LAKERS -at- WARRIORS - 5-4-23 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Seems It’s Impossible to Win Two on the Road to Start a Series... In honor of May the Fourth, the Warriors took on the role of the Death Star and the Lakers of the planet Alderaan -- completely blown away.

The Warriors changed up their starting lineup to add more shooting and pull Looney off the bench. In the previous game, the Warriors would have two non-shooters on the floor with frequency. Tonight, they limited that to one. So instead of a non-shooter getting the ball on our rotations, it was a good look or more room in the paint to attack.

It was a back and forth first quarter as Bron found his shot, hitting a couple threes, while AD was searching for his. When Rui joined in with a couple of threes and a dunk, the Lakers led 33-26 after the first.

First play of the second quarter, the Lakers gave up a putback score. Next play a jumphook for Looney in the paint as AD sat. After a transition three from Klay, the Lakers called a timeout down 1.

It was a two point game with just over 4 minutes left. The Warriors pushed pace before our D could set up, and AD continued to struggle with his shot. Misses would turn into more transition opportunities. Meanwhile, the Lakers drew their first freethrows of the game with a minute left in the first half down 13. No freethrows, allows for more transition opportunities. And, of course, AD would pick up his third foul of the half (his first one was a phantom foul).

Between the second and third quarters, the Lakers defense would give up 84 points -- 84 points is absurd. Unfortunately, the Lakers would score only 80 points themselves in three quarters. This game was over by the time the fourth quarter hit as they trailed 110-80.

Steph Curry would only have 16 points after three quarters, but would have 12 assists as the Warriors adjusted to the Lakers defensive help schemes. The Lakers fell 127-100.

Now, it’s a best of five and the Lakers have home court advantage -- job accomplished for the Lakers by splitting these two. Defend home court and take down the Death Star.


LeBron -- -- Strong start with 14 points in the first quarter, hitting a couple of threes, some midrange and getting downhill for a couple scores at the rim. He finished the half with 21 points on 9-13 shooting. So well Bron regressed to the mean a bit with his shooting, perhaps his defense did also. A bit of confusion at times, and really a lot of poor positioning. Ham said the team lost its focus and that really seemed to be the case on D with Bron. He was just too late, too often. You can’t walk back into the action when AD has three guys around him under the paint and trying to defend that. He’d pick up a bogus foul (late on a challenge) to start the second half when Green used an off arm to clear out against him on a drive. He was frustrated. He’d pick up a tech late in the third quarter after a three where he got contact and no call. “Our defense, that’s where we hang our hat,” Bron said. Expect a better effort from him in the next one. He mentioned rest being a key. He played tired defensively tonight. The Stats: He scored 23 points on 10-18 shooting (3-8 from three) to go with 7 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal and 3 fouls in 28 minutes. He was a -27.

Davis -- -- Defensively, he was neutralized a bit more with the pace the Warriors were playing. Additionally, the extra shooter on the floor opened up a lot more room and passing lanes that Green and Curry could pick apart. The Warriors also did a good job stretching out the floor on those screens to force more space for passes after pulling him on the high drop coverage. That caused some confusion/issues and the Warriors know how to beat that. Lastly, you knew he was going to get three fouls in the first half of this one (that first one was bogus, too), lol. Offensively, which is where a lot of people will focus, AD missed a lot of those midrange looks and floaters that he’s usually pretty automatic on. Very little getting to the rim. A lot of two-man action got iced and the Lakers didn’t counter that well. We saw a rare oop for him in this one when Schröder rejected a screen and finally got middle and was able to throw it up to him. Our guards struggled to get into that part of the paint and collapse the D to set him up. This game won’t sit well with him. “We’ll be better. I’ll be better,” AD said. It feels like there is a pattern of big offensive game, followed by quiet one, followed by another big one. Let’s see if he and his guards will rise to the occasion. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 5-11 shooting (1-1 from the line) to go with 7 boards, 4 assists, 1 steal, 3 blocks, 4 turnovers and 3 fouls in 33 minutes. He was a -22.

