LAKERS -at- JAZZ - 4/19 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

 
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DancingBarry
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 19, 2021 9:25 pm    Post subject: LAKERS -at- JAZZ - 4/19 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

Smack Down... The Jazz added back a couple of their starters for this one and took it to the Lakers.

The Lakers were only able to put up 42 points in the first half as the paint was packed. They made 9-18 from three, but just 7-22 inside the arc and trailed by 10. They lost the points in the paint battle 26-12 in the first half.

In the third quarter, the Lakers struggled with their defensive coverages. When Gobert/Conley are on the court, you’ve got to watch Conley on the high screens and Gobert rolling. It seemed Laker defenders, particularly Drummond, were in no man’s land more often than not. Then, once that Jazz duo sat, the Lakers didn’t switch back smoothly to their coverages they were using in the last game. The result was losing the third by another 10 points.

If you make a step in the wrong direction against the Jazz, they know how to abuse it. The Lakers got punished consistently for their mistakes. (Thankfully, none of their smartest front court defenders played in this one.)

“They’re not the fastest team, but they’re the most precise team. They will pick you apart,” Robert Horry said in the postgame after watching this one. That they did.

The Lakers lost 111-97. Happy to get the split against the Jazz without LeBron/AD, while also getting some minutes/reps against the Conley/Gobert duo tonight.


Schröder -- -- Like everyone else, the paint is packed with Gobert able to play drop coverage. Like everyone else, that meant some open looks from three for Schröder. He sank a couple in the first half. He also had a drive in the half where he scored a layup, but went down and hit his tailbone again. That looked painful. It makes a big difference if we can have Gobert a step further away from the paint with perimeter bigs out there. We lost the points in the paint battle substantially and just weren’t able to put pressure on the rim. Feisty effort defensively. He dove to the floor for a steal and led the team with 4. The Stats: He scored 15 points on 6-11 shooting (2-3 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 6 assists, 4 steals, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 28 minutes. He was a -15.

Caldwell-Pope -- -- He sank 3-5 from three in the first half. Again, some of those just quick-fire, confident looking shots. “Just trying to stay in a good rhythm,” KCP said. Loved seeing us run a flare screen for him for a three. With Gobert packing the paint that needs to be a bread and butter action. KCP went 5-7 from three in this one. Can’t wait to swap out Morris with AD and Kuzma with LeBron with KCP shooting like this. Let’s go! Defensively, really vocal at times calling out rotations. When he knows exactly what we’re supposed to be doing on the floor, I think that’s when we see him get comfortable. The Stats: He scored 15 points on 5-8 shooting (5-7 from three) to go with 1 steal and no fouls in 29 minutes. He was a -18.

Drummond -- -- Glad he got to go against Gobert and we got some reps in. Just from an understanding of Drummond’s strengths and weaknesses, it’s good for both the coaches and for AD2 to get a glimpse of how that might go. Let’s get into the D first as that was a huge problem. The coverages are completely different with Gobert and Conley on the floor. Early on, teammates were trying to communicate with him what they wanted. Later into the second quarter Drummond really got out on the perimeter to hedge and blitz. Getting him out of drop coverages to do that can really make him more effective come playoff time. You can’t let Conley come off that screen for a pull-up three. So adjustments were made out on the perimeter with rotations behind him. But early in that third, he was getting stuck in no man’s land some and the Jazz took advantage, forcing a timeout. Again, later, when the game was out of hand, we started to see him putting more pressure on Conley on the perimeter versus getting stuck in no man’s land more. Defensively, you see some ways you can make that work, but that inconsistency caused a lot of issues tonight. You can make up for some of that, if you have some kind of advantage on the other end. Against, Gobert we do not. Offensively, this is really a matchup where Gasol makes more sense as he will pull Gobert out of the paint and allow others more room to work. (Vogel, when asked about that: “I do think Marc could have an impact in a matchup like this, yes.”) We tried some lobs to AD2 to try to get that vertical spacing, but he’s not the high fly act of some of our previous bigs. (Both lobs in the first half were unsuccessful.) He did try to use his strength to bump Gobert and get into finishes that way. But if you let Gobert patrol the paint, you’re asking for trouble and our offense struggled. Ultimately, we’ve seen AD just go off against Gobert, so that’s the real matchup that is a problem for the Jazz and will distort their defense. If you try to play both ADs in the starting lineup, you let Gobert hang in the paint and the Jazz play to their strengths defensively. You might have an opportunity to play AD against the Jazz bench, but that will be at the price of Harrell’s minutes. Playoff series, I think you start Gasol, run that for a few minutes, then the bulk of the minutes go to Davis at the C. Or you just start Davis at the C and pull Morris into the starters. You could make an argument to get the ball to AD2 to try to draw a foul or two early, but I think that allows the Jazz to get comfortable from the start. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 3-12 shooting (2-5 from the line) to go with 8 boards (3 offensive), 4 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers and 5 fouls in 28 minutes. He was a -15.

