way of his defense. While it’s also poignant to remember that Max Christie was only going to be so effective and there weren’t really many other options other than to go with Reaves down the stretch, I still thought this was the most “our Austin” type game he’s played this season. The hustle was there and he started driving to the rack more when the shot still wasn’t falling (other than a couple of his pet elbow jumpers he can almost make in his sleep when he’s gathered right) and my one true knock was the team-high 5 turnovers. That’s not on Reaves alone, a lot of lakers a re forcing passes into too tight of coverage, but Reaves also just made some bad passes. Still, a very encouraging game and hopefully the forebearer of better games to come.
- Evolving away from the three guard line up. We’ve all harped on it, most of us more than once. So it was a little surprising to see a line up of D’Angelo Russell, Max Christie, Christian Wood, Jaxson Hayes and Anthony Davis for more than a few minutes last night. Coach Ham just loves him a triplicate of some kind or another. At any rate, that group of guys held their own (and whichever ref called the “hanging on the rim” tech on hayes deserves to have his whistle taken away, c’mon man…dude’s first basket of the season and was legitimately going hard in transition and was carried along by his momentum). Again, the lack of healthy and NBA-capable players likely had more than a little to do with this choice but the matchup worked for a few reasons. The Clippers aren’t fast team, per se. Both leonard and George want to conserve their bodies and energy for the long season and playoffs. They feature a rim running center more after trading Batum and Morris Sr. away. Russell Westbrook likes to get out but is often a little out of control on the break. So that length had enough speed to match up in this game, not saying this is a line up we’ll see a ton of going forward but there are a couple teams it makes sense to deploy.
- Christian Wood 6th man of the year. While I don’t see the campaign to start Wood going anywhere (or making much sense on an every game basis, at least in the regular season) I heartily endorse the creation of the C-Wood for 6thMOY fan club. With his “it’s all over now baby blue” put back dunk, increasingly reliable defense and floor stretching ability it’s been fun watching Wood dominate against the benches of opposing teams. To my way of thinking it still makes more sense to start either Vanderbilt (upon his return) for a defensive tone, Prince for an offensive tone, or Reddish for a little bit of both kinda tone. I like being able to deploy Wood like a surgical air strike when LeBron goes to the bench because it gives he and AD a little bit of a different look to work against. I’m sure some folks would rather he start but I think he can be a solid “best player off the bench” and if he keeps this up he could end up in the running for the award for best bench guy.
With a couple days off the Lakers have some time to get guys healthy, work on tightening up some things on both ends, and rest LeBron. Loved how we fought in this game, even though we almost gave it away when we took our foot waaaaay off the gas in the last two minutes. Good stuff.
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Jamie Sweet wrote a new post
Read MoreSo far the closing trio of LeBron, Davis and Wood has shown itself to be pretty capable, especially when the other team is also fielding a large selection of players. In a game where D’Angelo Russell had his first big game and Davis played like the beast we need him to be for the full 48 it was the trio of James, Davis and Wood that stood out.
- AD in beast mode. Since his second half no-show (and the global clamor it created) AD has been engaged on both ends. In all fairness to Davis I challenge anyone to remember a game he didn’t show up on defense for. His issues are getting and staying engaged on offense. We need him to be a constant threat both inside and out or it won’t matter who he’s on the floor with, we’ll be having a hard time scoring the ball. He was stellar in the paint, grabbing boards (something the rest of the tem is struggling with so far) and affecting the other team’s ability to score with blocks and steals.
- LeBron over the line again. Last night he only played 33 minutes but it came on the heels of a back-to-back game. I’ll admit I was surprised to see him n the lineup and it shows how dedicated he is to putting together a solid season to get the team into good position for the playoffs. Win a lotta games, earn some home court advantage. Sneak in like last year, face an uphill climb the whole way. While he didn’t have a superlative-generating game he was solid across the board. More importantly he looks like he’s moving well, even after a long game the night before.
- D-Lo busts out. His shot was sparkling as D-Lo was masterful scoring inside and out. Why this level of aggression can’t be an every game thing is the only mystery to me. He led the team in points, assists, made threes ( ona another night most of the team couldn’t find the mark from distance) and was a a consistent threat to score all game. I’d rather he defer to pretty much nobody at this point, D-Lo has all the tools and just needs to use them more often.
- Reaves and Vincent coming around? They both had probably their best game of the season, which is scary considering the overall results were pedestrian to say the least. Still, it’s encouraging to se what are certain to be 2 key players start to find the groove a little bit.
