LAKERS -at- SPURS - 12/30 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

 
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 9:18 pm    Post subject: LAKERS -at- SPURS - 12/30 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

Playing With Their Food... This was one of those games where you kept looking at the score and no matter how poorly the Lakers might have been playing, they still led by 10.

The game never seemed in doubt.

The Lakers didn’t lose a quarter, but they didn’t lose the Spurs, either. They pulled out to leads of 18 points and would then give up a mini run and the Spurs would be down by 10 again -- close enough that you could never rest your stars.

Wes Matthews joined the battle tonight on the offensive end, sinking 6-6 from three to give the Lakers 18 points off the bench.

In the end, the Lakers would hold on for the 121-107 win.

The game will be remembered for Becky Hammon becoming the first woman to serve as a head coach. She took over for Pop, who was tossed early on. Congrats to her and to the NBA.


LeBron -- -- LBJ’s 36th birthday and he put up his 1,000th straight game scoring in double digits. The game has evolved over the years. A lot of post work in this one. That’s the old man portion of his game. Just backing players down, scoring or drawing defenders for passes. It’s the slow-mo way to get that penetration in the defense. He still had things like the coast-to-coast drive, blowing past someone in the half court, or sinking the three or midrange. The full balance going on, but not the relentless downhill attack that we got in the playoffs a couple months back. The full-court passes from LeBron and Gasol were flying tonight. The guys you typically see on that receiving end are Kuz and KCP, but more and more (especially tonight), you saw Trezz down court sealing a fronting defender and out jumping them. Trezz did that a lot last year, too, but some better passers this season to explore it more. The Stats: He scored 26 points on 11-23 shooting (1-3 from three, 3-5 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 8 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 35 minutes. He was a -1.

Davis -- -- His level of engagement this season had been shown in his block shot stats. He hadn’t blocked a shot this season until the opening of this game. Our interior D is going to look especially small if AD isn’t his usual self. He got two early on. Offensively, he was certainly more engaged in this one as he was getting out on the break. A lot midrange jumper action on iso. To start the second half we made sure to set him up on a lob from LeBron in our opening play. Vogel making sure we aren’t just having AD floating or “fitting in.” Down the stretch, AD came through a couple of big jumpers from midrange. The offense stalled out on both of those and he bailed the team out with those iso jumpers. Better game, but still not going at full AD speed yet. The Stats: He scored 20 points on 9-15 shooting (0-2 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 8 boards, 3 assists, 2 blocks, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 32 minutes. He was a +17.

Schröder -- -- Let’s start with the good again first. He spaced the floor, knocking down three threes. Then got to the rim again and again to put pressure on the rim. Mix in the occasional money midrange and he’s dropping another 20+ game. We saw him out there with what I think will be the 5-out closing unit of AD, Morris, LeBron and two guards. Vogel said he has a lot of trust in those bigs going with a couple of guards. So with that in mind, let’s talk about the turnovers from Schröder. He had 5 tonight and some of them were just such sloppy execution on the perimeter with his passing. It’s always been a problem from him and will be especially frustrating in the playoffs if he’s doing that. But I’m curious to see if it shows up in these crunch time moments when the attention and focus is much greater. It’s struck me as a middle-of-the-game, tired, lazy kind of execution thing. No issues tonight. The Stats: He scored 21 points on 9-15 shooting (3-5 from three) to go with 4 boards, 4 assists, 1 steal, 5 turnovers and 3 fouls in 34 minutes. He was a +13.

Caldwell-Pope -- -- Standard, consistent KCP game. He sank a couple of threes, one in transition, another from the corner off a cross-court feed from LeBron initiated from his post game. His best play might have been off a jumpball. The ball went to Gasol’s hands, KCP leaked out and Marc hit him down court for the layup. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 3-5 shooting (2-3 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal and 3 fouls in 26 minutes. He was a +6.

