WCF LAL @ DEN Game 2, Thursday

[DorianRo]

Don't ever put him in the same sentence with MJ again

[Crooked-I]

Don't ever put him in the same sentence with MJ again

Chill bro he's 38

[Jedi32]

Hate to say it, and I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think Bron has it anymore. This is two wasted opportunities in a row, where we were right there and he wasn't able to help. In fact he hurt our chances at winning IMO.

[Vae Victus]

Hate to say it, and I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think Bron has it anymore. This is two wasted opportunities in a row, where we were right there and he wasn't able to help. In fact he hurt our chances at winning IMO.

Of course he doesnt have it, he's freaking 38 years old. If AD didnt do a complete no show, the strong production from Rui and Reaves shoulda been enough to cover for old man Lebron no longer being a superstar anymore.

Goddamnit, 2 straight games where the Lakers coulda won it with better late game execution. It just pisses me off seeing those close games end up like this.

[soxfan2003]

Hate to say it, and I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think Bron has it anymore. This is two wasted opportunities in a row, where we were right there and he wasn't able to help. In fact he hurt our chances at winning IMO.

Lebron still has it for sure but a little less of it. Lakers +4 with Lebron on the court. Almost a triple double with 4 steals.

As a Celtics fan as much as I dislike the Lakers , Lebron can contribute to a contender until he is 50 years old if he doesn't suffer major injury. If he avoids injury, he should continue to be a great player for another 2-3 seasons.

[BEazy]

Are we just going to ignore how trash AD was? For a elite big, he has absolutely no footwork. All he does is floaters and jump shots. At least Bron hit more shots on a bum foot than AD. I put this on AD more than Bron.

[RamonSessions7]

Lebrons old. His failures biologically make sense. AD is something else tho

[LAKESHOW]

We have the talent. But clearly they have the chemistry

[TylersLakers]

The playoffs reveal a lot about basketball fans.

Denver has a team where their two stars are playing like stars offensively. Ours aren’t.

LeBron and AD were great defensively but offensively they stunk. You’re not going to win road playoff games like that.

LeBron’s 38 on an injured foot. We knew that.

For as great as AD is, he’s not LeBron, MJ or Kobe. He’s not Harden or Steve Nash. He’s not Jokic. He’s not a guy that regardless of how good the D is, he’ll thrive offensively. He’s the most elite defender in the league and when his floaters, jumpers and push shots are going, he’s a top 5 player in the league. He can’t do it every night because he’s not THAT offensively. I’m not going to hold that against him and expect him to be something he’s not. He was aggressive, he got to the free throw line, and he defended his ass off. We needed him to make 2-3 more shots. Didn’t happen.

We needed LeBron to make 2 out of 3 of those blown layups. Didn’t happen.

We get both of that, we win the game comfortably. Denver’s 5 man group offensively is insanely talented. Jokic and Murray are healthy together finally. They’ve had ridiculous shots in these first 2 games. Hopefully on the road they cool off and we can win a couple. I’m not expecting it but that’s fine. This team has given me great joy since February.

Let’s see what happens. Our stars got outplayed.

[JVL]

This was a bad loss. I feel like we're going in circles when we say that Lebron needs to cut those 3s from his arsenal, he's not a threat since he's not making them, and that AD needs to quit being consistently inconsistent.

This team needs a healthy 30-35 year old Lebron to take over, then it cruises to a title. The current Lebron can't do that anymore, despite the fact that he's playing at an all-time great level for a 38 year old. It's honestly sad to see.
At the end of the day though, he's 38 and playing with an injured right foot. AD isn't and I have no sympathy for AD folding like a lawn chair every other game.

We take the next 2 at home but after that I'm not so sure what's gonna happen. I still believe we take this in 7. You have to.

Hate to say it, and I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think Bron has it anymore. This is two wasted opportunities in a row, where we were right there and he wasn't able to help. In fact he hurt our chances at winning IMO.

Factually incorrect, without Lebron we lose this game by 15 or more. AD and DLo can't combine for 28 on 7-23 shooting versus a team like the Nuggets. I could understand them not being effective on defense, but struggling offensively against this Nuggets team? Shouldn't happen.

Suddenly there's an influx once again of Lakers "fans" barely able to contain themselves while writing Lebron's obituary and putting the blame squarely on him. They'd rather see Lebron lose than have the Lakers succeed.