- Wood cementing a role and Hayes getting some solid run. Both played a season high in minutes and Wood was on the floor down the stretch to help close the game. Honestly, if I’m Darvin Ham, I look at moving James down to the guard position and putting Vando in while moving Reaves to the bench if the latter continues to struggle and get hunted on post ups and hard rubs. There will be a crunch when it comes to minutes when Vanderbilt returns and his game isn’t likely to show much rust because it’s built pretty much on hustle and defense. Wood and AD are showing some nice synchronicity out there and it allows LeBron to defend a zone on the perimeter rather than bang as much down low. It also allows AD to be more of a free-roamer on D while trusting Wood to rebound and alter shots with his length. While this may not end up happening any time soon (at least not until Reaves is given a nice long leash to return to form), I won’t be surprised if one of the first moves ham makes to alter the rotation is to move Wood from the bench to a starter.
Got a big one tonight against in-house rivals the Clippers. not so much because of the super epic and amazing trade that went down (whee) but rather because the coat-tail riders have been smoking us like cheap reefer for a couple seasons now. Time to light them up.
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Maybe take a shot at Danny Green right now. Can’t be any worse the what we’re trotting out there at this point….
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I thought the same thing, would at least give us some kind of option w/true savvy at the 2z
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Thanks LT, while I don’t see any major lineup changes in the immediate future I can see a definitive role for him going forward
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Jamie Sweet wrote a new post
Read MoreIt took a lot to even force OT, and that goes double when your coach is still working out who should play when and with whom (his words, paraphrased for brevity). Having defensive stalwart Jared Vanderbilt unavailable for most of the preseason has had a cascade effect of a dual nature: roles and minutes have opened up for some guys who might not have gotten the shot and the defense has looked God-awful most nights. So, even with DeAaron Fox going down and out for a short period of time in the 4th quarter with what ended up being a fairly serious ankle injury, the Lakers were unable to eke out a win in one of the tougher road venues in the Association. Still, a couple positives can yet be gleaned.
- Wrong lineup to close the game. Not too sure what the coaching staff has seen from gabe Vincent that makes them so certain he should be on the floor for the closing moments…and in OT. Shooting 33.3% overall and 0-fer from three is the kind of offensive punch that means you’re a defensive ace in the hole. Unfortunately that’s not really true, at least not yet. It’s not that Vincent played badly, per se, it’s that Coach Ham broke one of, maybe the first, cardinal rule of basketball: stay with the hot hand. It looked like Rui Hachimura had found his groove a little bit in the 4th quarter, hit a three, hit a step back, was rebounding the ball well, not turning it over…and was yanked. In his time in the 4th and OT Vincent attempted (and missed) 1 total shot meaning the bulk of everything fell to LeBron, DLo, Prince and AD when it came to the offense. Would have liked to see a better defensive lineup and hachimura likely has plenty in the tank unlike…
- Taurean Prince closing games is another question mark for me. His shot was falling early but he looked pretty done towards the end while racking up 41 minutes. His defense was certainly cooked by then. This is another one of those cascade effects of two factors: Reaves sucking big time and Vando being out. Coach Ham has to either put a lineup out there that tries to help space the floor or stop the other team from scoring and, unfortunately, closing lineups with Prince don’t honestly do either one. Teams will forever let Taurean Prince launch as many shots as he cares to take from three over letting AD and LeBron dominate the paint and they’ll do it with gladness in their hearts.
- Speaking of dominating the paint… We didn’t. Here’s a Nostradamus for ya: we will lose every single game of the season if we’re not within +/- 5 points of the other team in paint points. Last night we lost that battle 56-44 (-12) and the incredible thing about that is we lost that battle while dominating them in fastbreak points (22-7). That tells you one thing: our half court defense was absolutely hot garbage last night. Not having Vando and Gabe Vincent not being quite the defensive pest has hurt us already this season. D-Lo may have made a small improvement in that area but the flip side of that is teams now hunt guys like Prince or Reaves.