Gasol -- -- DeRozan was defending him to start the game. We’ve seen other teams hide the shorties on him and we didn’t take advantage. We eventually got him to score an easy jumphook off a mismatch early on, but we don’t really know what we’re doing with that yet. We brought him back to close the half with the starters. He’d get an And-1 offensive board off a missed Lakers FT, tossing in a board over his head with 0.8 left in the half while pinning the rebounder’s arm under his. He just veteraned that rebounder into a mistake and we closed the half with a 5-point play. Early in the second half, we put him in the post, he drew the double and hit LeBron for the wide open three. Next time, he was called for an offensive foul trying to get position. He picked up a number of fouls in the first 6 minutes of the third. Game by game, they are starting to come together. The Stats: He scored 5 point son 2-2 shooting (1-1 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 2 assists, 4 turnovers and 3 fouls in 21 minutes. He was a +8.

Matthews -- -- The Law of Averages came in to play for Wes tonight as he was on fire from three after going 0-8 to start the season. Slower release on his first three of the game and he swished it off the Kuzma kickout. His shots prior to that one in previous games had been so fast, even wide open ones, that they seemed harder than they needed to be and that snowballed into the cold streak. Tonight, first shot he measured and drained it. The next one was a little faster, and after seeing the first go through the hoop, he was on a roll. Again off a pass from Kuz on that second one. In the second half, he sank another three going weak to strong to hit from the top of the arc. Then, he sank another side-stepping heat check three next time down. He’d hit his fifth in a row early in the fourth on a swing pass to the corner with a couple defenders running at him. His sixth was next time down when LeBron posted up, drew the D and Wes relocated to the wing for the three. Six shots, 18 points. Defensively, some improved moments where he was anticipating the action and rotating to help pretty quickly. But you also saw him and AD in deep discussion on one defensive breakdown during the timeout. Give it time. We’ll get some strong two-way minutes. The Stats: He scored 18 points on 6-6 shooting from three to go with 2 boards and 3 fouls in 22 minutes. He was a +8.

Harrell -- -- One board shy of the double-double and it seemed like a pretty average game from him. That’s probably a good sign. Of note in this game, we didn’t close either the first half or the game with him. Offensively, no real integration with anything. He did a good job cleaning up the pressure put on the rim by guards. A number of times we threw the ball up to him ahead of the D in transition (or fronted by the D) and he usually came up with the ball. One assist tonight was off an offensive board where he hit Schröder cutting for a layup. Their chemistry right now is just more of that opportunist stuff. It’s not as organic as Lou/Trezz were. The play that gets replayed tonight was a sequence where Trezz got blocked on a dunk attempt on one end, then got dunked on at the other end of the court. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 2-5 shooting (6-8 from the line) to go with 9 boards (3 offensive), 1 assist, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 23 minutes. He was a +6.

Kuzma -- -- Fairly quiet night. Some good passes from Kuz. We saw him set up Wes for his first couple of threes. The mindset to play make has been there from the preseason. Scoring wise, it was all from transition. He made one three in transition, had another layup leaking out and also was fouled on the break. In the half court sets, just the passing. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-7 shooting (1-4 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 6 boards, 4 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and 2 fouls in 24 minutes. He was a +10.

Morris -- -- His points were on a post up against DeRozan. He took a pass at the elbow, turned and swished. He had one assist, as well, a swing pass to Wes for his fifth three of the night. We saw him close the game, which ultimately could be our go-to lineup since it gives up mobility and 5-out offense. Vogel mentioned after the game how much he trusts that lineup. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-3 shooting (0-2 from three) to go with 6 boards, 1 assist, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 19 minutes. He was a -6.

Cook -- -- He sank a three off a high screen on his first touch with a minute left. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-1 shooting in 1 minute. He was a +3.

Dudley -- -- Only a minute of garbage time tonight. Dudz needs to rip them in the locker room, lol. He should have had 8 or 9 minutes. The Stats: He didn’t have any stats in 1 minute. He was a +3.

Vogel -- -- Key Moment: The lead was down to 8 with over a couple minutes left, the shotclock low and AD was iso’ing in the corner. He pulled up and drilled the long jumper. Miss that and the Spurs could cut it to 5 or 6 and anything could happen. Always good to have a superstar on your team just to dump it to late in the clock to make you look good.