Kuzma -- -- He led the Lakers with 11 points in the first half. He scored off a midrange fade after bumping a man to get separation. He hit another pull-up from midrange. He sank a three. And mixed in a couple scores in the paint over defenders. Some aggressiveness to open the second half as he hit some from the midrange and a runner over Gobert in a stretch. But the scoring stopped there. A little too much iso ball at times from him and the team as the offense lost some purpose. I could have sworn Kuz had more than 2 rebounds in this game. He seemed active early, but that also disappeared. The Stats: He scored 17 points on 8-13 shooting (1-3 from three) to go with 2 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 29 minutes. He was a -18.

Morris -- -- Really poor game defensively tonight. He played well in the last one, but tonight he wasn’t mentally locked it, it seemed. Drop coverage and hanging back against shooters to give up threes isn’t what we want. Pointing for AD2 to cover his man who is setting screen? Uh, just go stay with your man, please. There were numerous times where the miscommunication involving Keef led to wide open looks for shooters. He opened the game with an offensive foul on a screen on our set play. Then missed some open looks from three. Just not a good one from our starting bigs tonight. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 1-4 shooting (0-3 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 1 assist, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 23 minutes. He was a -17.

Harrell -- -- “Tonight, our ballhandlers didn’t deliver the ball to him in positions where he could make something happen,” Vogel said. The Gobert match isn’t a good one for him. Again, Gobert can pack the paint and if you don’t have guys who scramble the D, then Gobert can patrol. So picture LeBron with the ball in his hand, Trezz coming out to set a screen, LeBron either hitting a three if they go under or putting his man in jail and letting Trezz get in position for a two-on-one. That kind of thing didn’t happen tonight. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-4 shooting to go with 2 boards, 1 assist and no fouls in 13 minutes. He was a -3.

Caruso -- -- Didn’t like his defense tonight. Some bad angles and poor decisions. At times, making the wrong decision in our coverages, which isn’t like him. Just shows how much the Lakers struggled defensively when AC is looking poor. Offensively, he hit a corner three in transition early when we were still in the fight. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-4 shooting (1-3 from three) to go with 2 boards, 1 block, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 17 minutes. He was a -7.

Horton-Tucker -- -- New career high for THT. They gave him the three shot early and he made them pay, sinking a couple in the first half. With the paint packed, that really makes it tough for THT unless you’ve got someone like Gasol/AD out there spreading the floor more so he can finish in the paint. He came in during the second half as soon as Gobert sat and got into the paint more. He’d sink another step-back three, then later add to his total during garbage time. THT got yelled at by KCP on a late rotation early on. You’ve got to anticipate that next rotation to cover for your teammates and understand it’s their job to cover for you. THT seemed to hesitate leaving his man and that got him some words for Kenny. Good overall game, though. Just hitting those threes early on is the evolution of his game we need to see. The Stats: He scored 24 points on 8-13 shooting (3-5 from three, 5-7 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 28 minutes. He was a -4.

Matthews -- -- He missed a couple of threes and threw a pass away. Again, he got caught a bit being indecisive on our coverages. Some bad angles as a result. Or just not switching again when he should. There was one where he let Gobert have a layup by not switching. Just make Gobert a post player against. Take that switch. Let Trezz deal with a guard. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-2 shooting from three to go with 1 board and 1 turnover in 13 minutes. He was a -1..

McLemore -- -- He scored from the line tonight. He got there on the move a couple of times, once in transition, once backdooring his man. Defensively, he’s still not quite on the string with the rest of the team.The Stats: He scored 6 points on 0-2 shooting from three (6-7 from the line) to go with 1 board in 17 minutes. He was a +4.

McKinnie -- -- We had 5 minutes of garbage time tonight. He scored in transition after missing and getting his own board. The Stats: He had 2 points on 1-3 shooting to go with 2 offensive boards and no fouls in 5 minutes. He was a +8.