- Another curious choice regarding the rotation. Much has been made of Coach Ham’s predilection (addiction?) for trotting out 3 guard line ups. Sure enough during a disastrous stretch in the 4th we saw Reaves, Vincent and D-Lo out there, unable to rebound or stop guys from getting to the hoop. Domantas Sabonis fouled out with a few minutes to go in regulation and we responded by…staying with the same guys. No hachimura (+9 for the game in PER) and no Christian Wood (team leading +12). Wood had a perfect game going, too. No misses from any kind of shot you can take in an NBA game and 5 boards to boot. Yet, somehow, the two most effective bench players saw zero minutes down the stretch of the 4th quarter or OT? I’m not ready to proclaim any player other than LeBron and AD as “must play in crunch time (when actually playing)” but Wood and Hachimura had shown themselves to be at least as effective as Vincent was. Defensively I get it, but you’re telling me you can’t rotate guys by possession to make sure you score enough to win a basketball game? That after Fox was so very obviously limping you couldn’t go to a more physically punishing line up and force him to either play defense without fouling (finished the game 5 fouls) or get to the rim? Please…
- The team went away from AD even when he cleared out and demanded the ball. AD had 5 fourth quarter shots (made 1, another reason a little more C-Wood would have made some sense given this was the first of a back-to-back) and but one shot and bucket in OT. They missed him in favor of three pointers multiple times in OT after Sabonis fouled out. We did not exploit the most obvious weakness in the Kings which was an injured point guard whom we didn’t put into pick and roll actions or a missing All Star center for AD to bully. This isn’t rocket science, the coach sometimes has to tell the players to exploit the obvious advantages. It’s hard to stomach winnable losses and, for me, this was one of those.
Back at it tonight at home against the unbeaten Orlando Magic. I’m sure we’ll see the minutes restriction roughly back in place and maybe even a more expanded role for Wood and/or Hayes to give AD more rest. It would help if Reaves could hit the broad side of the barn or Vincent to show the aggression he played with in Miami when they’re called upon.
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Great fiver, Jamie. Man, I don’t know if it’s promising or terrifying that we’re in such a mutual state of agreement. Kumbaya, Man. Hoping for Ham to miraculously start Christian Wood tonight.
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Seems like the logical thing to do. Opportunity knocks. Will Darvin answer?
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Nice post Jamie, for me our biggest problem so far this year is our back court shooting, especially in the 1st quarter. We are constantly playing from behind. If our guards were making the open looks they normally make we could possibly undefeated. Their Shooting has been that bad.
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Jamie Sweet wrote a new post
Read MoreI’m not going to go so far as to say this game is blueprint-worthy in terms of mapping out a road to consistent success but it did show us a team with a lot of heart and showcased the overall depth and potential that Ham can use to get the job done on a nightly basis. While AD and LeBron featured prominently in the win (like they do), it was a lot more than just the superstar tandem that helped make the first win of the season and the first game at Crypto come out right.
- The unheralded play of Cam Reddish and Christian Wood. Two dudes with more negative press than they probably deserve. Neither has the rep of defensive stopper, Wood has always been seen as a score-first (only?) player and Cam has been over-hyped at every stop along the way in his still young career. Neither one made a 3 pointer (combined 0-5, an onerous trend on a Laker team purported to have improved it’s three point shooting), nor did they score into the double digit range. Still, Cam had an impact on defense in the first half checking Durant and paving the way for what Wood helped do in the second half. Along with his 10 big rebounds Wood played some admirable defense on KD and got to the stripe despite the jumper not falling. These are the kind of things you need to do on this team, especially when three-point specialist Taurean Prince couldn’t buy a bucket all night long. When the scoring gets lean, turn to your defense.
- The defense was pretty solid all night long. Other than the 3rd quarter where I thought we picked up a bad habit from last season (the legendary third quarter struggles we endured for 3/4 of the season regardless of who was on the team) we really turned it around as a team in the 4th quarter. We clamped down on the entire team as Phoenix scored 5 baskets in the final frame, four of those were by Durant. 5-20 in the 4th quarter is getting after it and getting it done, I don’t care that Booker and Beal were out. These are all pros, these guys can all hoop, and therefor that was some great team defense.
- Going back to what works for this team under Coach Ham. Game 1 looked like what people want to see or think the Lakers should be: a team that shoots a lot of threes. We won last night by going back to the thing we’re best at: dominating the paint. There’s just no reason for the Lakers to shoot more than 30 three pointers in any game. Not unless a couple guys get hot and stay hot and that was definitely not the recipe last night. Instead the Lakers returned to their old friend the paint where they utterly dominated Phoenix to the tune of 60 to 36 fueled in part by a 16-6 edge in fastbreak points. Overall I thought our defense led to a ton of our offense, which is pretty much how this team is built to win. There may come a day when the lakers more resemble a modern NBA team with all the threes and such but I still have a hard time seeing this team play in that mode consistently and in a way that will generate wins.
- 1st quarter malaise. Was it just me or was Crupto really, really quiet for like the first hour of the game. Did everyone get a 3rd quarter shot of tequila or something? Halftime espresso? At any rate, the Lakers woke Crypto up with a stellar 4th but come on people, you paid your money now get loud! In defense of the fans our overall effort in the first frame was not great, almost as bad as Phoenix’s play in the fourth. This is where I think the Lakers truly miss Jared Vanderbilt and his energy and effort. Prince wasn’t hitting his shots, LeBron was still easing into the game, AD was, too. That meant that, outside of our guard corp, there just wasn’t much to get pumped about.
