Great listen with Pete, Darius, and Mike all loving how the Lakers responded to playing the Bucks without LeBron. Great games by Russ and Talen. Give it a listen if you’re tired with all of the doom and gloom podcasters. These guys are without doubt the best on the Lakers beat.

Pete pointed out what a great game Russ played with a 5:1 assist-to-turnover and great game management, not a skill that Russ usually shows piositively. If Russ can manage the game like this, it will be a great difference maker for Lakers.

The three podcasters also loved how THT is enjoying a breakout a week before he will be 21-years old. Played a back-to-back, and didn’t need any workup time to get going. He has hit the ground running. Mike pointed out how when Talen was asked if he thought he would be this good this year, he said he did because he trusted the work he put in, especially the 3-point shooting. Kid needs to start. THT for Bradley and Ariza for Melo will yield the right starting lineup: Russ, THT, LeBron, Ariza, and AD.

The best part off the podcast was talking about how THT has put the Lakers in the same possition as Kobe did as a young player in that there may be no way to keep him from starting, despite the unproven shooting stroke. They touched what I also thought was important in that he’s the one Lakers two guard who has size and physicality to be the perfect mate to play alongside Russ. They will be the Lakers backcourt of the future if Talen can continue to shoot the three well. THT is the Lakers key to playing small-ball-on-steroids.

Aloha,

So what do the Lakers actually do at half time? Apparently not much. While it’s up to players to execute, it’s doesn’t appear by the way we come out that any adjustments are ever made. We are -89 in the 3rd. Worst in the league. Yes we have injuries, yes we are learning each other but there is no excuse for this.

Now sometimes guys just get hot. Derozen was unconscious. Not much you can do when a player is in that kind of zone. Lonzo also had a game well above what he usually brings. Levine got off to a hot start but we finally got a handle on him. There were a lot of contested shots that went in for the Bulls. It happens. The Bulls are last in 3 point makes so perhaps that was part of the strategy. But when the strategy isn’t working, you make adjustments. Unless your the Lakers. But a hot shooting night had nothing to do with our poor transition defense. That was just a lack of hustle.

The Bulls had a good strategy for AD and it messed with the entire rhythm of the offense. But again there was no counter in the first half at all. We kept trying the same thing over and over again. That is a recipe for disaster. They finally pulled out AD outside and he started doing some damage but we couldn’t stop the Bulls.

AD’s emotions got the better of him but on the flip side, the ref’s generally allow a player to put their shoe on before resuming play.

Silver linings? Few. Westbrook had a decent game but I still don’t like him shooting threes. THT had a strong night. He was 4 for 7 from 3 until a couple of forced what the hell 3’s in garbage time. Still 4 for 9 is good. If he keeps that up, he will be fine on the offensive side of the ball.

Again with all the injuries I can live with a loss if we play as hard as we can. That wasn’t the case again tonight. I’m hoping we get LeBron back soon. Perhaps he can figure it out, because it’s clear that our coaches can’t.

Aloha,

Now nice win, especially for an early start Sunday game. Just a few random thoughts.

THT looked really good on both sides of the ball. Offensively he looked a little rusty in the first half but looked sharp, attacking for 12 points in the 2nd. It’s going to be huge having him back.

Malik was also huge. The guy is not only a scorer but he creates for others. He has a great handle and can comfortably fill in at PG if needed.

Consider this, once Nunn comes back we will have 3 young players that can attack the rim. Wayne and Melo will feast on opens looks. Add LeBron and Westbrook’s ability to get in the paint and it’s going to be fun.

AD should be in the MVP conversation.

I don’t like playing Russ and Rondo at the same time. It leaves our back court defense vulnerable.

Considering we were playing a lot of the game with 4 guards and Ad a lot, we rebounded reasonably well.

14 turnovers was an improvement but Russ’s 7 turnovers is still to many. His style of plays lends itself to turnovers but there are still to many unforced, careless turnovers.

I think it was the right move not playing Bazemore. We will need him but his poor offense lately has obviously gotten into his head. He needs to step back and take a breath.

With THT back and LeBron probably back tomorrow or the next game, I think we will see AD starting going forward. Still wondering what that final starting lineup will look like.