Key Substitution: Got to go with Wes. He sank his first three, then second and Vogel decided to give him some long run in this one. He had back-to-back threes in third (followed by a three by Schröder) and the Lakers had a 10-0 run to extend the lead to 18 points at one point. They’d give it up, but Wes would hit a couple more threes early in the fourth. More of that, please.

Key Stats: The Lakers shot 14-26 from three (53.8%). The Spurs shot 10-24 (41.7%). The Lakers won the break 23-19 despite having 17 turnovers to the Spurs 11.
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Omar Little
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 9:21 pm    Post subject:

First
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 9:34 pm    Post subject:

Thanks DB. We still have a lot to clean up defensively. Hopefully they figure it out as the season progresses.

It’s funny. Last season they didn’t have enough offense to separate and blow teams out. This season, the defense is not good enough yet to feel comfortable with double digit leads.
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 9:40 pm    Post subject:

I think the defense spoiled us last year in terms of expectations.

The 2020 Lakers team didn't have anyone near Schroder or Harrell's offensive output so they had to rely on the 2 stars while everyone else was locked on D to win games.

I think with this year's team, Davis and Bron know they have the weapons to outscore teams on a nightly basis so perhaps the defense takes a tiny seat back for the RS. I think LA will have a solid 10-15 game run Post-ASB once things get serious again.
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 9:55 pm    Post subject:

Excellent summary DB. Thanks again.

So, what stood out to me, was I heard more than once our announcers point out the defensive issues. Hopefully this all gets cleaned up. I admit I'm expecting to see what we saw not just 2 months ago in game 6 versus the Heat...that dominant, in your face, lock down type of attack (e.g. what seemed to show up last night vs the Blazers for first 5 minutes). But I'm being unrealistic in expecting that night in and out for the regular season.

With that said, I hope to see them do better on that end as we go along. Will take the win vs a scrappy Spurs team.
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 10:28 pm    Post subject:

Thanks, DB.

I don't think we lack defensive ability - I think we lack intensity and I expect it to pick up quickly.
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 2:39 am    Post subject: Re: LAKERS -at- SPURS - 12/30 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

DancingBarry wrote:
Gasol -- -- DeRozan was defending him to start the game. We’ve seen other teams hide the shorties on him and we didn’t take advantage. We eventually got him to score an easy jumphook off a mismatch early on, but we don’t really know what we’re doing with that yet
Last year's team, opposing teams were able to do that with Dwight/JaVale because that wasn't the team's focus or their strengths.

As Gasol can shoot 3pt shots, take up space in the paint (albeit with minimal shot-blocking presence, force opposing players to play in the paint (hopefully resulting in getting opposing 5s into foul trouble and his passing prowess (along with Dennis the Menace's speed/quickness) will show itself in ball/body/pass movement that brings back memores of vintage Duncan/Parker/Manu Spur teams
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 5:29 am    Post subject:

Team stats comparison:

FG% Lakers + 8%
Lakers shot 56.1
Spurs shot 46.0

Points in the Paint =
Lakers 46
Spurs 46

3PTs Lakers + 12 points from 3 pointers/b]
Lakers 14-26
Spurs 10-24

[b]Rebounds +4 Lakers

Lakers 49
Spurs 45

Fastbreak points +4 Lakers
Lakers 23
Spurs 19

Turnovers -6 Lakers
Lakers 17
Spurs 11

Outside of the turnovers, Lakers did well, according to the numbers. Shot the ball exceptionally well in this one.
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wolfpaclaker
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 5:33 am    Post subject:

Our offense rating is 117.6, which is 3rd in the NBA. We are 9th defensively, and overall in Net rating +11.5, which is number in the NBA. We have not had a great start to the season, and I am not a big fan of some of the lineups we use, but man, despite that, based on the data I am seeing this team has powerhouse like talent. Their effectiveness despite not playing their best is statistically already the best in the league.
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 5:38 am    Post subject:

Key moment for me, DB, when it came to Vogel.