- Grand larceny. Another stat that jumped out to me was that almost every laker that played got at least one steal. Ironically only Wood and Reddish came up empty in the thievery department but made up for it with stellar defense. While we may not end up leading the league in steals or blocks it’s effort like this that will lead the way on D. There are some wrinkles to work out on offense (like getting Rui Hachimura going, maybe run some plays for the dude?) but if the defense shows up on a nightly basis we’ll be just fine.
Lakers have a couple days off before facing Sacramento (along with Ham’s three time outs to play with in the 4th, I’m pretty sure this factored into the logic of playing James over 30 minutes, as well). The Kings are looking to re-capture lightning in a bottle and, along with every other western conference team that’s played and won a solitary game, sits in a 6-way tie atop the conference in first place. The Lakers a re looking to continue their early winning ways and match their total wins through 12 games last season in game 3.
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Terrific game by the Lakers and terrific Fiver, Jamie.
1. I’m always amazed at how everything seems to change when the games count. Suddenly, all the guys who shined in preseason come back to earth and we see two wild cards in Wood and Reddish suddenly shine now that the games are for real.
Frankly, I couldn’t be happier because Wood and Reddish both have size and I’m a big believer that the Lakers need to go jumbo big with Wood in the starting lineup along with LeBron and AD. What we saw in the fourth quarter is the first quarter this season where the Lakers looked legit. Darvin saw that, too. Chris Wood can be a difference maker for this team.
2. Defense won and having great positional size in the fourth quarter was a big difference maker. Ham should be seriously considering starting Christian Wood next to James and Davis. What we may be watching could be Wood and Reddish pushing their way into the Lakers rotation. The question is whom will they replace? DLo and Rui become more tradable.
Rui, Reaves, Prince, and Vando are going to be in a vicious competition for minutes. Reaves will break out but the other three might be suddenly find themselves out of the rotation.
3. I agree with most of what you’re saying about the Lakers still prioritizing winning the battles for points in the paint and made free throws. That’s our identity. Yes, we want to also try to negate and even win the 3-point shooting battle but not at the cost of points in the paint and made free throws, which come from attacking the rim.
I still want the Lakers to fire away from outside. What we need to compete for a championship is the synergy you get from 3-point shooting creating lanes to the rim and great defensive stops generate fast break opportunities. Everything is linked. We’re just trying to make sure we’re running on all cylinders and our offense and defense are in sync. To do that, we need better outside shooting than we’ve seen so far. Just don’t forget our identity: PIP & MFT.
4. The answer to the first and third quarter problems is go big with Wood as the fifth starter. Right now, Chris has second best +/- on team, Vando is still hurt, and Prince has fallen to dead last in +/-. My entire impression of Taurean is he can shoot but he’s too small to defend the guys we need defended. Christian Wood should be the fifth starter.
5. Was great to see more activity on defense, especially since our identity is not to foul, which is part of our MFT strategy. It’s the ability now to throw 3 or 4 different guys with length at a player like KD. In the end, that was the most impressive thing about last night. LeBron showing he can still close and the Lakers showing they can slow down KD.
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Thanks LT, regarding Wood starting I think they’ll give Vando some run when his foot lets him play and he gets up to game speed. I kind of like Wood coming in off the bench at this point for another reason: Rui has had a really rough start to the season and we need somebody to score off the bench when AD and/or LeBron is out there alone (and in the non-staggered minutes for sure). We saw the return of the Three Guard Lineup, as well, and it fared about as well as it did last season which is to say fairly mediocre.
I think that Wood could eventually seize that starting spot which would likely mean he priced his way right outta town next summer. That would be a great story for him personally. All in all it will be the defense and rebounding that determine the starting and finishing, Ham made that a staple last season and I don’t see him changing it up now.
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Aloha Jamie, nice post. It was nice to see Woods effort on defense. In an odd way KD was a good match up for Wood. He is not a banger and while he has long strides he isn’t super quick. His bread and butter is getting to his spots and shooting over people. Woods length made that more difficult. Plus he was great on the boards. I don’t know if it would be as effective if the Suns were at full strength. That 4th quarter focus was on KD. With Booker and Beal, it would have required LeBron to play on the perimeter a lot more. I’m looking forward to Vando coming back, just to see where is at now. As for shooting, we won’t shoot 17% from 3 often. But you are right that our primary focus should remain in the paint.
