CAVS -at- LAKERS - 3/26 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

 
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DancingBarry
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 26, 2021 10:01 pm    Post subject: CAVS -at- LAKERS - 3/26 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

A Win!... The Lakers have had their struggles coming out at halftime. Tonight, they turned the tables on their opponent.

The Lakers struggled in the first half, turning the ball over and making just one three. They had no pace to their game and couldn’t put points on the board.

That changed in the third quarter. They tightened up the defense (Schröder with a great trackdown block that punctuated the effort). They turned steals into transition points and held the Cavs to just 2 points in the quarter before Cleveland scored its second bucket at the 3:31 mark.

The Cavs shot just 3-21 in the third. With the 28-10 third quarter, the Lakers took an 11-point lead into the fourth.

They’d push it to nearly 20 points as they imposed themselves on the Cavs on their way to the 100-86 win.

This was not a fun game in the first half, but the Lakers were able to secure the W they had to have. Got to get the next one, too.


Schröder -- -- A track down block in the third quarter punctuated the defensive effort he and the team played with in the third. They turned up the intensity and that helped them get points on the break. We’ve got to run. (That’s an underrated part of Rondo’s game we miss is the pace he had the offense playing.) We set him up for penetration on a couple of set plays early on. They tried to space the floor for him to go to work on one (he missed). The other was a two-man sequence on an ATO that he turned into an easy layup. Quite a few turnovers from Schröder. He stopped cutting twice in the first quarter and teammates threw the ball out of bounds. So those two didn’t even count toward his 7 he had in this game. “Still too many turnovers on my behalf,” Schröder said. Strong defensive effort as always, finishing with the 4 steals and the block. The Stats: He scored 17 points on 7-12 shooting (1-2 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 7 assists, 4 steals, 1 block, 7 turnovers and 4 fouls in 32 minutes. He was a +4.

Caldwell-Pope -- -- Quieter night from KCP, he sank just one of his five attempts from three (one we needed to end a 9-0 Cavs run). Too many turnovers with as little work he does passing or trying to take people off the dribble. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 2-8 shooting (1-5 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 1 steal, 3 turnovers and 2 fouls in 28 minutes. He was a +4.

Gasol -- -- We kept it to 15 minutes again. He had a couple of scores early, a fallaway at the FT line and a legit jumper from the same spot against the zone. Defensively, a couple nice plays. One stealing a lob pass before it was even thrown over him (if you can’t jump with the bigs, get aggressive defending the pass). He also denied Nance who was trying to sky over him. Short minutes, but solid outing again. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-3 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 2 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 2 turnovers and 3 foul sin 15 minutes. He was a +10.

Kuzma -- -- He’s working on the passing game and tied Schröder with a team-high with 7 assists. He had an excellent find hitting Trezz on the roll in the fourth for a dunk, firing it one hand off the dribble with a baseball pass on target. On another pass you could see he learned from LeBron. He had a mismatch on a switch on the wing. Kuz’s man who had switched on Schröder tried to help a little too far back over to Kuz, so he whipped a pass to Schröder who hit the three. He was also hitting the boards. The team as a whole did a good job with some of their smaller lineups helping out on the glass. Scoring wise, he wasn’t hitting his three. Again, he did a good job getting contact on drives to neutralize guys like Nance and score at the rim. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-7 shooting (0-3 from three) to go with 8 boards, 7 assists, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 27 minutes. He was a +8.

Morris -- -- Turnover machine in the first half with 4 of the Lakers 13 turnovers. I can understand Schröder having a big turnover number, but Kieff? That’s just awful basketball. In the second half, he kept it simple. Catch the ball, shoot the ball. He sank three straight threes doing that. No turnovers in the second half. He ended up with the team high +17, despite that awful first half. The Stats: He scored 13 points on 5-10 shooting (3-7 from three) to go with 5 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 4 turnovers and 2 fouls in 27 minutes. He was a +17.

Harrell -- -- He got rejected on a putback attempt early in the game. After that, he was finishing strong with multiple dunks around those Cleveland bigs. He and Schröder teamed up a few times. One on a between-the-legs pocket pass, another on a LeBron-like full court heave as Trezz leaked out. Kuz and THT also found him for scores. Good to see him out running and finishing on the break. I wish he’d go harder/faster at that (relentless like Malone). Not a lot of iso buckets. He did have a nice up and under on Allen. The Stats: He scored 24 points on 10-15 shooting (4-8 from the line) to go with 10 boards (7 offensive), 2 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnover and 4 fouls in 30 minutes. He was a +2.