[ROballer]

Listen, we overachieved regardless of what happens. We were talking all year long just about making the play-in, the board or what's left of it was split even on that, there were a ton of guys saying we wouldn't even make the play-in.
Don't even make me started on the idiots on the GB, not one would have expected us to get this far.

We're in the WCF, one of four teams left standing. I know we're the Lakers and yada yada, but it's still a succesful season in my book, regardless of what happens next.


That being said, I'd be shocked if we lose one in Staples against these dudes. I fully expect a 2-2 result in the next few days.
Does that mean we're winning the series? No, because we still need to get one on the road and we're probably not winning a Game 7 in Denver.

But we're still not done, not even close.

[Ball so hard]

Hate to say it, and I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think Bron has it anymore. This is two wasted opportunities in a row, where we were right there and he wasn't able to help. In fact he hurt our chances at winning IMO.

Of course, he doesn't have it anymore. He does just enough in short spurts, which gets people excited. At this point in his career, if LeBron is your second-best player, you probably aren't winning a championship. It's truly remarkable that he's still able to be pretty decent at his age. Perhaps he's injured, as a few have suggested, but this version of LeBron isn't a top 20 player.

[LookToShoot]

Both losses are on Ham. He should've stuck to Vanderbilt who had Murray shooting 3/15 and the Nuggets down double digits. It's not pass first Jokic they have to worry about, it's Murray.

[tamaraw08]

The playoffs reveal a lot about basketball fans.

Denver has a team where their two stars are playing like stars offensively. Ours aren’t.

LeBron and AD were great defensively but offensively they stunk. You’re not going to win road playoff games like that.

LeBron’s 38 on an injured foot. We knew that.

For as great as AD is, he’s not LeBron, MJ or Kobe. He’s not Harden or Steve Nash. He’s not Jokic. He’s not a guy that regardless of how good the D is, he’ll thrive offensively. He’s the most elite defender in the league and when his floaters, jumpers and push shots are going, he’s a top 5 player in the league. He can’t do it every night because he’s not THAT offensively. I’m not going to hold that against him and expect him to be something he’s not. He was aggressive, he got to the free throw line, and he defended his ass off. We needed him to make 2-3 more shots. Didn’t happen.

We needed LeBron to make 2 out of 3 of those blown layups. Didn’t happen.

We get both of that, we win the game comfortably. Denver’s 5 man group offensively is insanely talented. Jokic and Murray are healthy together finally. They’ve had ridiculous shots in these first 2 games. Hopefully on the road they cool off and we can win a couple. I’m not expecting it but that’s fine. This team has given me great joy since February.

Let’s see what happens. Our stars got outplayed.

They lost a tightly contested game..on the road with Murray hitting those 27 footers…Imagine if AD and/or Lebron hit 3-4 more shots instead of missing them.
Most of us had a lot confidence because how they beat Memphis and GSW but we forget that they did it with our role players stepping up big time. Rui and Reaves in a tight game in Memphis
DLo and Schroder combining for 38 pts in Golden State, Walker with his 15 crucial points to save the team in game 4.
Except for Rui, NOBODY stepped up to hit those shots, I really thought DLo this time after that crappy 1st game would redeem himself or at least Schroder would get some layups and 6 extra free throws.
AD missed too many shots but grabbed 14 rebounds and blocked 4 shots, also hit 9 of 11 FTs. Our 38 year old also failed to hit those shots and I can’t imagine the pain he is feeling with that bad foot…

[Beethoven]

dum

[stan francisco]

The capitulation three point shots by LeBron need to stop. The fourth quarter is not when to suddenly try a heat check from three, LeBron. He took three shots in a row and killed our entire momentum. They turned a 10 point deficit into a lead. Why did we let this happen? Why jacking up boneheaded threes suddenly?

Coach Ham needs to not play D Lo against this team. Their coach is too smart and so is Jokic. D Lo is -30 in the plus/minus category. Bench him! And, LeBron needs coaching, too.

This is not Kum-ba-ya time, coach. It’s legacy time. It’s about beating the Celtics on the all time list. Sit his ass. We were in position to win like I thought we would be, but we blew it. I’d say coach lost this game by being nice to D Lo.

Edit: I should rename the thread “WTF LAL @ DEN, Game 2, Thursday” we were up by 12 late in the third. Lame. Attack!!! Thought we had Alpha dudes on our team. I guess Reaves and Hachimura are the backbone we have offensively.

[mcscotty]

Must be very disheartening for LeBron and AD in their $100,000 post game outfits to see "Emo Austin" get all the shine.