Sometime in the 4th Q, Trez had been in the game with the 2nd unit, and then continued to stay in when AD, Bron, Dennis and KCP (starters) returned. This was a time where we went with the same lineup that got destroyed by Portland. Again, we do not do well. We probably can win this game (being up 8-10 points) but Vogel switches to Kieff. We easily close the game from that point. Very good change, meaning Vogel is in tune with what is going on, and probably is pushing some lineups on us, that he would not in the playoffs.

Based on a small sample, but Kieff and Wesley are two guys I would keep an eye on all season, and see if they can close for us. Early, but until Dennis improves his decision making in the 4th, right now I trust an AD/Kieff/Matthews/KCP/James lineup to close (with Caruso taking Matthews spot in some cases).
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 7:28 am    Post subject:

Lakers gave up 17 turn overs resulting 25 points for the Spurs. Lakers are averaging the 6th most turnovers in the association right now. Gotta clean that up.

However, Lakers are ranked 9th in points allowed and 8th in opponents field goals. So the defense is not as bad as we are making out.
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 7:54 am    Post subject:

Thanks DB!
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 7:56 am    Post subject:

wolfpaclaker wrote:
Our offense rating is 117.6, which is 3rd in the NBA. We are 9th defensively, and overall in Net rating +11.5, which is number in the NBA. We have not had a great start to the season, and I am not a big fan of some of the lineups we use, but man, despite that, based on the data I am seeing this team has powerhouse like talent. Their effectiveness despite not playing their best is statistically already the best in the league.


I think you know this, but I'll say it anyway: It is an error to draw any serious conclusions from team stats this early in the season. The Bucks are second in the league to us in point differential at +10.8. They have a 2-3 record and are currently outside of the playoff slots. The Warriors are last in the league in point differential at -13.5 (!). They have a 2-2 record and are currently in a playoff slot. Give it about another 10 games before we start looking at team stats.

Anyway, our prospects are all dependent on the health of Lebron and Davis. If Lebron and Davis are healthy through the playoffs, we should cruise. The regular season will be about getting the defense and team chemistry in line and about figuring out who needs to be in the playoff rotation.
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 10:00 am    Post subject:

Quote:
19-’20 Lakers after five games:
 
PPG – 111.2
OPPG – 100.0
FG% - .464
3P% - .324
ORTG – 109.0
DRTG – 98.0
 
‘20-’21 Lakers after five games:
 
PPG – 120.4
OPPG – 108.8
FG% - .524
3P% - .417
ORTG – 118.4
DRTG – 107.0

(courtesy of @bball_ref)

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 11:19 am    Post subject:

Thanks DB! Excellent writeup as always. Great to see the Lakers bounce back. Wolfpack I appreciate your consistent and insightful contributions in each of these T&R threads as well.

Happy New Year to all LG and have a great 2021!!
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 11:26 am    Post subject:

LakerSD wrote:
Quote:
19-’20 Lakers after five games:
 
PPG – 111.2
OPPG – 100.0
FG% - .464
3P% - .324
ORTG – 109.0
DRTG – 98.0
 
‘20-’21 Lakers after five games:
 
PPG – 120.4
OPPG – 108.8
FG% - .524
3P% - .417
ORTG – 118.4
DRTG – 107.0

(courtesy of @bball_ref)



Thanks. Is there any info on pace during these 5 games?
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danzag
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 11:40 am    Post subject:

Thanks, DB!
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Alpha
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 11:57 am    Post subject:

thanks DB! I've missed your unmatched rundowns. on point as usual!

happy new years eve all!
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 2:18 pm    Post subject:

Dr. Laker wrote:
Thanks, DB.

I don't think we lack defensive ability - I think we lack intensity and I expect it to pick up quickly.


We really didn't hit our stride until right before the break last year. With such a short offseason I'm sure Bron is whispering to AD on how to manage his body during the game.

We're clearly playing in 2nd and 3rd gears. I was thinking we'd start ramping up in late Feb. Right now it's all about stacking wins with minimal effort.
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 3:36 pm    Post subject:

Thanks DB!
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 6:48 pm    Post subject:

Alpha wrote:
thanks DB! I've missed your unmatched rundowns. on point as usual!

happy new years eve all!


Happy New Year when it hits ya!
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