Russell -- -- The three ball wasn’t dropping and didn’t look good. Hopefully, the home crowd gets him juiced up and going. He thrives off that. So, hopefully, with the crowd behind his back he knock some of those down. He hit a baseline jumper. He posted up Curry and hit a turnaround. He sank a midrange pull-up. He ended up getting Curry’s third foul late in the first half. They went at Curry quite a bit offensively to make him work. Curry wasn’t putting up bulk shots on offense, though, so tiring those legs didn’t matter. While Russell had 8 assists, we really didn’t have a great connection with AD in this one. There was a lot of iced pick and roll where D’lo fed him at the wings. AD never got the ball downhill and didn’t attack with speed. Russell didn’t have finishes at the rim like he had in the previous game attack hard off screens, as well. Those are often related. He also missed AD at the elbows at times. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 5-12 shooting (0-3 from three) to go with 1 board, 8 assists, 1 steal and 1 foul in 28 minutes. He was a -19.

Reaves -- -- The first thing that was noticeable was that the shot just wasn’t dropping with consistency. And he had some great looks, wide open ones. Hopefully, the home crowd helps him get going again. We need him to take it back to the next level. Defensively, these are tough assignments for our guards when they are navigating high screens and help isn’t there. So you’ve got to stick as close as you can. It definitely seemed like the Warriors were stretching out the defense more coming off the screens than the last game. Klay was just on fire, so Reaves was in flames. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 3-11 shooting (1-5 from three) to go with 4 boards, 2 assists, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 25 minutes. He was a -22.

Vanderbilt -- -- He missed several little floaters in the middle of the paint. Normally, he’s been pretty good at those, but he got a lot today and they weren’t dropping. Those are key counters to how the defense is overplaying. Got to make them pay. He had some mixed results on the north-south screen action. He looked lazy on one, got downhill aggressively on another for one of his scores. It’s important he’s a threat on those because the D can’t sag off him like they do when he’s in the corner. He also was lost offensively on some set plays with others wondering what he was doing. Again, Ham mentioned focus and Vando’s was not there tonight. He’s going to be in the spotlight here. The screen defense wasn’t as strong in this game. The Warriors made him work a little differently with that floor spacing and how they came off the screen and got into space more. In the second quarter, he had a man land on his knee bending it awkwardly. He was very fortunate that didn’t end his playoffs. It was one of those awkward-bodies-falling type of potential injuries. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-7 shooting (1-2 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 6 boards (4 offensive), 1 assist, a turnover and no fouls in 20 minutes. He was a -10.

Schröder -- -- One of the few guys to draw FTs. That was his only scoring, however. He missed an open three and a floater. He got his FTs on a transition pull up, letting his man run up his back and more FTs on one of his drives where he forces the D to bump him. They seemed to pay special attention to how Dennis used his arms in this game -- on screens defensively or coming off screens offensively. He lost all those calls. Interesting inconsistency. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 0-3 shooting (0-1 from three, 4-4 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 19 minutes. He was a -18.

Hachimura -- -- As good as he was shooting, it was tough defensively when the Warriors went small. That meant either him or Bron had to guard Klay. Usually, it was Rui guarding a smaller man because Bron wasn’t guarding. When Bron sat, he’d get a better defensive matchup. But He was typically stuck on a shooter all game. He gave it back well, hitting some threes and throwing down a couple of times. His three ball has much more arch and is looking good. The Stats: He scored 21 points on 8-14 shooting (4-6 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 22 minutes. He was a -17.

Gabriel -- -- A very unsuccessful -8 in 3 minutes in the first half. We didn’t see him again. The team looked very confused in those minutes. Even in garbage time, the Lakers decided to dust off TT and get him warmed up. The Stats: He had no stats in 3 minutes. He was a -8.

Beasley -- -- Wish it was Max, but glad to see Beasley get minutes and even some time against Curry early in that fourth quarter. His one decent defensive skill is as a chaser. So Ham got a little look at that before Kerr gave his starters the hook. Game was over, but better than total garbage time. Of course, his three ball is still hot garbage itself. He missed all three. One was blocked and he got it back and hit a short runner off it. Would have been really nice if he found his shot as we miss that element in our offense right now (a guy who can hit threes on the move or with a quick trigger). The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-4 shooting (0-3 from three) to go with 1 board, 1 steal and 1 foul in 12 minutes. He was a +3.

Brown -- -- He’d miss a three in garbage time. Typically, he was out there when Rui was playing PF. So we had some more natural matchups defensively. But not a lot of impact in this one. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-1 shooting and had 3 assists in 8 minutes. He was a -3.

