PELICANS -at- LAKERS - 2-9-24 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Buckets... The Pelicans and Lakers played some All Star defense, and by that I mean All Star Game defense. L.A. scored a record-tying 51 points in the second quarter. They’d finish with 87 points in the first half, second all time to the Showtime Lakers.

The Pelicans had multiple illegal defense calls in this game. Frankly, their whole defense should have been declared illegal. They were awful.

Despite the Lakers scoring at a high clip, they only led 87-74 in the first half, and had that trimmed to 3 in the third. Part of the Lakers defensive problem was AD picking up three fouls in the first half. Another part was the Lakers missing all their point of attack defenders. Then to round that out, just a lot of the Lakers allowing guys like Zion to get downhill too many times without anyone putting up much resistance.

Offensively, D’Angelo Russell led the way with 16 of his 30 points in the second quarter. He finished the half with 21, Reaves with 17, Bron with 14. By the end of the game all five Laker starters had 20+ points. With 119 points that was the second most total scored by the starters ever.

The Lakers won 139-122, putting on a show with some good ball movement, deadly perimeter shooting and speed on the break.


LeBron -- -- He had nearly half the Lakers assists tonight. Just picked apart the Pelican D. He started with a lob dunk to AD. HE hit Rui for a corner three. He faked a shot and hit AD under the hoop for a layup. He hit AR rolling for a jumper. The Lakers were clicking, but the next assist really showed how well they are thinking the game as a team. Bron went to the post and drew a double. The Lakers went to their cuts as AD moved off the three line to take a defender with him into the paint. That left AR wide open and Bron found him for a three. “The ball was popping,” Bron said. He had some hiccups early in the second half that helped the Pelicans get some momentum. But as the game went along, he put more pressure on the D getting downhill or in the post backing guys down. I’ve got to think Dinwiddie watching the game with Pelinka in the stands liked the “We’ll see what happens,” Bron said. The Stats: He scored 21 points on 6-13 shooting (2-2 from three, 7-8 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 14 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 2 turnover and 2 fouls in 38 minutes. He was a +15.

Davis -- -- He picked up three fouls in 8 minutes. He played a lot of minutes without picking up his fourth foul of the half, but the Lakers gave up 74 points with their anchor compromised. The Lakers did not defend well with him on the court maybe until the last few minutes of the game, but we also limited his action with those fouls to just 29 minutes tonight. Really impressed again with the passing from AD. He had one of the highlight plays of the night, stealing a bounce pass on one end, pushing it up court, then zipping a no-looker to Rui for the finish. He also ran the break well early on beating his man down court for easy scores. A lot of good looks though out of the 5-out where he’s at the top of the key. He hit cutters multiple times for scores at the rim. The Stats: He scored 20 points on 7-11 shooting (0-1 from three, 6-7 from the line) to go with 6 boards, 6 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 3 turnovers and 4 fouls in 29 minutes. He was a +0.

Russell -- -- He was on a tear in that second quarter. He swished a three working behind the screens to get some space. He drilled a pull-up three next time down down. He lost his man on a pullback dribble and swished a three on the next possessions. He then drew FTs on a drive. Then, he buried a heat-check, step-back three as the Lakers quickly started to build a lead. Just a few minute stretch to drop 16 points in that second quarter. Later in the third, he came in and hit a couple more bombs to help the team close the third quarter and regain a lead. Some really nice drives, too, slithering through the D and getting to the rim. Trade deadline gone, it’s time to get some W’s. The Stats: He scored 30 points on 9-19 shooting (6-13 from three, 6-6 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 5 assists, 1 steal and 4 fouls in 40 minutes. He was a +13.

Reaves -- -- Love seeing our guards both have it going on the same night. Russell had the big first half, but Reaves was right behind him with 17 points. Obviously, some great chemistry with these two. There was a very nice sequence where Russell was trying to create, gave it up to Reaves and instantly cut on the pass and Reaves went right back to him on the give and go for an And-1. Both Russell and Bron found him for threes. Again, Reaves had some of that two-man chemistry with Bron. Reaves would get the Lakers 87th point of the first half, leaking out for a dunk. Reaves shot 3-4 from three, helping the starters around AD to go 13-24 from three. The team’s three shooting has been continually on the rise. Another note on Reaves and Russell, 9 assists combined with 0 turnovers tonight. The Stats: He scored 27 points on 10-15 shooting (3-4 from three, 4-5 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 4 assists and 3 fouls in 31 minutes. He was a +3.

Hachimura -- -- Nice to see a big scoring game from Rui along with the starters. He did an excellent job running the floor and cutting behind the defense. The Lakers did a great job finding him. So, low-usage plays where he’s basically the finisher just by moving and playing with purpose. He struggled with Zion defensively. Zion wasn’t defending anyone, either. There was a sequence in the first half where Zion was taking it to him and on the other end Rui took a pass under the hoop, pump faked Zion to the roof and then hammered on him. Great passing by AD to Rui throughout the night. We’ve got some speedy bigs on this team and they are realizing their ability to change ends. Rui probably did have the defensive play of the night getting back in transition to reject a shot at the rim on a chase down. The Stats: He scored 21 points on 9-13 shooting (2-5 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 1 assist, 2 block and 3 fouls in 37 minutes. He was a +21.