Cacok -- -- He missed a turnaround in the post and had a couple of boards in garbage time. The Stats: He didn’t score on 0-1 shooting to go with 2 boards in 5 minutes. He was a +8.

Antetokounmpo -- -- He scored on a FT. Nothing else to report. The Stats: He had 1 point on 0-2 shooting (1-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards. He was a +8.

Vogel -- -- Key Moment: No one really key moment here for the Lakers. Getting torched in the third as our defense made mistake after mistake was where the game was officially lost.

Key Substitution: Hmmm. Wish Gasol could have gone in this one.

Key Stats: The Lakers had just 65 points after three quarters. Their offense played right into the Jazz strengths and ground to a halt.
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mhan00
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 19, 2021 9:54 pm    Post subject:

Ugly game. Jazz shooting was nuts.
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A Mad Chinaman
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 19, 2021 10:35 pm    Post subject:

mhan00 wrote:
Ugly game. Jazz shooting was nuts.
game that fifes Vogel plenty to talk about while seeing what works and what players he can depend on
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lordtrapula
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 19, 2021 10:44 pm    Post subject:

The Lakers were due for a walloping.

Still very happy they split the two games though. Just rest up, see where AD is at on Thursday.

Luka will be dangerous but his team is bad enough on defense I think LA should have a 50/50 chance on taking both games.
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 19, 2021 10:50 pm    Post subject:

I feel like when we play teams with big, tall, shot blocking centers we should play Gasol instead of Drummond. Gasol could of pulled Gobert away from the paint and opened things up for us better. Gasol would probably be better against centers like Embid as well both on offense and defense. Drummond on the other hand will destroy the thinner, lighter centers (like I thought he did to Aldridge) and is quick enough to handle them out on the perimeter on defense. Jokic is another story, we’ll probably have to throw everyone at him.
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 12:42 am    Post subject:

Thanks DB.

Not an unexpected loss. Would have been nicer if they were more competitive.

I'm not sold on the notion both AD's vs this team will not work when Gobert in there. Would like to see how that goes first. I think some of what happened tonight was AD just being off on both ends, not having a good game.
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danzag
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 7:39 am    Post subject:

Thanks, DB.

Kind of an expected loss. I'm just happy we could split the series.
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 7:45 am    Post subject:

Thanks DB! Would be nice to be able to send Davis and Gasol against Porky on Thursday.
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 10:02 am    Post subject:

DrDent wrote:
Thanks DB.

Not an unexpected loss. Would have been nicer if they were more competitive.

I'm not sold on the notion both AD's vs this team will not work when Gobert in there. Would like to see how that goes first. I think some of what happened tonight was AD just being off on both ends, not having a good game.


I think it impacted everyone else, which is not related to him being on or off. LeBron can still do some work with a traditional C in there, but I suspect that will be short lived against this team.

Drummond was also a problem on the defensive end when Gobert was in there, but I can give a little more of a pass to that because it's possible that area can improve. (Unlike developing a respected three-pointer to allow us to go 5 out.)
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 11:53 am    Post subject:

Thanks DB
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DrDent
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 3:38 pm    Post subject:

DancingBarry wrote:
DrDent wrote:
Thanks DB.

Not an unexpected loss. Would have been nicer if they were more competitive.

I'm not sold on the notion both AD's vs this team will not work when Gobert in there. Would like to see how that goes first. I think some of what happened tonight was AD just being off on both ends, not having a good game.


I think it impacted everyone else, which is not related to him being on or off. LeBron can still do some work with a traditional C in there, but I suspect that will be short lived against this team.

Drummond was also a problem on the defensive end when Gobert was in there, but I can give a little more of a pass to that because it's possible that area can improve. (Unlike developing a respected three-pointer to allow us to go 5 out.)


Just using last year as a relative gauge, vog would run mcgee and dwight (with and without AD) vs gobert; he also would run AD at center in a “smaller” lineup with the the bigs sitting. It would sorta go (just focusing on bigs):

Javale/AD v gobert
Dwight only
AD only
Dwight/AD
AD only

rinse/repeat

I expect the same. Frank is a creature of habit and until the jazz cruise over an AD x2 lineup (which we may never see - we may not meet them in playoffs and Dre could leave) I fully expect he will have Dre rotated in using the reference of last years success of AD + a big and just AD as a reference point for success as they swept the jazz last season.

How he deploys Gasol may change that, but he also promised a trez/gasol lineup which hasnt happened yet.
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