Caruso -- -- Disruptive on D tonight from the start. He caused a coupleof turnovers early on. He stole the ball in the backcourt twice, as well, in the first half. In the third he took a steal for a two-hand dunk. That’s the AC we need -- making things happen on D, doing the little things that give you a net positive. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 1-4 shooting (0-3 from three, 3-4 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 1 assist, 4 steals, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 24 minutes. He was a +11.

Horton-Tucker -- -- He had a steal in that third quarter where he put that long reach to use to strip his man cleanly on the perimeter and take it for a score. Really curious to see where he will get defensively when he’s 24-25 in 4-5 years from now. Offensively, he put the three ball up a bit more than we see (hitting 1-4). He got to the rim for the rest of his scores. We run that strong handoff play for him to come from the corner and attack to his strong hand. He’d score a layup off it on one trip down, ran it again next time and he hit a fade in the paint. The Stats: He scored 15 points on 6-11 (1-4 from three, 2-4 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers and 4 fouls in 32 minutes. He was a +6.

Matthews -- -- The refs described the flagrant he took in the fourth as he came down on a Cavs foot after shooting a three as an “unnecessary closeout.” Got to be another phrase for that. (Although, I think LeBron must be trying to avoid those on occasion.) A couple layups, one on a drive from the corner, another on a reverse when Trezz found him. The rest of his points were from the line. Defensively, Wes felt a bit of shame when Cook took him on iso in the paint for a score. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 2-4 shooting (0-1 from three, 5-5 from the line) to go with 4 boards in 18 minutes. He was a +11.

McKinnie -- -- He had a putback bucket with a few seconds left. Got some shots up in his 2 minutes. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-3 shooting to go with 1 board in 2 minutes. He was a -1.

Cacok -- -- He didn’t score in his 2 minutes of garbage time and had 1 board. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-1 shooting and had 1 board and 1 foul in 2 minutes. He was a -1.

Antetokounmpo -- -- Also came in for garbage time. Nothing to report. The Stats: He had 1 board in 2 minutes. He was a -2.

Vogel -- -- Key Moment: Once again, the entire third quarter. The Lakers held the Cavs to 10 points in the quarter (35 in the half). They simply have to play with pace and that starts on D. The half court schemes are just not good enough to keep the team humming. Certainly the talent is missing, but our offensive coaching under Vogel has been lagging this season. Whether it’s because we’ve only had a few practices or not, it’s a bit behind at this point in the season. Losing LeBron just exposed it more. Good D can help that. “We really executed our coverage. Everybody was engaged...we put everything on the line,” Schröder said afterward. Trezz said the talk at the half was about the miscommunications on the defensive end. He said they wanted to make rotations earlier.

Key Substitution: Double-double, 25-10 from Trezz off the bench, but we also got some help from others. THT, Wes, chipped in with 15 and 9, respectively. Much better.

Key Stats: The Lakers had 15 steals, the season high. That’s double their 7.3 per game average. Schröder had 4, Caruso had 4, THT had 2.
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pio2u
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 26, 2021 10:12 pm    Post subject:

THANKS DB!!
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waterman40
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 26, 2021 11:21 pm    Post subject:


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A Mad Chinaman
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 27, 2021 12:22 am    Post subject:

Good scrimmage and win that was good for the team

If KCP, Matthews and KK are not dependable shooters - we will need much more movement - as DB mentioned

Good that THT is getting major PT to learn the offensive and defensive sets. He allows AC to be AC

Good that Gasol is back on the court

Will be interesting to see who the Lakers get in the Buy-Out Market
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DrDent
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 27, 2021 1:55 am    Post subject:

Thanks DB

Will take it.

Awful several minute run in second quarter, but that was cleaned up in the second half.

Just gotta stay competitive, keep TOs low, and play D.
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akgolf
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 27, 2021 4:58 am    Post subject:

Thanks DB!
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ThePageDude
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 27, 2021 5:14 am    Post subject: Re: CAVS -at- LAKERS - 3/26 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

DancingBarry wrote:

<snip>
The half court schemes are just not good enough to keep the team humming. Certainly the talent is missing, but our offensive coaching under Vogel has been lagging this season. Whether it’s because we’ve only had a few practices or not, it’s a bit behind at this point in the season. Losing LeBron just exposed it more.
<snip>


This was my concern too before season start - that with all the newly added offensive talent in Schroeder/Trezz/Gasol the offensive philosophy needed to be upgraded - at least in non-Lebron lineups.
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Halflife
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 27, 2021 6:28 am    Post subject:

Our defense was excellent
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danzag
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 27, 2021 8:52 am    Post subject:

Thanks, DB!

Winning is always good
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Dr. Laker
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 27, 2021 1:40 pm    Post subject:

danzag wrote:
Thanks, DB!

Winning is always good

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