Prince -- -- Very quiet night. He had some trouble keeping BI from scoring. Just some points at the line from Prince tonight. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 0-2 shooting from three (3-4 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 1 assist, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 21 minutes. He was a +10.

Wood -- -- Seemed like most of his scoring was in garbage time. He hit a rainbow three and pushed up a dribble to get another score. He also putback in his own miss. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 4-5 shooting (1-1 from three) to go with 1 board and 1 turnover in 5 minutes. He was a +2.

Hayes -- -- His usual activity on the board with 8 rebounds in just 17 minutes. He tapped an offensive board to himself for a putback score. He wasn’t great defensively, but did provide a little more resistance and effort and that made a difference. Still, Zion was scoring a bit too easy. Hayes managed to pick up a foul in this game. Good job continuing to avoid those lately. He had a couple steals and a block, but no one played great defense. Maybe just competing a bit more there made a difference. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 3-4 shooting to go with 8 boards (3 offensive), 2 steals, 1 block and 1 foul in 17 minutes. He was a +17.

Mays -- -- He came in with 4:30 in the first quarter with Prince. Early action tonight with Christie out. He’d score one bucket, a nice attack from the corner with a Euro-step to flip in a bucket just before the shotclock went off. He missed all of his threes tonight. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-5 shooting (0-3 from three) to go with 1 board, 1 block and no fouls in 16 minutes. He was a +0.

Hood-Schifino -- -- In with under 3 minutes left for some garbage time. He missed a pull up in the lane. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-1 shooting and had 1 board in 2 minutes. He was a +2.

Windler -- -- Nothing to report. The Stats: He had one assist in 2 minutes. He was a +2.

Ham -- -- Key Moment: In the third he brought back Russell to close the quarter. The lead had been trimmed to three as the Pelicans rattled off a 22-9 run. The Lakers put up an 8-0 run to close the quarter. Russell got the team going again with a couple third quarter threes and the Lakers were able to regain momentum heading into the fourth.

Key Substitution: Let’s go with Jaxson Hayes again off the bench. The team was a +17 in his 17 minutes. Again, any kind of energy was useful to the team without their aggressive defenders playing.

Key Stats: We mentioned the stats above. But once again I love seeing the low turnover numbers the Lakers have been putting up lately. Just 7 individual turnovers tonight. Again, we need to use the best-defense-is-a-good-offense approach right now. The offense certainly delivered that tonight.

Coach’s Challenge: Ham used it on an AD foul on a reach where he had all ball midway through the third. That saved AD his fourth foul.

[mad55557777]

Gave up 74 and up double digits at the half is absolutely wild.

[slavavov]

I don't know if the defense we played was All-Star game bad, but there was just good shotmaking by both teams tonight. That's today's NBA -- you can play good enough D and still give up 120-130 points.

The Lakers looked bored and complacent in the second half. Looks like that's still a problem that needs to be fixed if they are to make the playoffs.

But this was still a good win. We now lead the Pelicans 2-1 in the season series, and if we beat them next time, that would help us move higher in the standings.
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[Dr. Laker]

Thanks, DB!
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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".

[Nobody]

Solid win against a good team that absolutely spanked the Clippers the other night. I also agree with what slavov said. Yeah, the D was not optimal all of the time, but the shot-making ability of the modern NBA players is simply amazing.

[A Mad Chinaman]

DB - Thank you for your analysis, it is greatly appreciated!!!!


To The Game

Hachimura playing 37 minutes vs Prince playing 21 minutes in a game where there was no defense played minimized Prince's ineffectiveness.

Game showed that we can play a "Suns"-like game where defense was just an effort to get some cardio in.

DLo showed that he can ball and great to see

Looking forward to when Vanderbilt, Cam, Christie and Vincent will return to be the "Head of the Snake" on defense.

Lakers won a game they needed to start a winning streak

Time to prove Kenrick Perkins that our team CAN be a legitimate title-contending team by developing consistency that will continue by winning their upcoming game with the Pistons while limiting LBJ/AD/AR to playing between 28-30 minutes

[governator]

How’s this Mays kid? Athletic?
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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.“

[Texas_Pete]

Thanks as always DB.

Let's talk about AD's passing for a minute. Short sample size, but against some good teams, AD is averaging 6.3apg in February so far. That's huge.

Teams used to be able to send a hard double and give him issues. Now? He's carving teams up...with his passing.

His ability to playmake for his teammates is really gonna unlock the offense as we saw last night.

And he's still averaging double digit rebounds with lockdown defense.

AD is evolving and it's good to see.

[governator]

[Hammett]

I'm thankful we got the W on the back2back.

Thanks for the writeup DB.
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Lakers. Built different.

[ribeye]

[Treble Clef]

The Lakers have the most explosive offense in the league. They don’t need to give minutes to guys like Cam Reddish who aren’t a threat offensively when they can simply stack up on offense and outscore any team in the league.

[A Mad Chinaman]