Aloha,

While most of the attention will go to AD and Russ, look at the starters

Russ +1
AD + 3
DJ + 4
Bazemore + 6
Monk + 31

While Monk had 17 points 4 for 9 from 3 and 3 assists. That plus 31 shows that he was playing well on defense as well. Also a shout out to Reeves who was on the floor with a monk during that run that erased that 12 point deficit.

Aloha,

One of the main arguments for adding a 3rd star will be tested tonight with LeBron sitting out. This could be problematic because a Pop coached team always plays smart and hard. The biggest issue is at the 3. We really only have Bazemore and perhaps Reeves in 3 guard sets. It will be interesting to see how the rotations work. I do know that we probably won’t see AD starting at the 5 tonight.

Aloha,

Just a few observations.

1 This was a quality win. I watched some of the Clippers game, and these guys are for real. I could see them making one of the top 6 seeds this year.

2. The energy was much better tonight. We needed it against these guys .

3. While we won the game, our starters lost. There are still a lot of kinks to work out.

4. Melo is going to win us a lot of games this year. While there a temptation to start him, I prefer him coming off the bench. He gives us something we haven’t had since LeBron arrived. A constant big time scorer running with the 2nd unit.

5. We really could have used Nunn tonight. While Bazemore is a very good defender, it’s asking a lot of him to stay with an ultra quick PG like Ja. he’s better suited to guard wings.

6. Reeves continues to impress.

7. Monk looked more like the guy we saw during preseason before he got hurt. 2 for 3 from 3, 12 points and 4 assists will get it done.

8. While Westbrook’s shot is still off, we saw his true value for this team as a playmaker tonight.

9. 12 block shots and over 50% from 3 is the kind of trends I like to see.

10. AD looked like the DPY tonight. Still, I would like to see him grab a few more board.

Aloha,

I was thinking, what if we didn’t make the trade and our roster looked like this:

Guards
Nunn
Ellington
Monk
Caruso
KCP
Rondo
Reeves

Guard/Forward
THT
Bazemore

Forwards
LeBron
Kuz
Melo
Ariza

Centers
AD
Howard

Would we be a better team? Thoughts?

Aloha,

It’s very easy to see why we lost.

Free throws GH 25-30 83% Lakers 9-19 47%

Bench scoring Warriors 55-29

Rebounding 50 to 45 GS
Offensive 9- 5 GS

Defense was poor as well. Giving up 121 points on a night that Steph had a poor shooting.

Hopefully we will get a few more healthy bodies back because our lack of depth really hurt.

Aloha

Well the preseason hasn’t been exactly smooth
so far. I’m not to concerned, I still think the Lakers will be the team to beat, but there is A LOT of work to do. Losing to a Warriors team without Steph and Green, when our big 3 played was not encouraging. When you add 11 new players to your roster there is bound to be a real long learning curve. The first year of the big 3 in Miami saw a team with 3 hall of famers get off to a 9-8 start. Fortunately we have a very favorable early schedule and should be able to pick up a lot of wins on sheer talent alone. If you recall last year we started fast with a lot of new faces but we also were winning ugly. I expect a lot of early ugly wins this year. Compounding our problems is injuries. We have lost 2 of our 4 small forwards. I suspect we will see LeBron at the 3 with Melo at the 4 until we get a little more depth back. I would love to see us sign Ennis to a non guaranteed deal. We would have until mid December to guarantee it. Ironically we were once a guard heavy squad, we currently only have 4 healthy guards. Fortunately both Monk and Nunn appear to be ready soon, possibly for opening night. You never know for sure. So it’s going to be a rocky start, even if we are winning, it may not be pretty for awhile.

Aloha,

My biggest take away from this game was Malik Monk tossing his name into the starting SG spot conversation. Everything else was pretty typical first preseason game stuff.

Aloha,

With LeBron and Russ not playing tomorrow, my eyes are going to be on THT. I’m interested in seeing what the team is seeing in him this off season. I read a lot of articles where he is mentioned. Media day both LeBron and Frank brought him up without being asked and a few other guys raved about him. He is still JUST 20, half the guys drafted in the first round this year are older. So there are plenty of growing pains ahead but he must be showing a lot if so many people are being so complimentary.