Walker IV -- -- He got the garbage time run, so we know what he can do. He can hit that midrange, he drained a three. Usual Lonnie stuff. The Lakers need their defense to play on a string. Lonnie’s athleticism offensively would be useful, but the defense against the Warriors is probably not quite up to par. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 4-8 shooting (1-4 from three) to go with 1 assist, 1 steal and no fouls in 11 minutes. He was a +3.

Thompson -- -- Good to see him get a little action out there with Green/Curry on the floor early in the fourth. He got a nice score attacking off the handoff fake and powering one in over Green (that’s a set play we use for AD). A few seconds later he got a dunk in transition. Then, Kerr pulled his starters. He’d miss a couple jumphooks. He’d also get fouled on an offensive board for FTs (freethrow shooting was not ready for prime time). He was a lot more mobile than I expected. Glad Ham got him some minutes (Bamba’s ankle keeping him out). The Stats: He scored 5 points on 2-4 shooting (1-4 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 2 assists and 1 foul in 12 minutes. He was a +3.

Christie -- -- He came in for some extended garbage time. Good job going to the rim hard to draw some freethrows. Poor job from the line missing half of them. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 0-1 shooting (2-4 from the line) to go with 1 board and no fouls in 8 minutes. He was a +3.

Harrison -- -- Some playoff minutes even if it was garbage time. He had a nice pick at midcourt defensively. The Stats: He didn’t shoot and had 1 board, 1 assist, 1 steal and 1 foul in 9 minutes. He was a -1.

Ham -- -- Key Moment: Warriors made Curry more of a passer and the Lakers were toast. It’s really hard to pick one key moment when you give up 84 points over the course of the second and third quarter. Let’s say that key moment happened in the locker room (or didn’t) because they never stopped the bleeding that took place in that second quarter. The Warriors aren’t going to run two non-shooters against us going forward.

Key Substitution: Rui had 21 but was a -17 in 22 minutes. Ham often seems to lean into playing more small ball than big ball. Our big units just didn’t look good defensively against the Warriors small ball. We need better initial screen defense on those initial Warrior attacks because our bigs just didn’t cover enough ground defensively.

Key Stats: Warriors made 21-42 (50%) from three and 10-16 from the line. The Lakers made 10-34 (29.4%) and 10-17 from the line. Regarding the freethrows, the Lakers didn’t put the same pressure on the rim this game as it was the Warriors packing the paint better. Got to make adjustments between games and defend the home court.

[pio2u]

THX DB!

[justsomelakerfan]

DB what do you think? Stick with the starters for the next two games? Don't think there's much else LA can do to manage Klay.
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[DancingBarry]

[mad55557777]

[justsomelakerfan]

[slavavov]

It was OK after the fact that we lost, but the way we lost was totally unacceptable.

I wonder if the Lakers subconsciously quit at some point, knowing that supernova Klay is unstoppable and that they had already stolen HCA and have the next two games at home.

If we're going to win this series, we must win both of the next two games at home. I don't trust this new and inexperienced team in a key Game 5 (or Game 7) in SF against a Warriors team that has won four chips.
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[DancingBarry]

Vando has been way worse than anything AR is doing. It really was an issue.

Part of the problem with Klay, too, was these dumb lineups where we have Rui needing to chase guys as we had mobile shooters like Klay out there and wanted to get Rui minutes. It just didn’t work. It looked way better when Bron was sitting and Rui slides up a spot instead of dealing with SF Klay. If we want to get Rui more minutes he needs to probably start (he can hang with the Green/Green/Wiggins trio. Then you get your floor spacing back. Vando wasn’t locking down (bleep) tonight. Got worked, lost at times, missed scores on counters, etc. We were way to mismatched out there.

[DancingBarry]

Other option is Brown starting or going with Dennis who actually sticks with Curry much better at the head of the snake. I’d be annoyed if we sat Reaves and kept Vando out there, lol, when so many of our issues are there.

[tox]

Usually the team making more shots has fewer opportunities for offensive rebounds. But the Warriors had 13 offensive rebounds to Lakers' 41 defensive rebounds (24% of available rebounds). The Lakers had 9 offensive rebounds to the Warriors' 42 (18% of available rebounds).

I missed most of the game today (just caught the 3Q) -- why does it seem the Lakers can't seem to win on the boards? They should have superior size with Looney playing 12 minutes. Is it as simple as the Lakers being more scared of the Warriors in transition, so they crash the boards less than guys like GP2 and Wiggins? Or is it just "long shot = long rebound"?