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Thanks Michael. My critique against us shooting three’s isn’t really on the players, they’re all fine. They all shoot in the mid to high 30’s which is respectable. The real issue is, and for awhile now has been, the coach. Since I can’t remember when we’ve brought in coaches that maximize post play and ball movement. We never bring in guys who install screening actions like we see on other teams. This is where my empirical evidence begins, the Lakers as a team philosophy have yet to fully embrace the three point “revolution” and, in some ways, it’s easy to see why.
Elite shooters are by and large specialists. They do one thing really well and that’s shoot. So if you’re not creating and running plays to get those guys shots and they don’t do much else well…where’s the role on the team? Ham has said since day one on the job that he wants to attack the paint. Given the makeup of the team this all makes sense.
Someday we may have one of those teams that launches threes with more regularity (and hopefully more accuracy) but until the guys brought in fit that mold I’m not holding my breath. I thought LT’s comments, that we want to find the balance in our attempts and hopefully that bears out in makes. IMO 30 is the goal. Given that LBJ is likely to average between 5.5 and 7.5 3PT FGA’s/game (just where’s been heading for awhile now) and the rest of the roster 30 seems like a solid goal on a nightly basis. like Stu lantz says, let success be your guide.
Which logically brings us to Anthony Davis. To say “AD should shoot/half” or whatever is kind of disingenuous in that it places an artificial goal into place. AD has never averaged more than 3.5 3PY FGA/season and that he did once…in2019-20. Before that his high was 2.6 and after that 2.8 (the following, injury-plagued season.
More specifically, and relevant, is he’s never made even close to 2 3 pointers/game. That high mark is 1.2 (also in 2019-20). Really that’s just bad, inexperienced coaching by Darvin. Why even bring it up? Better to say “we want AD to be aggressive and decisive in his shot selection and floor reads” because that’s what you really need outta the dude. he’s at his worst when he’s out there pondering the right move. Just go hard to the rim or take the open 3. The rest will sort itself out just fine.
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Big issue is you can’t always count on threes. I love it as adding to the PIP and MFTs but it can’t be a substitute. Our identity is PIP and MFT. Just want to add 3PM to that list, not take anything off.
As for AD, I have no problem with him taking the threes. Just have to make a high percentage if you want to hoist 6 of them per game.
It’s not the number but the green light from the coach that counts here, Jamie. Ham doesn’t expect AD to take 6 a game. Just take them when they’re there because it will help his overall game.
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If I’m PHX I’m walking away from this game with a knowing smile on my face. Huge difference trying to stop KD when Book & Beal are on the court. But yeah…let’s nominate Wood for DPOY…lol.
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JAMIE SWEET
Associate Publisher
Jamie Sweet and his eagerly awaited ‘5 Things’ post after every Lakers game have become a staple feature of Lakerholics. Jamie’s the Laker fan who jumpstarts and drives conversations with his informed comments and insightful observations.
Another refugee from the LA Times Lakers Blog, Jamie’s a must read Lakerholics poster and commenter whose reputation as a savvy but objective fan is well deserved
You can always get in touch with Jamie on the Lakerholics blog. You can also check out his work with the Garage Theatre in Long Beach or with his band Gnarwhal.
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NBA Observations- Big Money Spent For The Clippers And Heat, Are The Lakers Next?
The guys from the Lakers Fast Break return for some NBA Observation as they share thoughts on the recent big-money extensions for Miami coach Erik Spoelstra and the Clipper’s Kawhi Leonard. Does this mean the Lakers will be opening up their wallet a little more as well? Plus after Toronto Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic’s huge rant after the Lakers game because of the fourth-quarter free throw disparity, we ponder if Darvin Ham will ever show that kind of energy if he remains as the guys on the sidelines for LA. We’re back talking some big $$$, and wondering if the Lakers are ready to go on a spending spree? Find out our thoughts on the latest Lakers Fast Break podcast!
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Great fiver, Jamie. We’re in a moment of synchronicity where we could actually write each other’s articles.
I’m confident Wood will become a starter soon. The numbers will demand it. Ham has done a great job getting him to play like he should. There were a few times Chris passed that I wished he would have shot but he’s paying attention to defense and working hard. His rebounding is a major defensive plus.
Frankly, I’m more worried about our guard play. We really have come to rely on Reaves and his slump is killing us. If we weren’t so shorthanded suddenly, I’d sit him for a few games. I don’t think he’s going to get his mojo back unless he sits down for a few games.
Backcourt is going to be major focus at trade deadline unless Russell and Reaves suddenly show they can play the defensive side of the position better. We could use a POA defender like Caruso and volume 3-point shooter like Hield at deadline.