It's pretty frustrating.

[DancingBarry]

Someone mentioned Klay made three open threes when Rui was guarding him. We can’t be throwing those lineups against the warriors three guard lineup. Can’t be running hedge coverage like we did and got torched in the second half. Just some self inflicted wounds here.

Then you have the Vando problems which were on both ends tonight. The Warriors made Curry a PG so Vando’s ball denial was no longer a thing. Then they closed the paint on us because we had no space. Feels like Rui starting would solve so many issues. Get us back on track, opens the lane, we attack the rim, get to the line, slow the game up, get set on D. Live with some Klay threes…just not as many. I’m not sure Ham is as ballsy as Kerr was changing his starters. Let’s see.

[DancingBarry]

[DancingBarry]

By the way, I may not be able to cover the next game. So it might be a DIY night.

[eddiejonze]

You Mention "interesting inconsistency" regarding the refs calls on Dennis, and In the writeup on AD you wrote: "you just knew AD would get his 3rd foul pre halftime"...

Sounds to me like you're saying the refs affected the game, without saying the refs affected the game.
This is why I hate the league so very much: everyone is so afraid to call out what they see with their own two eyes.
Either things are fouls, every damn time, or they are not...
There is no in between.
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[Nobody]

Thanks, DB!

Oh, man, they looked solid in the 1st and in control for the most of the 2nd quarter. But then the wheels just fell off. Too bad, would've been incredible if they could've won both games in the Bay.

Onto Saturday then. Hope they adjust.

Go Lakers!

[DancingBarry]

EddieJonze — Well, it wasn’t the reason we lost … cause we got our ass kicked. If the game was close? Why you calling the hand battles one way? Both teams do it.

Let’s see what happens in the next one. Warriors got away with a lot of hands and moving screens.

Still, that said, we weren’t tactically putting ourselves in position to get more calls ourselves on the offensive side. No one to blame there but ourselves.

[DrDent]

Hey DB. Thank you again for the summary.

Honestly? I told a buddy I felt like a 20+ point butt handing was coming. Home teams in playoffs of late when down 0-1 have gone apocalyptic, basically playing it as an elimination game and many times blowing opponents off the floor.

I also felt AD would get phased out tonight and he did on offense.

One does wonder if the short turn around and the heavy minutes AD and LBJ had in game 1 had some impact and if that will continue.

Kudos to Kerr with his lineup changes. Also, by Bringing Looney off the bench, it allowed him more chances to be the biggest guy out there when AD sat.

Not sure what counters Lakers have. Vando helped alot in game 1 chasing Curry. Warriors made adjustments. You have to wonder who can chase Curry and Klay around and it just not kill their legs on offense.

In any event, I felt the series would really start on Saturday, and looks like it will. I do not have a prediction, but do not feel like it will be like tonight's game at all.

Will just keep trying to enjoy the Laker wins, hopefully more come.
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"One thing I admire about Kuzma is his unwavering confidence. He truly has no idea that he’s not as good as he thinks." - Killer_Z

[tlim]

The board differential was ridiculous. Warriors shot a ton of 3s and battled on the boards way better than the Lakers.

It was a game that the Lakers did not put real effort into. GSW was faster and more determined while the Lakers were flat footed most of the game.

Don’t defend on the glass, and that’s a big L.

[PenG_]

Wow that was frustrating.

Warriors are 42-95 from three through two games. Relentless

[Aeneas Hunter]

[TooMuchMajicBuss]

Thanks DB. Time to adjust for the next one Lakers.

[Halflife]

I know we dont want to send them to the line, but I would like DLO to get a little more physical in spots. he's not small and he has a pretty good knack for not getting in foul trouble. Refs don't call everything.

The game certainly sucked but at no point did I feel It was more about them. We just played small. IMHO
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[Lakers#1Team]

Thanks DB! We definitely have to treat each of our home games as if it's game 7. Hard to foresee another Lakers road win at GS.

And I agree, Ham needs to match Kerr's adjustments with his own. Put Rui in as starter in place of Vando. Halflife's idea of having DLO be more aggressive. Have Reaves work more inside out with his Euro moves to get himself and others going.

[mad55557777]

[eddiejonze]

I think TBJ would fit the bill to guard Klay mostly next game.
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